NYWIFT Blog

Meet the New NYWIFT Member: Hania Chima

Welcome, new NYWIFT member Hania Chima! We are so happy to introduce Hania, who has so much to offer our community. She is the producer and co-writer of Pakistan’s entry for the 2019 Oscars, Laal Kabootar, and co-founder of the production company Nehr Ghar Films. We’re thrilled to have her join New York Women in Film & Television and can't wait to see what she does next. Hania talked to us about getting to work with her childhood hero, writing and producing her first feature, and why the future is female.

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NYWIFT at DOC NYC: In Conversation with Producer Cheryl Staurulakis

NYWIFT member Cheryl Staurulakis recognizes the power of documentary film to change hearts, minds, and even governmental policies – and it’s what drives her as a producer. Her latest film, Phyllis Ellis’s feature documentary Category: Woman, is a perfect example of Staurulakis’s commitment to social impact filmmaking. The film takes a hard look into the racist and sexist policies in global sports and the devastating personal consequences they have inflicted on women athletes around the world. Staurulakis spoke to us about her 2022 DOC NYC screening, racial and gender discrimination in sports, and how she hopes to save the world one documentary at a time.

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Women Producers at the 2022 New York Film Festival

NYWIFT member Judith Davis offers snapshots from the 2022 New York Film Festival, focusing on three of the hottest films produced by women: Tár, Till, and The Inspection.

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Meet the New NYWIFT Member: Ekaterina Korshunova

Let’s welcome new NYWIFT member Ekaterina Korshunova! Ekaterina (or Kate for short) attended Moscow’s RUDN University where she graduated with a degree in journalism. Kate currently works as a freelance social media coordinator and producer. She has filmed and produced promotional videos for many local businesses as well as major brands. She spoke to us about her move to the US, her teaching philosophy, and her dreams for the future.

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Meet the New NYWIFT Member: Elizabeth Ramjit

Let’s give a warm NYWIFT welcome to new member Elizabeth Ramjit! Elizabeth is an accomplished film/video editor with 10 years of experience in film and tv production and advertising. Elizabeth loves bringing awareness to current events and pressing world issues, to inspire important conversations among her audience. She’s always interested in new opportunities to explore new avenues of content, and enjoys brining her unique perspective to her collaborators’ projects. Elizabeth spoke to us about what stories inspire her, her dreams for the future, and why she could be #YourFavoriteFemaleEditor.

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NYWIFT @ Tribeca: In Conversation with Producer Su Kim

The 2022 Tribeca premiere "Sansón and Me" traces a young immigrant’s path from coastal Mexico to a life sentence for murder in California. The harrowing tale does not unfold in a traditional documentary format, but instead uses evocative recreations – many of them featuring members of Sansón’s own family as actors – to explore the meaning of a life fragmented by poverty, borders, and incarceration. We spoke to producer Su Kim about the team’s unusual, wildly creative, and ultimately deeply powerful approach to sharing Sansón’s story.

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The Mole Agent: Highlights from the NYWIFT Goes to the Oscars Q&A with Maite Alberdi, Marcela Santibañez, Julie Goldman

The team behind The Mole Agent, Oscar-nominated for Best Documentary, discusses its powerful impact, and how they created a film both so visually stunning and rich with character that The New York Times review believed the film to be partly dramatized. It wasn’t!

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NYWIFT Black History Month Spotlight: Zainab Ali

Happy Black History Month! At NYWIFT we are celebrating the Black creators and artists in our membership, while honoring Black culture & cinema throughout history. Today’s spotlight is on our member Zainab Ali, an award-winning producer of independent film with a background as a senior recruiter for major corporations who transitioned into filmmaking in her fifties. Zainab shares career highlights and her favorite inspirational figures.

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Best Practice Advice for Targeting Corporate Sponsorship to Help Fund Your Film

Learning the ins and outs of corporate sponsorship for your film projects can seem daunting, but Kim Skildum-Reid lays out all best practice principles to help you create a compelling pitch.

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Takeaways from Demystifying Film Delivery: What Every Producer Should Know

You are a producer and due to the pandemic your project – be it in development, pre-production, production or post stage – is on hold. What can you do now to make sure all the pieces are in place when the industry opens back up? Stacey Smith of CinePointe Advisors suggests preparing for delivery. It is a crucial, final step needed to ready a film for distribution and GET PAID! However, delivery is often an afterthought in financing agreements, production budgets and workflows.

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NYWIFT Members Doing Justice to True Crime

Death Row Stories explores the fallibility of the ultimate criminal penalty, capital punishment. Narrated by current and former death row inmates, each episode of Death Row Stories seeks to unravel the truth behind a different capital murder case and poses tough questions about the U.S. capital punishment system. Six NYWIFT members who worked on the show, including Board Member Kathryn O'Kane, share the insight they gained into the criminal justice system through their work on the show.

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Cynthia’s Picks: Female Grips, Killing Eve, Thrones Queen, Lesley Stahl

Female Grips: The New York Times pays tribute to the few women who work as grips – one of the most grueling and important tasks on set. Killing Eve: This Glamour headline puts it best: Killing Eve is made for women by women…and it shows. Thrones Queen: Game of Thrones owes much of its success...

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Cynthia’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...

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7 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.

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Meet the New Board Members: Yvonne Russo

NYWIFT is governed by an 18 member Board of Directors, elected by the membership in late Spring. This diverse, accomplished group of women are at the top of their game in TV, film and digital media. We get to know producer Yvonne Russo, one of the latest additions to our leadership team.

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Misha Calvert on creating her relatable dating web series Tinder is the Night

NYWIFT member Katrina Medoff speaks to fellow member Misha Calvert about creating, executive producing and starring in her new series Tinder is the Night, which explores the joys - and horrors - of online dating.

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11 Things I Learned While Producing My First Short Film

Actor and writer Katrina Medoff took on a third role - producer - for the first time with the short film Lovestuck, which premieres Sunday, March 19th at the Queens World Film Festival. She shares her top takeaways from the experience.

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Terry’s Picks: Equity, Where’s Rey, Survival Tips

Women’s Equity: Congrats to the team of Equity, which was picked up by Sony Pictures Classics at Sundance. It’s a Wall Street movie produced, written, directed by and starring women!   Where’s Rey? Even though the female Star Wars: The Force Awakens protagonist is wildly popular with fans, she has been mostly missing from the...

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