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NDI & NYWIFT Present: Representation Matters for Climate Justice

NDI & NYWIFT Present: Representation Matters for Climate Justice

22 Mar 2022 @ 10:00am

Join the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and NYWIFT for this incredible panel that will focus on addressing the power imbalances and gender gap in politics and the media caused by excluding and biased representation. These often male-dominated mechanisms – e.g. media production hiring practices and party candidate selection committees – mean that women are shut out of the storytelling and policymaking processes, therefore they are not in control of their own narrative and empowerment.

A globally representative panel of political leaders, media experts and producers will be asked to discuss why representation matters, and provide examples of initiatives across the media and politics which promote a more diverse and intersectional environment.
Speakers include Lydia Dean Pilcher (Film Producer & Co-Founder PGA Green), Rachel Lears (Jubilee Films), Emily Wanja (Impact Producer), and Mwanahamisi Singano (Women’s Environment and Development Organization).

Learn More

Latest news

NYWIFT and the National Democratic Institute Co-Present “Representation Matters for Climate Justice,” a panel of political and media thought leaders which will convene as part of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women on March 22.

Read the announcement.

New York Women in Film & Television is deeply saddened to announce that former NYWIFT Board Member, longtime NYWIFT member, mentor, educator, and pillar of the New York film community Michelle Materre passed away this weekend after a battle with cancer, surrounded by family and friends. 

Read about her incredible legacy.

New York Women in Film & Television (NYWIFT) stands with the Ukrainian Film Academy, European Film Academy, European Producers Club, Cannes Film Festival, and British Academy of Film and Television Arts in condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine’s sovereignty and freedom should be respected.

Read our full statement and see how you can help

Congratulations to the 13 members with films at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival!

Check out the slate. 

Visit our NYWIFT Boutique to shop for Muse Awards mugs and apparel!

Check it out!

The Wobblies (1979), which was awarded a NYWIFT Women’s Film Preservation Fund grant in 2003, has been honored with inclusion in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.

Learn more.

The NYWIFT Women’s Film Preservation Fund is proud to support the preservation of nine films by women this year. 

Read about the projects.

Congratulations to the 30 NYWIFT members with films that played at DOC NYC 2021!

Learn more

NYWIFT proudly presented scholarships to 11 New York City film and TV production students in 2021.

Meet the recipients.

NYWIFT is committed to safer and more equitable working environments for all. We stand by our members and friends in IATSE as they fight for their essential rights as creative workers – for reasonable working hours, fair compensation, adequate rest, meal breaks, and safe sets.

Read our full statement.

The Writers Lab for women screenwriters over 40 expanded to welcome 16 participants this year, who will bring pilot scripts for the first time in addition to feature length screenplays. 

Meet this year’s writers and mentors.

NYWIFT Creative Workforce Summit Journal: read our first-ever publication, on diversity, inclusion, and safety.

Access the digital publication here.

NYWIFT mourns the loss of longtime member and past Board President Linda Kahn, whose decades-long career shaped the trajectory of so many beloved brands and characters in children’s media.

Read more about her legacy.

The 2021 NYWIFT Summit: The Creative Industry Radically Reimagined highlighted best practices of how indies and media companies are restructuring their objectives, staffing, and community response to produce creative projects.

Watch the full Summit online now.

Congratulations to all of the NYWIFT members whose films screened at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival!

Read more about their projects

The NYWIFT Womens Film Preservation Fund (WFPF) is nominating two WFPF-preserved films for inclusion on this year’s National Film Registry: Betty Tells Her Story and The Wobblies. Both films explore a diverse range of issues and innovative approaches to filmmaking practiced by women makers.

You can help us by nominating them too!

Learn more and make a nomination today. 

Letter from the Executive Director – May 2021

NYWIFT Executive Director Cynthia Lopez previews Spring, pays tribute to those in our community who we have lost, and celebrates Ann Roth’s Oscar win with a look back at NYWIFT Archive Project interviews. 

Read more.

Congratulations to 2015 NYWIFT Designing Women Honoree Ann Roth, who won an Oscar for Costume Design for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom!

Learn more about Ann.

Dear Producer has released the results of their first Producers Sustainability Survey. The in-depth report seeks to answer one main question: Is film producing a sustainable career, as it exists today? 

Read the full report.

The Writers Lab US launches in the UK & Ireland, bringing the only virtual script development program for Women Over 40 across the pond. Cate Blanchett’s Dirty Films announces their support for the UK & I venture, joining US Lab supporters Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman and Oprah Winfrey.

Read more.

NYWIFT has partnered with Women in Film LA and Women in Film & Television Atlanta on the Hire Her Back Fund, which provides micro-grants to women in our industry impacted professionally and financially by COVID-19.

Grants are distributed by The Actors Fund.

Learn more and apply now.

NYWIFT is pleased to announce the recipients of this year’s Ravenal Foundation Feature Film Grant, Sarah Knight and Signe Baumane, as well as our scholarship recipients.

Congratulations to the winners!

NYWIFT has compiled a list of resources – financial, personal, and professional – for those struggling during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. 

Check out the NYWIFT Emergency Resource Directory.

  • "As always and even more so today, women in our business are taking up the mantle of courage and truth-telling and consciousness, and they move and inspire me. We are awake now in a way we have never been before."

    - Actor Judith Light, accepting her 2017 NYWIFT Muse Award

  • "My faith is renewed by the way I experience this vanguard moving through the world with such grace at such a complex time. Speaking truth to power and creating a legacy for the women and the men who follow."

    - Actor Judith Light, accepting her 2017 NYWIFT Muse Award

upcoming events

  • NDI & NYWIFT Present: Representation Matters for Climate Justice

    10:00am
  • NYWIFT Member Screening: Kumina Queen and Woody's Order!

    05:00pm
  • NYWIFT Industry Screening + Q&A: 'Julia'

    04:00pm

 

LATEST blogs

Whats In Your Toolkit
What’s in Your Toolkit: Nora Armani

The Socially Relevant Film Festival was founded in 2013 by actress/filmmaker and NYWIFT member Nora Armani in response to the proliferation of violence and violent forms of storytelling. In advance of the festival's return this week, Armani shared insights into her creative process with a unique peak into her toolkit!

film
NYWIFT Member Spotlight
NYWIFT at Sundance: Spotlight on Paula Eiselt

An alarmingly disproportionate number of Black women are failed every year by the U.S. maternal health system – and it is a crisis that has been largely ignored thus far. In the Sundance 2022 documentary Aftershock, Directors Paula Eiselt and Tonya Lewis Lee follow the bereaved partners of two of these women as they fight for justice and build communities of support, bonding especially with other surviving Black fathers. The story is presented within the historical context of racism throughout the U.S. healthcare system, and the deadly tendency to ignore or minimize Black women’s pain and concerns.

NYWIFT Member Paula Eiselt spoke to us about how she and Lewis Lee approached this harrowing topic, and why community activists are the natural heroes of her creative work.  

NYWIFT Member Spotlight
WCW Podcast
Meet the New NYWIFT Board Members: Sibyl Santiago

New NYWIFT Board Member Sibyl Santiago says, 'I am humbled and I am very proud to be part of NYWIFT. I’m very proud of this organization. These women are working very hard for all of you and I’m really happy to be able to give back and hopefully work for you as well.'

film
NYWIFT Member Spotlight
NYWIFT at Sundance: Spotlight on Sara Bernstein

13 members played a key creative role in 11 different projects featured in Sundance this year – and two of them fall under the Executive Producer expertise of prolific NYWIFT Member Sara Bernstein! Bernstein heads to Sundance with Amy Poehler’s documentary Lucy and Desi, which brings the iconic pair’s humanity to life through an exploration of their personal and professional partnership, as well as Downfall: The Case Against Boeing, comprehensive investigation into the crashes of Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 and a look at the families and officials fighting for justice.

We spoke to Bernstein specifically about Downfall and how she hopes her team’s work will make an impact.

 

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