Vice Media is expanding Broadly, its female-driven channel and website. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Vice has introduced Broadly Films, a three-year program dedicated to funding and distributing women-helmed short films from all over the world. Broadly publisher and “WOMAN with Gloria Steinem” EP Ariel Wengroff developed the idea for the program and will oversee it for Vice.

Set to launch by the end of the year, Broadly Films will support 36 filmmakers as they “develop and create short films focused on innovation, technology, youth, and women’s issues,” the source reports.

The program will spotlight Middle Eastern women’s voices. One-third of the projects will be from women living in the Middle East or from women of Middle Eastern descent, and Vice will open an office in Abu Dhabi in the next few months. “If we’re going to have boots on the ground in this region, we want to make sure that we’re covering stories about women there,” Wengroff told THR.

Broadly Films hopes to release some of its projects theatrically as well as screen them in the filmmakers’ home countries. “There are a lot of young female creators making content who don’t have the opportunity for people to see their stories,” Wengroff explained.

Gloria Steinem, Malala Yousafzai, directors Ana Lily Amirpour (“A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night”) and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (“3 Bahadur: The Revenge of Baba Balaam”), visual artist Shirin Neshat, and Vice creative director and “Her” helmer Spike Jonze are set to serve as mentors at Broadly Films. They will assist Vice in selecting the program’s filmmakers and give notes and advice on the projects in development.

“We need to empower the next generation of filmmakers. Often they have fantastic ideas but they don’t know how to execute them or they don’t have access to funding,” explained Obaid-Chinoy. “The only way to have an impact is to tell your own stories, in your own words, in your own communities. That’s when you’ll start to see an impact.”

Wengroff’s other producing credits include “Vice News” and “Vice Special Report: A House Divided.” She also worked on the crew of Amirpour’s most recent film “The Bad Batch.” The first season of “WOMAN” concluded in June 2016. No word yet on whether it will receive another season.