WIFT International congratulates Chloé Zhao!

WIFT International congratulates Chloé Zhao!

Apr 26, 2021 | News

wifti academy awards chloe zhao

 

Historic Win! Chlóe Zhao wins Best Director at Academy Awards!

Women in Film and Television International (WIFTI) celebrates Chloé Zhao’s win at today’s Academy

Awards, for Best Director for feature film “Nomadland”. Zhao is the first Asian woman to receive the award for Best Director and just the second woman to win in the 93-year history of the Academy Awards.

WIFTI president Helene Granqvist comments, “Well done Chloé Zhao for taking out this year’s Academy Award for Best Director. We have been thrilled to watch Zhao breaking glass ceilings this year. It is our hope this inspires other women in the screen industry to feel encouraged and to continue to aim high.”

Zhao also made history as the first woman of Asian descent and second woman ever to win the Best Director award at the 78th Golden Globes hosted earlier this year.

The 2021 Director category was also significant because for the first time in history, more than one female filmmaker was nominated. Chloé Zhao and Emerald Fennell earned nominations for their films “Nomadland” and “Promising Young Woman,” respectively. Granqvist says “We are immensely proud to see two women nominated in this category – another first! We feel positive that soon we will see more of an equal representation across all categories, including Directing, for women.” Zhao is the second female filmmaker to win Best Director. Kathryn Bigelow was the first ever woman to win in 2010 for “The Hurt Locker”. Before this year, only five female filmmakers have been nominated for best Director: Lina Wertmüller ( “Seven Beauties”, 1977), Jane Campion (“The Piano,” 1994), Sofia Coppola (“Lost in Translation,” 2004) Kathryn Bigelow (“The Hurt Locker”, 2010) and Greta Gerwig (“Lady Bird,” 2018).

“Nomadland” is the third feature film from director Chloé Zhao – following the economic collapse of a company town in rural Nevada, Fern (Frances McDormand) packs her van and sets off on the road exploring a life outside of conventional society as a modern-day nomad.

The 93rd Academy Awards 2021, were hosted today Sunday April 25, in Los Angeles, honouring movies released in 2020.

Coffee Chat for Emerging Networks

Coffee Chat for Emerging Networks

Mar 29, 2021 | News, Event

WIFTI Coffee Chat Emerging Chapters

Coffee Chat for Emerging Networks

 

Are you new or in the starting phase of your WIFT network, and could do with some advice? Do you know a group of women who is currently forming and would like to get involved with WIFTI?

With great happiness, we have seen the emergence of new networks in many places around the world. In this coffee chat, we want to give everyone who just started off a chance to meet each other, ask questions and hear about experiences of more established organisations.

This will be an informal, welcoming meeting and we look forward to you and your group of worldchangers!

 

Date: Tuesday, April 20

Time: 10am EST / 4pm CET / 7pm IST Please check tools like worldtimebuddy to find the right time conversion for where you are.

Place: Zoom

 

Register here!

 

March 8 Short Film Showcase

March 8 Short Film Showcase

Feb 22, 2021 | News, Event

WIFTI Short Flm Showcase

Celebrate March 8 with us and join us for 48 hours of short films from around the world!

 

On International Women’s Day, you’re invited to travel the globe with an empowering short film showcase spanning 18 countries. Created by and centered on women, these stories will send you on a journey across continents and through time zones to experience the female gaze around the world. From navigating rites of passage, to challenging gender norms and negotiating power dynamics, the individuals in this collection question authority, overthrow others’ expectations, and succeed in taking ownership of their lives. A mosaic of animated, narrative and documentary works come together to reflect our unique perspectives and celebrate our shared wisdom.

​March 8 WIFTI Showcase

 
Meet the curators

It’s an extraordinary joy and honour to have these short films curated by the programming team Lucy Mukerjee and Charlie Hidalgo, who share their perspective of the world through the camera lens with us.

Charlie Hidalgo is a Colombian trans man, filmmaker, film curator, and a graduate of the Canadian Film Centre’s Producers’ Lab.

Lucy Mukerjee is a queer British-Asian film curator, and a co-founder of the Programmers Of Colour Collective, comprising of 300 BIPOC film festival curators around the globe.

As inclusion activists, Charlie and Lucy formed Meraki Moving Pictures to empower queer and trans BIPOC storytellers and increase the visibility of marginalized voices in the media.

 

March 8 Curators

 

We also worked with our diversity partner Ceretai on analysing the films on women’s screen presence and speaking time:

 

WIFTI March 8 Analysis Ceretai

 

 

Annual WIFT at Berlinale Event

Annual WIFT at Berlinale Event

Feb 15, 2021 | News, Event

WIFT at Berlinale

 

Annual WIFT Berlinale Event

 

You can re-watch the event here.

 

An official partnership with Berlinale. In collaboration with WIFT Germany and WIFT International, WIFT Sweden, WIF LA, WIFT India, WIFT Africa & Forum of Women in Film & TV Nigeria

 

Date: Tuesday, March 2, 2021, Time: 5-7pm CET

Location: Youtube

 

 

 

All you need is love: Reimagining RomComs in Bollywood, Nollywood & Hollywood

 

Compelling storytelling with changing faces of love…

Love is universal and our shared language all around the globe. The quest for love is everlasting, and so is the quest for relevant romantic comedies. As in life and the entertainment industry, women are becoming more empowered and today’s romantic comedies are embracing more diverse relationships across ethnicities, backgrounds, sexes and ages.

From Asia to Africa, and from Europe to the Americas…

With this event we will explore the cultural perspectives on love across the world’s most influential film industries: Bollywood, Nollywood and Hollywood. Experts will discuss the beloved genre’s classics as well as new opportunities of storytelling today and for the future.

 

Program

Welcome from WIFT  

Opening Note Mariette Rissenbeek, Co-head Berlinale 

 

Deep Dive Interviews (1-on-1, 15min each)

Moderated by Wendy Mitchell.
With writer-director Alankrita Shrivastava (India), writer-director Hamisha Daryani Ahuja (Nigeria), writer-director Clea DuVall (USA) and producer Lisa Blumenberg (Germany).

 

NETWORKING

Queen’s Tables (ca 20min) Each table with a focus theme, introduced by a moderator, followed by a quick intro (30sec) of each of the 10 attendees from the audience. Each table will be moderated by a special guest, to be announced soon.
(exclusive access for WIFT members from all around the world)

 

Speed Networking (ca. 20min) Transfer of the traditional format from our physical event at Berlinale into the virtual world. Quick 2min-meetings allocated by Zoom’s random generator.
(exclusive access for WIFT members from all around the world)

 

All events are for free and you can register here.

Certify your film for free

Certify your film for free

Feb 19, 2021 | News

Certify your film for free

A staggering 80% of audiences want more diversity in media and entertainment.
(Read up on it here!) To meet this demand, Ceretai has developed an artificial intelligence tool that measures diversity and determines if a film breaks norms.

Ceretai is now launching three different certifications for gender, age and ethnicity. With Ceretai’s labels, your film can be visible to a global audience on Herflix.com, and be featured on the soon-to-be-launched platform for norm-breaking movies.

Certify your film for free and be a front-runner in the fight for equality and diversity.

Certify your film for free

Click on the movie below and register & stream for free.

Herflix.com, in partnership with Ceretai & WIFTI, is sponsoring two Ceretai-certified movies for February.

 

Monitoring Diversity

Monitoring Diversity

Feb 15, 2021 | News

Monitoring Diversity

In a collaboration with Ceretai, Herflix, WIFTI and SF Studios, we are running a project funded by the Swedish Innovation Agency Vinnova to investigate norms on the big screen. The goal of the project is to implement technical solutions to drive change towards increased diversity, and to investigate ways for the film industry to monetise on this.

Within the scope of the project, Ceretai will carry out automatic analysis of hundreds of feature films using their software, and will also strive to create a label for movies that break the norm.

Ceretai wants to:
1. Offer free equality and diversity analysis on feature films.
2. Set up partnerships where we provide diversity data to producers/distributors, get feedback on the data’s usability, and jointly investigate monetisation opportunities.

Read more on Ceretai’s homepage.

Herflix is a proud partner with Ceretai & WIFTI to present the important results of this initiative on the WIFTI Channel – streamed worldwide on the Herflix OnDemand Movie Theater.

We can announce that if you are a member of any WIFT Chapter, that is a paid up member of WIFTI, both your features and shorts, new or old, have a welcome home on the WIFTI Channel, where you can share your work with fellow members and viewers worldwide.

For information on submissions, please contact lizz@herflix.com.

Herflix.
Where Content is Queen.