Mary Mazzio, an award-winning documentary film director, Olympic athlete, and former law firm partner, is the founder and CEO of 50 Eggs, Inc., an independent film production company dedicated to creating socially impactful films. Mazzio has written, directed, and produced several award-winning films, including her newest project, Bad River. Narrated by Quannah ChasingHorse and Academy Award nominee Edward Norton, Bad River chronicles the Wisconsin-based Bad River Band and its ongoing fight for sovereignty. The story unfolds in a groundbreaking way through a series of shocking revelations, devastating losses, and a powerful legacy of defiance and resilience, including a David vs. Goliath battle to save Lake Superior, the largest freshwater resource in America.
Winner of the EMA Award for Best Documentary and nominated for three Critics’ Choice Awards, Bad River has been called “a powerful chronicle” by Bill McKibben (writer for The New Yorker); “profoundly moving” by film critic Liz Braun; “a 10 out of 10” by film critic Vincent Schilling; and “brilliant” by David Corn of Mother Jones. The film has already had a remarkable impact, having launched with a theatrical run in 25 major markets across the country, lasting nearly two months—an achievement nearly unheard of for an independent documentary film. “We haven’t seen lines out the door like this since Barbie,” said the manager of the Ashland Bay Cinema in Wisconsin, who also reported that Bad River outperformed Dune, Kung Fu Panda, Ghostbusters, and Godzilla on successive weekends. Audiences also made great effort to see the film on the big screen, flying to nearby states where the film was showing or driving upwards of six hours to the closest movie theater, all of which speak to the power of this project.
Leonardo DiCaprio, Edward Norton, Mark Ruffalo, Jason Momoa, and Channing Tatum have all posted the film’s trailer. Bad River made its debut on Peacock fall of 2024.
Mazzio also directed and produced A Most Beautiful Thing, narrated by Academy Award-winning artist Common, and executive produced with NBA stars Grant Hill and Dwyane Wade. The film, which streamed on both Amazon and Peacock, was called “amazing” by Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times; “evocative” by The Los Angeles Times; “poignant” by The New York Times; “an absolute must-watch” by Deadspin; “one of the best films of 2020” by Esquire; and “one of the most important documentaries of this decade” by ChicagoNow. The film won a Gracie Award and was nominated for a Critics’ Choice Award, an NAACP Image Award, and Best Documentary by the International Press Academy.
Mazzio’s films have resulted in profound change, from I am Jane Doe (narrated by Academy Award winner Jessica Chastain), which catalyzed bipartisan federal legislation (and was featured on The Today Show); to Underwater Dreams, which helped raise $100 million dollars with the White House for underserved students (and was featured on The Colbert Report). Other notable works include TEN9EIGHT (called “one of the most inspirational films you will ever see” by Thomas Friedman in The New York Times); A Hero for Daisy (described as “a landmark film” by The New York Times and inspiring a lawsuit decided years later by the US Supreme Court); and Apple Pie (called “priceless” by The New York Times and “fantastic” by NPR).
An Olympic athlete (1992 Olympic Games—Rowing), Mazzio is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College and Georgetown Law School. She is the recipient of several awards, including an honorary degree from Mount Holyoke College; the Ricky Martin Foundation Humanitarian Award; two Gracie Awards; a Critics’ Choice Award nomination; an NAACP Image Award nomination; an EMA Award nomination; an International Climate Impact nomination by the US Olympic Committee; the Hope Award from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children; the Women's Sports Foundation Journalism Award; a Myra Sadker Gender Equity Curriculum Award; a Henry Luce Foundation Fellowship to Korea; a Rotary Foundation Graduate Fellowship to France; and an American Heritage Award from the American Immigration Council. Mazzio, formerly a partner with the law firm of Brown Rudnick in Boston, has served on the boards of several organizations, including Sojourner House (a homeless shelter); The Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras; The Head of the Charles Regatta; The National Rowing Foundation; and World T.E.A.M Sports (supporting differently-abled athletes). She was recently inducted into Mount Holyoke College Athletics Hall of Fame and The Schlesinger Library at Harvard University has requested all of Mazzio’s papers for its collection.
Mazzio and her work have been featured on The TODAY Show, The Colbert Report, NBC Nightly News, and in The New Yorker, Esquire, Vogue, Cosmo, People Magazine, Elle, Good Housekeeping, The New York Times, The Financial Times, Fortune, Time Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Business Week, Entertainment Weekly, TV Guide, Sports Illustrated, The Economist, WIRED, The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, Town & Country, CBS Early Morning, ABC News Now, CNN Sunday Morning, NPR, The Los Angeles Times, Business Week, The Washington Post, The Saturday Evening Post, The Daily Beast, MSNBC’s Morning Joe, The Dr. Oz Show, Tucker Carlson Tonight, The Atlantic.com, MTV.com, The Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, The Christian Science Monitor, The Seattle Times, St. Paul Pioneer Press, The Village Voice, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Marie Claire, The Chicago Sun-Times; Deadspin; Forbes.com, Buzzfeed, MSNMoney.com, Al Jazeera, Bloomberg, CNN’s This Hour, MSNBC, CNBC, Fox Business News, Fox News Latino, PBS Nightly News Report, CNN Headline News, BBC World News, NPR (On Point, The Connection, It’s Only A Game, Here and How), Telemundo, mun2, Oxygen, ESPN’s Sports Center, Baseball Tonight, and Cold Pizza, Good Magazine, Yahoo News, Washington Times, Huffington Post, Women’s Wear Daily, among others. Mazzio’s story has been chronicled in the books One Person, Multiple Careers (by former NY Times columnist Marci Alboher) and 168 Hours (by USA Today writer Laura Vanderkam).
Mazzio has given keynote addresses globally, including the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women; the YPO Global Convention (South Africa); Aspen Ideas Festival; Clinton Global Initiative; convenings at the White House (under two different presidents); the OECD (Paris); The McCain Institute Human Trafficking Symposium; the Massachusetts Children’s Alliance Annual Conference; the State of Nebraska Convention on Economic Development; the NCAA Title IX Convention; the Women’s Sports Foundation Convention; the National Coalition of Girls’ Schools Convention; the National Association of Collegiate Women’s Athletic Administrator’s Convention; and the Ad Club Women’s Leadership Forum, among hundreds of other events.
Mazzio’s work has been supported by The Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund, the Bezos Family Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, John H. Carlson, Linda Cabot and The Angel Foundation, CoStar, Bryan White and Christine White, Grant Hill and Tamia Hill, the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, the Novo Foundation, Joanna Creamer, and the Berwind Foundation, Bill McNabb and Katie McNabb, Mike Ahearn, MC McCall, Bill Hudson, Sue Wagner, Bruce Herring and Tricia Herring, Jay Ruderman and the Ruderman Family Foundation, Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss, Comcast/NBC Universal, The Lovelight Foundation, New Balance, Pepsi, Target, FILA, BlackRock, the John Templeton Foundation, Ted Dintersmith, Lorna Auerbach, Vanguard, Bank of America, JPMorgan, UPS, Cargill, Novo Nordisk, Microsoft, Starbucks, Liberty Mutual, Welch’s, 3M, Campbell’s Soup, John Hancock, McDonald’s, Stephanie Hunt and Hunter Hunt, Hope Pascucci and Mike Pascucci, the Virginia Piper Charitable Trust, Babson College, Wellesley College, the Massachusetts Department of Education, the Kauffman Foundation, the Sahsen Foundation, Nia Tero, Nike, Clif Bar, Staples, among others. She is currently a filmmaker-in-residence at Babson College.
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