WIFT International is delighted to partner with the IMDb Pro Affiliate Programme. This means that all WIFT International members receive a 30% discount on IMDb Pro and their amazing tools for finding industry contacts, in-development information, industry lists, and Discover’s powerful search filters.
If you are an up-to-date member of your local or national WFT Chapter, email them to get your code and redeem this offer!
The Writers Lab is celebrating its 10th anniversary! Submissions for their 2024 US lab are open from February 20th.
Supported by Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman, The Writers Lab is the only program in the world devoted exclusively to script and career development for women and nonbinary writers 40+.
The Lab welcomes English-language submissions from women screenwriters over 40 ANYWHERE in the world, therefore international submissions of both Features and Pilots (both 1-hour and ½-hour) in English will be considered. They will select approximately 12 promising writers for an in-person retreat in New York in November 2024. (Dates subject to change.)
During the four-day Lab, Mentors and Writers engage in rigorous script development through one-on-one mentor meetings, small group and panel discussions, peer workshops, story rooms, and more. In the following months of ongoing development, TWL mentors guide writers through the revision process with actionable feedback and offer strategic advice and advocacy with the help of partners, industry leaders, and their talented peers.
Previous TWL lab winners have gone on to make The Black List, secure management, and have their screenplays produced.
Submissions are open from 20th February until 28th March 2024
Deadline to apply: March 28th, 2024.
The 2024 Lab dates are November 12th -15th, 2024.
For more information, please visit The Writers Lab website.
You can apply directly via the Writers Lab US (2024) – Coverfly.
All WIFTI members get a discount on their submission – all you have to do is email your local or national WFT Chapter for the code!
You can also listen to co-founders of the Writers Lab Elizabeth Kaiden and Nitza Wilon talk about previous editions of the lab with WFT Ireland and NYWIFT.
The image is a powerful emotive tool. Join this webinar next week, Tuesday 20th of February, for an online discussion where WFT Ireland Board Member and DOP Jaro Waldeck will be in conversation with UK Film Still Photographer Chiabella James (Dreamgirls, Star Wars: The Force Awakens) discussing everything from career to composition.
Time: Tuesday 20th February, 2 pm
Where: Zoom
Register your spot here!
This event has been made possible through the support of Coimisiún na Meán.
Chiabella James is also a speaker at the RENDR Festival in Belfast on 1st March 2024, for which WFT members have an exclusive 20% discount code! WFT Members interested in getting tickets, email us at info@wft.ie for the code.
About Chiabella James
Born
in London and raised between England and the United States, Chiabella lives and works in both countries. As the daughter of a unit stills photographer, she grew up learning the craft under his guidance, spending summers working with him on film sets like Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers and Minority Report.
While studying at the University of California, Santa Barbara, she continued to work in photography by assisting on features like Memoirs of a Geisha and Dreamgirls, but chose to explore other avenues of film production and spent the next 10 years working in production both on set and at the studio. During that time she kept her hands on the camera creating her own art and shooting for a non profit dance company in Los Angeles from which some of her fine art photography was featured as a finalist in the Art Takes Times Square exhibition in 2012 and published in LifeForce
A series of events led Chiabella back to London and returned her to on set photography alongside her father on Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The two worked together for the next few years as a unique on set stills duo on films like Jack Reacher: Never Go Back and the Mission Impossible franchise.
Since then, Chiabella’s varied film and editorial portfolio has been published in major international outlets like Vanity Fair, Vogue, Entertainment Weekly, Empire and ICG magazine.
In 2022 and again in 2023, Chiabella was nominated for the ICG Excellence in Stills Award predominantly for her work on Dune and King Richard. Her most recently published film photography includes that of Saltburn, the upcoming Bob Marley biopic One Love and the Dune, The Photography: Part One coffee table book. Chiabella has just completed production on Heads of State and The Cleaner, while also shooting editorials and pursuing her own photographic series’ including a self published book, Masquerade, inspired by the Covid 19 pandemic and cultural unrest it brought to surface in the last year that was sold to raise funds for mental health.
WIFT Finland announced that Reetta Ranta (MA) started in mid-January as the new Executive Director of the chapter.
Reetta Ranta is a storyteller, executive coach, and media entrepreneur. Reetta has worked in various leadership roles over 25 years in media with several startups and media companies including Gutsy Animations, Rabbit Films, and The Finnish Broadcasting Company Yle. She has been working with brand extensions into digital and helped Finnish brands grow internationally, including Moominvalley animation, Habbo, and The Dudesons.
Currently, she leads Power Animals United, a family business that produces innovative and inspiring content that combines outdoor adventure, mythology, and storytelling. The company’s flagship TV series, Back to Nature, has been sold to several countries in Europe, Asia, and North America.
Reetta is also known for sauna ritual events called Sauna Sisters and her new book Timeless Nordic Rituals, released in 2023 in Finnish and will be published in English later this year.
Photo credits: Flatlight Films
In a new partnership, New York Women in Film & Television (NYWIFT) and BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) are thrilled to present a collection of groundbreaking contemporary films that delve into science and technology in the modern world. These urgent documentaries and empowering fictions take us from the depths of outer space to the on-the-ground action of a Hasidic women-run ambulance corps and beyond.
The series runs Tuesdays at 7 PM at BAM, February 6 – March 12. All are free and open to the public.
Films include To the End (Rachel Lears), Space: The Longest Goodbye (Ido Mizrahy), My Love Affair with Marriage (Signe Baumane), Every Body (Julie Cohen), 93Queen (Paula Eiselt), Chilly & Milly (William D. Caballero), and Over-Flow (Elizabeth Ramjit).
Join NYWIFT on Tuesdays at 7 PM at BAM for six weeks of free STEM-focused screenings, followed by Q&A’s with the filmmakers. Reserve tickets here!