Whether you’re cast in a project that shoots abroad or you’re a producer on a quest for locations and tax credits, we’re all finding ourselves traversing the globe more than ever. Getting to know (and joining) our sister Women in Film & Television organizations around the country and the world can be a resource of unending value. From the quickest route to crewing-up with talented women to taking advantage of great events and programing, WIFTs around the world expand our networks and our horizons.
By Heidi Philipsen
Is true gender parity in film on the horizon? Women in Film & Television International (WIFTI) hopes so. NYWIFT member filmmaker/journalist/actress Heidi Philipsen attended the 2019 Berlinale International Film Festival, where 10% for 50/50 was introduced: a new European initiative offering rebates to gender-equal productions, led by post production house Chimney in partnership with WIFTI and Women in Film and Television Germany.
Philipsen met up with fellow NYWIFT member Adriana Shaw, founder of the streaming platform Herflix, while in Berlin, and they discussed what this initiative means for the future of the industry.
NYWIFT member Adriana Shaw (left) with German filmmaker Tara Brenninkmeyer
Heidi Philipsen: What brought you to the WIFTI/WIFT Germany Berlinale event?
Adriana Shaw: Helene Granqvist, the new President of WIFTI invited me to Berlin to meet the Presidents of the European chapters. My company, Herflix, has an agreement with WIFTI to provide a WIFTI channel on our online movie theater platform for member filmmakers. I took the opportunity to meet the chapter Presidents in person. Also, I could see that the 69th annual Berlin International Film Festival Agenda was a meaningful time to celebrate and advocate for more gender parity. Herflix became a sponsor of the event as well.
HP: Was it meaningful?
AS: Absolutely it was. The energy in that room was amazing. WIFTI President Helene Granqvist and the Post Production company Chimney representative introduced the 50/50/10 initiative signed (up to now by 20 Post Production houses world-wide) to offer productions with 50% woman’s crew a 10% deduction. Berlinale Festival Director [Dieter Kosslick] signed a 50/50 pledge for women filmmaker participation for 2020. Gale Ann Hurd shared her life successes and challenges as a female producer. But mostly, you could feel the palpable optimism in the room. And it was fun.
HP: How long have you been a NYWIFT member and what changes have you witnessed for women in film over the years?
AS: [I’ve been] a member of NYWIFT for 11 years, I believe, and before that a member of WIF LA. My good friend and mentor, Gloria Goldsmith, was a founding member of NYWIFT.
It is amazing to experience, as I have, the changes in the film markets and festivals over the last 30 years. Because of the advocacy and persistence of NYWIFT, the various Women in Film organizations, Geena Davis’ See Jane, Melissa Silverstein’s Women and Hollywood blog, and European Women’s Institutional organizations, gender parity is now front and center at the film festivals. The markets have also changed. When I began as a distributor, women’s stories were few and drama movies were only bought by government funded stations in Europe. Now female directors are promoted as an asset to a film, at least at the film markets, and we see the new digital players, Netflix, Amazon, etc. investing in her stories. What was also encouraging to see at the European Film Market at Berlinale was a significant increase of women in the ownership and leadership of the distribution companies and sales agencies.
HP: What do you hope for the future?
AS: My company, Herflix, and several others have taken on the mission to promote women directors. Ask most people to name a woman director and they can only come up with Kathryn Bigelow. That needs to change if women are to get more opportunity for the bigger budgeted movies. 3% to 4% [women directors for big budget features] in the US is better but far from where the needle has to move. Europe is ahead of us. We also still lack the access to financial capital. I believe what we all hope for is equal opportunity for ourselves, our daughters, and our professional sisters.
HP: What has WIFT done for you and your career? What do you do that you feel will reflect upon women in film?
AS: I believe its important to have a community of women to connect and share goals and dreams. We all need a club – female or male, with the like-minded. I have made friendships and business associations that I value personally as well as professionally. My participation at NYWIFT has given me a platform to explore my business ideas and be part of a movement that’s important to me. It gives me and everyone else who participates a frame around their work. When women come to me for career advice, the first thing I say in join NYWIFT or your local WIF chapter.
Additional reporting by Katie Chambers.
Heidi Philipsen
Related Posts
Meet the New NYWIFT Member: Joyce Hills
Welcome to NYWIFT, Joyce Hills! Joyce Hills is a recent graduate of NYU Tisch, where she co-wrote and directed the culturally-rich epic Viking short film The Feather, featuring out-of-this-world SFX hair and makeup, practical stunts, and generative workflows on a virtual production volume. She was the First Assistant Director and VFX Supervisor on the Seed & Spark-awarded short film Night of Melancholia, interned in Virtual Production at Gum Studios in Brooklyn, and performed as Sugarsop, The Widow, and assorted household servants in Will Kempe’s Players’ The Taming of the Shrew. Joyce is developing her first feature film, a dark fantasy inspired by mystical quests, heroes’ journeys, and time and destiny in popular culture. She is also developing a science fiction feminist short, and is pursuing additional education in XR mediamaking and STEM. In our interview, she discussed her childhood inspirations, emerging technologies, and the future of storytelling.
READ MORENYWIFT Member Spotlight: Kelcey Edwards
NYWIFT Member Kelcey Edwards found her way into documentary filmmaking through Iron Gate Studios, a nonprofit gallery and artist workspace she cofounded in her early twenties in Austin, Texas. At the time, she was making small narrative films alongside many other Austin-based filmmakers involved in the “mumblecore” scene; her first film, Letter, screened at SXSW in 2006. Since cameras and equipment were always present in the gallery, she began interviewing many of the artists who visited the space. Over time, the habit of recording conversations and documenting artists’ lives became a steady part of her practice. That interest eventually led her to pursue an MFA in Documentary Film at Stanford and later to move to New York, where she continued developing their work. About a decade later, she directed The Art of Making It, a feature documentary about the art world, which won the Audience Award at SXSW in 2022. It’s currently available on most streaming platforms. Kelcey’s films have received support from the MacArthur Foundation, Sundance, and Tribeca Film Institute, among others, have been broadcast internationally, and have screened at top-tier festivals including SXSW, Berlinale, and Hamptons International. In our interview, Kelcey discussed her teaching philosophy, approach to filmmaking, and upcoming projects.
READ MOREMeet the New NYWIFT Member: Therese Cayaba-Jones
Welcome, Therese Cayaba-Jones, to NYWIFT. Therese is a filmmaker with over 15 years of experience with films, documentaries, and series across the Philippines, Singapore, and the U.S. She just finished the feature screenplay for UnMarry, which was recently announced as one of the entries for the Metro Manila Film Festival 2025. Currently, Therese is producing the film Tales My Father Told, and raising money through NYWIFT fiscal sponsorship. Read on to see Therese’s story of moving to New York, her role in the 48 Hour Film Project, and her take on the state of independent filmmaking in the Big Apple.
READ MORENYWIFT Member Spotlight: Kristen Golden
Kristen Golden is a writer and producer whose creative work runs the gamut of genres. She wrote the screenplay AWE, for which she won the 2023 Athena Film Festival’s Chinonye Chukwu Emerging Writer Award, and was selected as a 2025 Screenplay Semi-finalist by the Cordillera International Film Festival. Kristen is a producer of the narrative short film Irving Berlin’s View of the East River, shot in Spring 2025. She is the co-author with her wife, Barbara Findlen, of the book Remarkable Women of the Twentieth Century: 100 Portraits of Achievement. Kristen is the speechwriter for the Women's Media Center. In our interview, Kristen discussed her award-winning screenplay AWE, the connection between advocacy and storytelling, and her advice for future female leaders.
READ MORE
2 Comments