Several fests including Sundance, SXSW, Tribeca, TIFF, and Athena Film Festival will ensure more women, people of color, and other marginalized communities receive press credentials. According to Variety, these festivals and more will set aside a certain portion of their credentials for members of Time’s Up Critical. Additional festivals are expected to join them “imminently,” per Time’s Up.
Critical is a database designed to increase the number of women, people of color, people with disabilities, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and gender non-binary individuals working in criticism and entertainment journalism. New and diverse voices are sorely needed in the profession — the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative found that 83 percent of critics covering the top 300 films from 2015-2017 were white, and 79 percent were male.
“By encouraging industry leaders to be more intentional about who gets invited to their press junkets, screenings, red carpets, and other events, this database is one way they can work to dismantle the systemic barriers for critics of color and other underrepresented individuals,” said Tina Tchen, president and CEO of the Time’s Up Foundation. “Together, we can ensure these voices are represented and heard.”
“The population consuming content has never been more far-reaching or diverse yet, for too long, most of the people reporting on, analyzing, and critiquing have been frustratingly uniform,” added Dr. Stacy L. Smith, Annenberg Inclusion Initiative founder and director. “Concrete tools like the Critical database provide pathways for more people from all types of backgrounds to have the opportunity to shape our culture as professional journalists and critics.”
Critical is open for registration for employers and critics. Time’s Up hopes to grow the database and put its critics in contact with mainstream publications. Inclusion in criticism has been a goal of Time’s Up since it launched two years ago. As the org notes on Critical’s site, “Critics and journalists are important gatekeepers in entertainment. Their views impact a film’s distribution, its marketing budget, the future funding of similar projects, and what stories are told.”
