Berlinale ’18 Women in the Film Business Panel
Sixth annual discussion on the status of women in the film business and gender equity at the 68th Berlin International Film Festival. This time, it’s not about women in film industry only. Entitled WE WANT MORE, the aim is greater diversity in the areas of gender, race, age, sexual orientation and disability. Thanks to the Dortmund | Cologne International Women’s Film Festival for this event.
Discussion & Reception Date: Thursday, 22 February 2018, 11 am
Venue: Delegation of Thuringia in Berlin; Mohrenstraße 64, 10117 Berlin
Please register under RSVP: www.registration.frauenfilmfestival.eu
This Annual International Meeting which I always attend is where more than 200 professionals from different parts of the world meet to network, present results, best practices and initiatives to support women in the film and media business. The subject this year is:
How to stop the ongoing and significant underrepresentation in the film industry? Recognise and acknowledge the quality and value of difference. Join the discussion.
We invite you to our international panel where we will discuss diversity in film business and argue for equality in media.
Women are not the only ones underrepresented — before and behind the camera. Other People like thoe with migration background, People of Color, LGBT-Persons, handicapped persons, elderly people or the ones socially deprived are even more invisible than female filmmaker or women in film business.
Welcome: Malte Krückels (State Secretary for Media and Representative of the Free State of Thuringia for Federal Affairs)
Introduction / State of affairs: Silke J. Räbiger (Festival Director, Dortmund | Cologne International Women’s Film Festival)
Keynote: Simon(e) J. Paetau (Director)
Panel Diversity Standards: Karola Gramann (film curator, Kinothek Asta Nielsen, Germany), Sheri Hagen (director and actress, Germany / Group “Black Filmmakers”), Christopher Racster (Executive Director of Outfest | UCLA Legacy Project, USA), Emily Morgen (producer, UK)
Moderator: Aurora Rodonò (Freelance Curator & Research Fellow, Institute for Art and Art Theory | University of Cologne Germany)
Please register under RSVP: www.registration.frauenfilmfestival.eu
Sponsored by:
Film und Medienstiftung NRW
Freistaat Thüringen
In Cooperation with:
International Women’s Film Festival Network
In 2012, the Dortmund | Cologne International Women‘s Film Festival invited representatives from different international women‘s film festivals, film and media organisations and networks to discuss the projects and activities women‘s initiatives in Latin America, North America, Europe and Asia were developing in their own countries.
Following this event, the participants‘ manifest desire to network, engage in international collaborations and develop a stronger and stable connection led to the foundation of the International Women‘s Film Festival Network (iwffn.com) in which more than 50 women’s film festivals are organised today.
In 2013, on the initiative of the Dortmund | Cologne IWFF and Athena Film Festival New York, more than 200 professionals from different parts of the world and from all areas of film production met for the first time during the Berlinale to discuss the situation of women in the film and media business. The follow-up events at the NRW Regional Representation in 2014 and the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth in 2015 and 2016 received an increasingly positive response among attendees, in the press and in the industry.
Over the years, members of the international panel have included leading representatives of international film institutes, film funds, women‘s film networks and acclaimed directors whose films have premiered in Berlinale and Cannes, among others.
This annual meeting also offers the network an opportunity to present the results, best practices and initiatives that have been developed in different parts of the world in the course of the year and, most importantly, to develop joint activities.
In 2013, the network promoted an open letter supporting the debate on the position of women in film direction. In 2014, fourteen women‘s organisations across Europe presented a joint proposal to the EU Commission regarding state aid for films and other audiovisual works. In 2015, the Dortmund | Cologne IWFF produced the video Woman make great movies directed by Jasmila Žbani´c (Golden Bear Berlinale), offering women directors from around the globe the opportunity to express their views about the situation of women in leading positions in the film production business.
Extending the scope of this initiative, subsequent events have been held by members of the International Women‘s Film Festival Network in Seoul, Toronto and most recently in Cannes. Silke Johanna Räbiger Director Dortmund | Cologne IWFF
A pdf booklet on the past five years is now available here.
When I spoke (last year), the topic was “I cannot believe we are still protesting! -where are we coming from, where do we stand and where are we going?” Here are my remarks:
Basically the idea is the evolution of gender equity in the film and media industry during the last 40 years and to acknowledge the work for organizations and individuals who were working in this time frame, who are able to share results and to analyze the changes that were brought to the film and the media industry. However of course, the panel is not only to talk about the past, but how the past affects where we are now and what are the next steps.
I can easily talk about the past, like in 1975 when, as a result of the affirmative action laws, I was accepted as the first woman (except for one Lily Tyc-Holm of Holland and Germany) to have an executive position in International Film Distribution by 20th Century Fox International and where I was sent to Amsterdam, the Netherlands to learn from the best in the business.
Some months ago the realization that not only women directors and women behind the camera were lagging behind their male colleagues but that women in distribution were also operating at a great disadvantage. After all, if we do not own the means (MONEY) to make the movies and we do not own the means (DISTRIBUTION) to recoup the money invested, then what control do we have over what we watch? We have no little real control over what the distributors and theaters decide to try.
Studies suggests female-directed films “get smaller distribution deals”. The findings highlight a gender bias which is affecting the process of buying and selling films directed by women
Study Finds Films Directed By Women Suffer From Distribution ‘Trust Gap’
A new study reveals women-directed films receive 63% less distribution than male-helmed movies.
http://www.indiewire.com/2016/06/study-films-directed-women-distribution-trust-gap-male-1201700715/
Study: Films Directed by Women Receive 63 Percent Less Distribution Than Male-Helmed Movies (Exclusive)
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/study-films-directed-by-women-907229
Well this might be right. For a Sundance — Producer Alix Madigan (Winter’s Bone) the principle hurdle was foreign film sales which are “very very male-driven”. She hopes the movie business can change and find ways that female-made films can be “perceived as profitable.”
January 5, 2017
Women power: A super year for female heroes on screen
December 30, 2016 12:00 AM, via AP
By Sharon Eberson / PIttsburgh Post-Gazette
With a resounding cha-ching at the box office, the “Star Wars” franchise has provided solid-gold proof that female heroes cannot only open a movie, they can crush it — in a good way.
First came “The Force Awakens,” which opened Dec. 18, 2015, to nearly $248 million and went on a record-breaking box-office spree. It was the first entry in a new trilogy, the first live-action “Star Wars” movie since 2005, and it starred Daisy Ridley as the new face of the Jedi.
The newest entry to the franchise, “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” leads up to the events of “A New Hope,” the movie that launched the galactic epic. “Rogue One” stars Felicity Jones as the leader of a ragtag team of rebels in a film that opened to “a massive $155 million domestically and nearly $300 million globally,” Variety reported.
The new power women of the “Star Wars” universe stand on the shoulders of Princess/Senator/General Leia Organa, played by the late great Carrie Fisher.
It was a banner year for female heroes on screens big and small, with more on the way in 2017. Here are some examples of women flexing their muscles now and into the future:
• The title heroine in the musical animated feature “Moana” is a Polynesian teenager — and a Disney princess — who inspires a god and overcomes forces of evil to save her island. While “Moana” is so far №12 in the year’s domestic box-office grosses, “Finding Dory” — with Ellen DeGeneres voicing the forgetful blue tang fish — is №1, with more than $486 million, according to Box Office Mojo.
• The “Ghostbusters” reboot, with women taking the lead, didn’t go over so well with critics, but Melissa McCarthy remains a comedic hero. With co-stars Kate McKinnon, Kristen Wiig and Leslie Jones, the film is №18 at the box office.
• There were brainy heroines at the movies this year, too. Amy Adams would seem to be a surefire Oscar nominee as linguistics professor Louise Banks, who “leads an elite team of investigators” trying to communicate with aliens in “Arrival.” A film about historical superheroes opens Jan. 6. “Hidden Figures” showcases the African-American women at NASA — played by Octavia Spencer, Taraji P. Henson and Janelle Monae — who were behind the successful launch into orbit of astronaut John Glenn.
• On the small screen, “The Walking Dead’s” Sasha, Sonequa Martin-Green, has been announced as the lead and a lieutenant commander in “Star Trek: Discovery,” joining Michelle Yeoh, who will play the captain. (“Star Trek: Voyager” also featured a woman at the helm.) “Discovery” will debut in May on CBS, then move to the paid streaming service CBS All Access.
• TV’s “Supergirl” survived a move from CBS to The CW, joining male DC Comic heroes Green Arrow and The Flash as series leads on that network.
• DC at the movies this year introduced Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman in “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.” On June 2, she’ll be the title heroine in her own origin story, directed by Patty Jenkins.
As Wonder Woman would say, “Thank Hera for that!”
Sharon Eberson: seberson@post-gazette.com or 412–263–1960. Twitter: @SEberson_pg.
