The estate of the late actor, director, producer, and philanthropist Nancy Malone has gifted $500,000 to the American Film Institute (AFI) with the goal of advancing female filmmakers. The donation will go towards supporting women from the AFI Conservatory and the AFI Directing Workshop for Women (DWW) as well as setting up the new Nancy Malone Initiatives for Women Filmmakers, a press release has announced.

The donation will establish the Nancy Malone Symposium, a coalition for the advancement of female filmmakers which will be held yearly at AFI FEST beginning in 2018.

“It was Nancy’s lifelong wish that women storytellers be heard,” explained Linda Hope of the Nancy Malone estate. “The Nancy Malone Initiatives for Women Filmmakers ensure that her wish is realized.”

“Nancy Malone remains an enduring inspiration at the American Film Institute,” added Bob Gazzale, AFI President & CEO. “This peerless gift in support of women storytellers will help to ensure America’s art form echoes with equality for future generations.”

The AFI also announced that writer, director, AFI DWW alumna and leader Tessa Blake (“iZombie”) has been named the inaugural Director of Nancy Malone Women’s Initiatives, “an executive-level role that will grow greater opportunities within the creative community for female filmmakers from AFI.” Since graduating from DWW in 2015, Blake has led the workshop, spending her tenure bolstering the pipeline of female directors from the Conservatory and DWW.

Malone’s career spanned five decades and she was one of the first women helmers working in TV. Her 80 acting credits include “Capricorn One,” “The Andy Griffith Show,” “Ironside,” “Naked City,” and “Guiding Light.” “Judging Amy,” “Melrose Place,” “Dynasty,” and “Cagney and Lacey” are among her 30-plus directing credits. The Emmy winner became the first female VP of television at 20th Century Fox in 1976. Malone also co-founded Women in Film in Los Angeles and received one of the early Crystal Awards from Women in Film in 1977.

Malone died in 2014 from complications due to leukemia. She was 79.