Great news for Twilight fans — and even better news for aspiring women filmmakers: Lionsgate, the studio behind the film series, and Stephenie Meyer, who, of course, wrote the Twilight novels, announced yesterday that the franchise is very much alive. The most exciting part of this news, in our world at least, is that female directorial hopefuls will be chosen to make the short films, based on Twilight characters, that will keep the franchise going.

The Storytellers — New Creative Voices of ‘The Twilight Saga’ will select its new creative voices via a group of female panelists that will include Meyer and Kristen Stewart. They will be joined by Kate Winslet, Octavia Spencer, Catherine Hardwicke (who directed the first installment of the franchise), Jennifer Lee (co-director of 2013’s third highest-grossing movie Frozen), and producer and head of Women in Film Cathy Schulman. That is one impressive jury, and successful participants will be given the chance to be mentored by these industry vets.

It is important to note that the first film in the series was the only one to be helmed by a female director despite the fact that the movies are based on a series of books about a girl and written by a woman, and its primary readership — and viewership — consisted of girls and women. The Storytellers — New Creative Voices of ‘The Twilight Saga’ is an especially welcome step in the right direction by putting women at the forefront of the series.

Rather than focusing on Twilight, Meyer’s statement about the project focused entirely on the impetus behind making this a female-centric project: “The female voice is something that has become more and more important to me as I’ve worked in the film industry,” she explained.

The shorts will be available exclusively on Facebook, and given that Meyer’s books have sold more than 120 million copies and the film adaptations earned a whopping $3.5 billion, it’s safe to assume that the resulting shorts will be very popular and shared across millions of news feeds.

[via NY Times]