Cynthia’s Picks: Thelma Schoonmaker, Unequal Representation, Inclusion Commitment, Record Breaker
Thelma Schoonmaker: Congratulations to 1995 NYWIFT Muse honoree Thelma Schoonmaker, who was honored this weekend with a BAFTA fellowship for her incredible 50-year editing career. Unequal Representation: The Women’s Media Center’s “Investigation 2019: Gender and Non-Acting Oscar Nominations” found that women are once again missing from the picture. No women were nominated in Directing, Cinematography,...
READ MORECynthia’s Picks: Sundance Fest, It’s Time, Fair Credits
Sundance Fest: Congratulations to all the NYWIFT members with films screening at Sundance! The festival opens on Thursday and runs through February 3rd. It’s time: Variety noted the uptick in feminist stories featured in Oscar contenders this year. Of course, this female focus didn’t extend to the directing nominations – women were shut out of...
READ MOREFive Film Festival Takeaways
In 2018, from mid-October to mid-December, NYWIFT member Lauren Anders Brown embarked on a film festival season filled with five very different festivals. These are the valuable lessons she learned from each one.
READ MORETerry’s Picks: Life Lessons, Dream Team, Zero Weeks
Life Lessons: Be sure to read Manohla Dargis’ brilliant piece in The New York Times about what movies teach us about being a woman. She says: “Movies get into our bodies, making us howl and weep, while their narrative and visual patterns, their ideas and ideologies leave their imprint.” Representation matters. Dream Team: Thanks to...
READ MORETerry’s Picks: Giving Tuesday, Be Natural, Women Mentors
Giving Tuesday: Today is Giving Tuesday, and I hope you’ll consider making a donation to NYWIFT as part of your holiday spending to help support our 2018-19 programming season, which will include more than 40 professional development and training programs and 15+ screening events celebrating the achievements of women filmmakers. Plus, if you give through...
READ MORETerry’s Picks: Copyright News, Melissa McCarthy, NYWIFT Presents
Copyright News: The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) exemption for documentary films has expanded to include some types of fictional films. Now, filmmakers working on projects like biopics, historical fiction, and parodies can access copyrighted content without fear of liability. This is great news for narrative filmmakers trying to tell meaningful stories on a tight...
READ MORETerry’s Picks: Hamptons Fest, ReFrame TV, Added Protection
Hamptons Fest: NYWIFT is delighted to partner once again with the Hamptons Film Festival for our Women Filmmakers Brunch and Women Calling the Shots Showcase on Sunday. We hope to see you there! ReFrame TV: ReFrame, which has recognized 34 recent films with its gender-parity stamp, is now seeking submissions for television projects to honor...
READ MORETerry’s Picks: Seven Women, Late Legend, M.I.A.Screening
Seven Women: This Wednesday and Thursday September 26th and 27th, Quad Cinema is having a special screening of Seven Women, Seven Sins, the groundbreaking project by seven legendary female indie film directors whichreceived support from the NYWIFT’s Women Film Preservation Fund. Directors Maxi Cohen and Bette Gordon will do a Q&A after the Wednesday screening. Late...
READ MORESeven Women Sevens Sins: An Exceptional Collaboration of ’80s Indie Women Directors
Made as part of series for German Television (ZDF) in 1986, Seven Women Seven Sins, proved to be an exceptional collaboration of 1980’s independent #DirectedByWomen cinema. Women's Film Preservation Fund co-chair Kirsten Larvick discusses the film's relevance in advance of its screening at The Quad on September 26th and 27th, 2018.
READ MORETerry’s Picks: Casting News, Women’s History, Boxed In
Casting News: Tony Award Nominee Eva Noblezada (Miss Saigon, Les Miserables) led the cast of Diane Paragas’ musical drama film Yellow Rose along with Tony Award Winner Lea Salonga (Once On This Island, Miss Saigon). The film, which wrapped production in Texas last month, received the NYWIFT Ravenal Foundation Feature Film Grant. Women’s History: This...
READ MORETerry’s Picks: Love Gilda, Bold Move, Emmy Nominations
Love, Gilda: Lisa D’Apolito’s acclaimed feature documentary Love, Gilda, about legendary comedian Gilda Radner, hits theaters nationwide on September 21st. The film was fiscally sponsored by NYWIFT. Bold Move: Beginning in 2019, works that do not demonstrate inclusivity in their production practices will no longer be eligible for the Outstanding British Film or Outstanding Debut...
READ MORE7 Tips to Building a Successful Partnership to Create an Oscar-Nominated Film
In the inaugural conversation of NYWIFT’s new series Master Collaborations: The Power of Creative Partnerships on May 23, 2018, director Kahane Cooperman and producer Raphaela Neihausen opened up about how they worked together to create Joe’s Violin – and its road to being nominated for the Academy Awards.
READ MORETerry’s Picks: #SummerHours Series, Debra Granik, Darya Zhuk
#SummerHours Series: The NYWIFT #SummerHours blog series by members Mellini Kantayya and Kathryn O’Kane is back again this year with recommendations for your summer reading and watchlist. So far Kathryn has shared her thoughts on past NYWIFT Muse honoree Whoopi Goldberg’s latest book, and Mellini has created a list of bingewatch-worthy comedy picks. Debra Granik:...
READ MORETerry’s Picks: Sarah Paulson, Lisa Nishimura, Gina Duncan
Sarah Paulson: Ocean’s 8 reboot star Sarah Paulson debunks the theory that women can’t work well together. (Of course they can!) Lisa Nishimura: If you binged Making a Murderer, Wild Wild Country or any other recent Netflix documentary series, you have Lisa Nishimura to thank. Gina Duncan: Indiewire profiles Gina Duncan, associate vice president of...
READ MOREAfriAmerican Immigrant Screening: Local Stories, Global Themes
In Astoria’s historic Kaufman Studios, filmmakers from the African diaspora shared local stories that reverberated deep into universal themes and questions as part of New York Women in Film & Television’s Women Filmmakers: Immigrant Stories screening on May 31, 2018. Featured in the fourth season of this NYWIFT series highlighting narrative and documentary films about the New York immigrant experience, these short films tackled issues ranging from the #MeToo movement, to President Trump’s travel ban, to the immigrant experience, to what it means to be American, among many more.
READ MORETerry’s Picks: Blockchain Technology, The Tale, Barbican Program
Blockchain Technology: The industry is abuzz with excitement – and questions – about Blockchain technology, so NYWIFT is holding a panel this Thursday to discuss its potential power for filmmakers. Member Heidi Philipsen also recently wrote a guest post for Women and Hollywood exploring the technology’s possible impact on indie filmmaking. The Tale: We are...
READ MOREThe Women’s Film Preservation Fund Crosses the Atlantic with 1970s Classics of Feminist Filmmaking
A year ago, an email arrived in our Women’s Film Preservation Fund mailbox from Tamara Anderson, Cinema Curator at the Barbican Centre in London, who had discovered our 2015 Carte-blanche series at MoMA, Women Writing the Language of Cinema. Would we curate a smaller series, focusing just on Second Wave Feminist films, for their multi-arts celebration Art of Change? What has resulted, Artists and Activists: Second Wave Feminist Filmmakers, will screen as a series over Saturday and Sunday, June 2-3 at the Barbican.
READ MOREExploring Family and the Individual Search for Self
NYWIFT WFPF Co-Chair Kirsten Larvick previews the eighth and final installment of the From the Vault: Women’s Advocacy on Film series, co-presented with UnionDocs. Two documentaries, Joe and Maxi and Anything You Want to Be, explore the nature of womanhood and identity within the contexts of family and society at large.
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