The 53 year-old Kaufman – whose credits include Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Being John Malkovich – and his producing partners Dan Harmon and Dino Stamatopoulos raised more than double the money they were asking from 5,770 Kickstarter members.

Harmon and Stamatopoulos, via their company Starburns Industries, said on the film’s project page: “We want to make Anomalisa without the interference of the typical big studio process.”

Kickstarter is a social media platform that allows content producers to connect with audiences who want to contribute small amounts towards financing their projects.

Pledge levels ranged from $50 to $10,000 for members of the site to become part of Anomalisa funding team. A $50 pledge provides a funder with a special DVD of the film, while a $10,000 pledged earns five people executive producer credits.

Launched on July 10, Anomalisa beat the second most funded Kickstarter project; Ben Dobyns and Matt Vancil’s zombie film The Gamers: Hands of Fate.

The New York Times reports today that nearly 3 million people have helped 30,000 projects meet their fund-raising goals on Kickstarter, with almost $300 million given away in pledges, despite the financing platform being treated with suspicion by elements in the film industry.

Anomalisa director Duke Johnson told Deadline: “Right now there’s a little bit of hesitancy from people in the industry of using crowdfunding. Because I know some people don’t like being seen asking for money in public.

“But as it gains momentum, and people see what it’s worth, and that they can do it on their own, that hesitancy is going to disappear.”

Production on the 50-minute film, which based on the 2005 play of the same name written by Kaufman, is expected to start in November.