Attention, female filmmakers: Have you finished a short narrative film or documentary? Or is there a portion of your feature-length film or doc that you’re ready to share? If so, you should enter the Audience Awards’ Women’s Film Challenge.
“The imbalance between men and women is deeply rooted, and though it has been acknowledged and studied for years, there has been virtually no improvement,” the Women’s Film Challenge webpage reads. “Audience Awards is committed to helping fuel the #FemaleLens. If disparity is caused by lack of opportunity, we are hell bent on providing opportunity and exposure to female filmmakers.”
The Women’s Film Challenge is open to any short films or excerpts that are seven minutes in length or less. There must be at least one “above-the-line woman (producer, director, or writer) involved in production,” the Challenge rules’ stipulates. No premiere status is required.
Challenge contestants could be honored with a jury award such as Best Film or Grand Prize. The top ten jury winning films — five narrative, five documentary — will screen at at the Audience Awards Film Festival in North Hollywood. These finalists will also screen at the Athena Film Festival and at the High Falls Film Festival. Other fest screenings will be announced throughout the year. Further, winners will receive mentorship from “top-tier women in the film industry” at a brunch during the Audience Awards Film Festival.
The late deadline for the Audience Awards’ Women’s Film Challenge is this Friday, March 17 at 11:59am MDT. Head over to the Film Challenge page to enter or for more information.
Details for the Women’s Film Challenge awards and honors are below, courtesy of Audience Awards.
FESTIVAL SCREENINGS: The top 10 jury winning films — five from narrative and five from documentary — will screen at the headlining red carpet event on Saturday night at the Audience Awards Film Festival in North Hollywood on April 8, 2017 at the El Portal Theater. Additionally, the finalist films will screen at the Athena Film Festival and at the High Falls Film Festival in 2017. We will continue to add screening venues for the finalist films throughout the year.
MENTORSHIP: WFC winning filmmakers will also be matched with top-tier women in the film industry at a mentorship brunch during the festival. Participants include Svetlana Cvetko, award-winning cinematographer; Deniese Davis, COO of ColorCreative.TV; Sarah Halley Finn, casting director; Darrien Michele Gipson, National Director of SAGindie; Moira Griffin, Senior Manager of Diversity Incentives at Sundance Institute; Poppy Hanks, SVP of Development and Production for MACRO; Debbie Liebling, entertainment executive and film producer; Roberta Marie Munroe, award-winning director, producer, and author; Lynnette Ramirez, Content Creator and Executive Manager at 51 Minds Entertainment; and Orly Ravid, entertainment attorney and Founder of The Film Collaborative.
HONOREE: Presentation of the Maverick Award to Ondi Timoner and a conversation on her career with Anne Thompson, Editor-at-Large at Indiewire will be followed by the red carpet premiere of Women’s Film Challenge award-winning short films.
FINAL JURY AWARDS
Best Film (Audience Selection): Filmstro soundtrack license worth $1,999 for movies with a $1M budget or less.
Grand Prize (Jury Selection): $15,000 Panavision camera rental package + $2,500 cash.
Juice Award: Tangerine will select their favorite narrative and award $500.
POV Documentary Award: POV will select their favorite documentary and award $1,000 + 12-month nonexclusive digital distribution deal with POV.
Real Film Award: If 50% or more of your submission was shot on film, you are eligible for the film award, including $5,000 value in 16mm or 35mm film stock provided by KODAK and a 4K scan of 1,000 feet of any film format (super8mm, 16mm or 35mm) to Pro Res files (retail value $1,250) provided by Pro8mm.
