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.
nywift
Related Posts
NYWIFT Member Spotlight: Kristen Golden
Kristen Golden is a writer and producer whose creative work runs the gamut of genres. She wrote the screenplay AWE, for which she won the 2023 Athena Film Festival’s Chinonye Chukwu Emerging Writer Award, and was selected as a 2025 Screenplay Semi-finalist by the Cordillera International Film Festival. Kristen is a producer of the narrative short film Irving Berlin’s View of the East River, shot in Spring 2025. She is the co-author with her wife, Barbara Findlen, of the book Remarkable Women of the Twentieth Century: 100 Portraits of Achievement. Kristen is the speechwriter for the Women's Media Center. In our interview, Kristen discussed her award-winning screenplay AWE, the connection between advocacy and storytelling, and her advice for future female leaders.
READ MOREMeet the New NYWIFT Member: Tenzin Sedon
Welcome to NYWIFT, Tenzin Sedon! Tenzin Sedon is a Tibetan filmmaker from Tibet, and an MFA candidate in the Graduate Film Program at NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Her work spans narrative, documentary, and experimental forms. She has received numerous awards, including the Hot Docs Best Canadian Short Documentary and the Golden Mountain Award, and has been nominated for the Hot Docs CrossCurrents Doc Fund (CCDF) and Docs Port Incheon. She is a recipient of the 2025 Ang Lee Scholarship. Her films have screened internationally and been exhibited at major institutions.
READ MOREMeet the New NYWIFT Member: Farah Otero-Amad
Welcome to NYWIFT, Farah Otero-Amad! Farah Otero-Amad is a trilingual video producer and host for The Wall Street Journal, where she writes, shoots, and edits short-form vertical videos that reach millions across platforms. She recently directed and produced her first award-winning short documentary, Breaking the Cycle, which follows a hip-hop school in Medellin, Colombia, where students compete for the title of the city’s top breakdancer. Previously, Farah worked for The New York Times, Apple TV’s The Problem with Jon Stewart, and NBC News. She is a graduate of Columbia’s Journalism School, a Fulbright Scholar, and a former Division I athlete.
READ MOREMeet The New NYWIFT Member: Wendy Rubin
Wendy is a financial executive, media veteran, and creator of Fintimacy: A Women's Guide to Financial Freedom. After two decades in entertainment, finance, and private equity, she's on a mission to help women break free from shame and step into financial power. Her work translates the intimidating language of wealth into smart, clear tools for real life, blending strategic rigor with empathy, humor, and real-world insight. She's also an endurance athlete who has completed 10 New York City marathons to date. Wendy told us about her journey from the Midwest to becoming a fractional CFO in media and entertainment, her passion for empowering women through financial literacy, and her exciting upcoming book and podcast series.
READ MORE
