NYWIFT Blog

NYWIFT Talks with Costume Designer Dana Covarrubias

Join Costume Designer and 2018 NYWIFT Designing Women Honoree Dana Covarrubias for a Zoom conversation. We’ll focus on on her career, new projects, and what COVID-19 has meant for her as a costume designer.

This conversation will be moderated by NYWIFT Board President Jamie Zelermyer.

(Open to NYWIFT members only. Not a member yet? Go to www.nywift.org/join or email membership@nywift.org to take advantage of our Community Building Membership Campaign discount.)

Virtual Discussion: NYWIFT Talks with Tribeca Film Festival Senior Programmer Lucy Mukerjee

In this NYWIFT Talk, join Tribeca Film Festival's Senior Programmer Lucy Mukerjee. Lucy will discuss Tribeca’s move to digital programming during COVID-19, and how she is continuing her LGBTQ+ advocacy work through her role at the organization

This discussion will be moderated by NYWIFT Board President Jamie Zelermyer.

Virtual Event: Call Your Mother Screening + Q&A

Behind every famous comedian, there’s an infamous mom! In the hilarious new documentary Call Your Mother, the film explores the relationships between comedians and their mothers, and how they have indelibly shaped their craft. Please join us for a special sneak peek and panel discussion before the film debuts on Comedy Central on Mother’s Day...

Webinar: Brave New World: Reimagining Film Festivals in a Time of Crisis

When SXSW cancelled, it sent shockwaves through the indie film world. But the creative forces that have kept independent film vibrant over the decades are rising to meet the current crisis. Until we can once again gather in large crowds, the show is going on. Film festivals are moving online or reviving older forms such as using drive-ins for locations to gather at safe physical distances.

This panel brings together a group of creatives to discuss how people and organizations are responding nimbly and re-imagining ways to connect and support filmmakers and audiences. We will explore the possibilities for evolving out of this crisis to create more fluid and far-reaching concepts of film promotion, audience engagement, and distribution.

Join us for a conversation with Laurie Cheatle, Maori Karmael Holmes, Brian Newman, Alison Willmore, and Jeffrey Winter, moderated by Michelle Materre.

Webinar: Documentary Storytelling with Sound Design

Sound design plays an essential and often unrecognized part of nonfiction filmmaking. It can set a mood, illuminate a point of view, or help set you in a place and time. We speak with sound professionals to see and hear what goes into their decision making and creative process. Join us for a conversation with Jacob Ribicoff, Steve "Major" Giammaria, and Becky Goldberg (Moderator).

Webinar: The Business of Adaptations for Film and TV – 2020

Agents, Hollywood producers and publishers are always searching for the next great story, but not all writers start from scratch. Oftentimes, ideas come from the things we see, read, write and hear. The challenge for many is how to transition these materials from their original form of a book, article, and story into a full-fledged viable screenplay and adaptation material for another medium. Savvy industry professionals love to leverage their time and efforts by capitalizing on a story that can be adapted into many forms. Learn from this experienced panel about ways to locate common sources for your story or script and the power and pitfalls of working with adaptations for your project.

Virtual Theatrical Experience: 2020 S.W.A.N. (Support Women Artists Now) Day Screening – Tape

Join NYWIFT, SAG-AFTRA, FF2 Media, Women in the Arts & Media Coalition (WAMC), HerFlix, ImageNation Cinema Foundation, 2020 One Woman One Vote Festival, and African-American Women in Cinema (AAWIC) for a screening of the new feature Tape in recognition of S.W.A.N. (Support Women Artists Now) Day, an annual event on the last Saturday of March that...

POSTPONED: Women are Funny

In 2018, a frustrating study claimed"researchers found that 63% of men were funnier than the average woman" based on captions attached to a picture of an absurd cartoon. Thankfully, this claim has been shut down by female comedians since its unnecessary birth. Guess what? Women are funny. Our conversation "Women are Funny" brings together some of the funniest women in...comedy! These women have successfully produced numerous shows, are writers for Late Night folks, and starred in TV/film roles. These Queens of Comedy are champions of their craft — and the world should know that.

Webinar: Mental Health and Career Sustainability in the Doc World

To the outsider, the person holding the film camera is a story teller and change maker, living a dream life, filled with travel, awards, honor and recognition. To the documentary filmmaker, the possibility of creating transformational change through art is a calling. Yet it is a calling that exacts deep costs: financial, emotional, psychological, and physical. The documentary business is a long odds game fraught with disappointment and struggle. Underpinning these struggles is the elusive act of making a sustainable living at the career. NYWIFT and The D-Word co-host a panel discussion to shed more light on this much-needed conversation and to explore avenues of greater filmmaker support.  Moderated by Doug Block (The D-Word), panelists include Rebecca Day (Producer/ Psychotherapist), Kelsey Koenig (Impact Partner Films), Heidi Reinberg (Documentary film maker) and Chithra Jeyaram (Documentary film maker).  

The Wrong Kind of Women

Naomi McDougall Jones's new book The Wrong Kind of Women is a brutally honest look at the systemic exclusion of women in film — an industry with massive cultural influence — and how, in response, women are making space in cinema for their voices to be heard. In addition to providing an incisive, data- and human-driven look at where we are, Naomi provides clear and actionable steps to move the industry forward.  Join us for a conversation with Naomi McDougall Jones, Tanya Perez, and Jennifer Betit Yen.

Women Behind the Brush

In "Women Behind the Brush," NYWIFT Member Victoria Bert leads a conversation with some of the most renowned makeup artists in NYC. This discussion will provide makeup artists with ideas for their own career paths including portfolio, networking, and business tips! Makeup artist speakers include Margina Dennis (Director of LA'G Magazine), Jackie Risotto (Fosse/Verdon), Nicki Ledermann (Joker - Academy Award nominee for Best Makeup, Sex and the City, The Greatest Showman, and The Irishman), DeShawn Hatcher (Editorial and Beauty Guru) and NYWIFT Member Jennifer Snowdon (Wonderama). After the panel, a Make Up Forever educator will present a live demo. More details to come.

Destination Co-Star! TV Tips for the Emerging Actor

Are you an actor transitioning from theater, independent film, background work, or just starting out? This workshop is for those seeking practical advice in booking their first television co-star role, and more importantly, building a life-long career. We’ll cover casting directors, agents, creating a network vs. networking, audition best practices (and managing those audition nerves), and more! Please note: If The Secret-power-of-attraction-manifesting approach is your thing—great! But this program offers its polar opposite and might not be for you. Though we will touch upon a few science-based items to maintain a healthy mindset, this will be a simple, no-nonsense primer to get you started on your career.

Funding Your Doc

You've locked in your subject and finished the research, what's next? Production! But, how will you fund it? No worries, we'll help you! In Funding Your Doc, Lara Stolman (Director/Producer of Swim Team), leads a discussion that will provide ideas to create fundraising strategies for filmmakers without significant industry or institutional support/relationships, working on a small budget –even on a controversial topic. We will discuss filmmakers needs including festival circuit and distribution. Guest speakers include Heather White (Director/Producer of Complict and Modern Slavery and Your Devices), Carolyn Hepburn (Motto Pictures), and Mark Rossier (Director of Grants, New York Foundation for the Arts).

Women on the Front Lines: Changing the Game @ Sundance

Sundance Institute reports that 46% of directors competing in this year’s festival are women, up 6% from 2019. While there’s still further to go, these statistics show that progress is possible when concerted efforts are made to address systemic biases. AMC Networks, NYWIFT, WIF LA, and ReFrame will bring together leading women from the front lines in entertainment to discuss gender parity, inclusion and the way forward.

NEW LOCATION: Adaptations: The Business of Translating Source Material to the Screen – 2019

Agents, Hollywood producers and publishers are always searching for the next great story, but not all writers start from scratch. Oftentimes, ideas come from the things we see, read, write and hear. The challenge for many is how to transition these materials from their original form of a book, article, and story into a full-fledged viable screenplay and adaptation material for another medium. Savvy industry professionals love to leverage their time and efforts by capitalizing on a story that can be adapted into many forms. Learn from this experienced panel about ways to locate common sources for your story or script and the power and pitfalls of working with adaptations for your project.

Power Player Conversation: Finance Her – Hosted by The Women’s Network at The New York Times Company

Join us for an after-work boardroom-style conversation among members of two of New York’s most powerful women’s organizations: 100 Women in Finance and New York Women in Film & Television. In true power player fashion, women from these communities of entertainment and finance will come together to uncover strategies behind finding powerful films from female voices and securing the financing needed to bring these projects to the screen. Finance Her is the first of a series of discussions designed to tap into the entertainment and finance industries of New York City, connecting professionals from both fields to ensure that financing options are available to women filmmakers. There is a need to address everyone’s role in the process when it comes to funding and packaging a film. By ensuring that both worlds are speaking the same language and finding parallels in project development, a much clearer path to investing in untold women’s stories is sure to follow. (Registration will open later next month - check back with us!)

NYWIFT Season Kickoff…On the Road to the Emmy’s at the Museum of the Moving Image

It’s time for one of the most popular events of the year – the Annual NYWIFT Season Kickoff celebrating our fabulous members! Raise a glass to toast the 2019-2020 programming season and welcome new Board President Jamie Zelermyer and our newly elected board members, followed by an intimate conversation with several of the Emmy nominees we are proud to call part of the NYWIFT community. Catch up with your NYWIFT friends (and make some new ones!) as you mingle at the Museum of the Moving Image before we move into the theater for a panel discussion. A diverse mix of nominees - representing the wide array of professions that make up the NYWIFT community - will offer behind-the-scenes insight into some of this year's most celebrated television programs: Senior Associate Producer Brittany Clemons (Outstanding Research, Hope & Fury: MLK, the Movement and the Media – NBC), Producers Stacey L. Holman and Cyndee Readdean (Outstanding Historical Documentary, Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Black Colleges and Universities – PBS), and Costume Designer Melissa Toth (Outstanding Costume Design, Fosse/Verdon – FX).

2019 NYWIFT Creative Workforce Summit

The 2019 NYWIFT Summit will present a series of conversations that will address vital issues in the media, arts, and entertainment industry. The Summit will establish forward-moving strategies to create change in these areas with an eye towards mobilizing support and leadership for the future. DOORS OPEN 3:30pm OPENING REMARKS 4:00 – 4:10pm  Cara Mertes,...