Last month at the Berlinale, Power To Transform held the 2024 Edition of the Global Forum For Women. The conference featured panels and workshops attended by women film organisations from around the world.

Barbara Rohm, Yvonne de Andrés and the Power to Transform! Team reflect on the events and express their gratitude:

“We would like to thank you all for your participation in the Global Forum for Women’s Film Organizations @berlinale2024 at the Embassy of Canada. Your presence greatly enriched the event and we are very grateful for your commitment. Your contributions to the cause of women in the film industry are essential to promoting positive change. Post-Heroic Storytelling: Moving beyond the Male Gaze and reimagining the Female Gaze points the way forward and we are glad to have contributed.

We would also like to express our deep appreciation to our esteemed partners: sjiwff St. John’s International Women’s Film Festival, Federal Foundation for Gender Equality, WIFT International, EWA – European Women’s Audiovisual Network, Women and Hollywood, SWIFT – Sisters Working in Film and TV South Africa, Screencraft Works, and CIMA – Asociación de Mujeres Cineastas y de Medios Audiovisuales.”

The panels are now available to watch on YouTube!

The first closed panel “Heroines for Change” held at the Embassy of Canada to Germany featured 5-Minute Power Speeches from a wide-ranging group of fellow campaigners working in the field of gender equality and diversity.

Power To Transform then welcomed Anna Hints (Estonia), Minnenhle Luthuli (South Africa), Gail Maurice (Canada), and Joey Soloway (USA) in a panel discussion moderated by Manori Ravindran (UK). Exploring the topic of “Post-Heroic Storytelling: Moving beyond the Male Gaze and Reimagining the Female Gaze,” the panellists posed questions about how to move beyond the male gaze and how Post-Heroic Storytelling can shape the future of a innovative and diverse screen industry.

The conference also launched the study “Re-Framing the Picture: An International Comparative Assessment of Gender Equity Policies in the Film Sector.” The research by the Gender Equity Policy (GEP) Analysis project underscores that policies need to address systemic issues, not only target numerical representation. The research highlights that film industries do not just need more women, but women in the right positions. Re-Framing the Picture advocates for policies with strong accountability mechanisms, financial incentives, and the ability to actively drive industry change. Read more about the research here and download the report here. 

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.