by Maura Kelly
NYWIFT Board of Directors member Maura Kelly writes about female entrepreneurs in tech and entertainment for The Huffington Post. She recently sat down with Evelyn Brady-Watters and her sister Monica Brady, the founders of the Golden Trailers Awards (GTA’s) as they gear up for the live ceremony on May 4th in LA. Here’s an excerpt:
In 1999, NYWIFT members created the Golden Trailer Awards (GTAs) as the first awards show to honor the best in motion picture trailers and recognize the people who create the short art-form. The sisters were successful commercial producers at the time but the growth of the award show spawned new careers and a full-time business for the siblings. Now in its 17th year, the GTAs have evolved to include trailers for television shows, video games and posters.
Who were your early champions and mentors?
We credit the success of the launch of the GTA’s to our highly respected jury. When we first had the idea for creating the awards, we approached Stephen Woolley (The Crying Game) as a juror. We asked him to judge and he immediately called back and said yes. We then approached Harvey Weinstein and he said Miramax is behind this and gave us David Kaminow as a juror. The big coup came when Quentin Tarantino joined our first year Jury. That was the shot heard round the world for the GTA’s. From that moment on major publications and news media outlets too numerous to mention picked up and ran with the story.
Maura Kelly is an independent Emmy-winning producer and principal of Purple Mountain Media. She is a member of the NYWIFT Board of Directors and Co-chair of the Program Committee.
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