In honor of its 20th anniversary, Canada’s Women In the Director’s Chair (WIDC) initiative has announced the launch of an online directory of its filmmakers. The alumnae directory includes “the profiles of 220 Canadian women directors from coast to coast to coast who have attended WIDC programs since its inception in 1997,” a press release details. The news coincides with the initiative’s annual call for WIDC Feature Film Award submissions.
“The WIDC alumnae directory is a gold mine that will benefit producers in the new funding paradigm that is opening up in our industry,” WIDC co-creator and producer Carol Whiteman explained. “The directory includes short filmmakers, showrunners, series creators, and feature filmmakers who directed 60 percent of the women-directed feature films funded by Telefilm Canada in the last 10 years.”
Among the directory’s listings are Alison Reid, director of the highest-rated “Heartland” episode in 2016, Marie Clements, whose feature documentary directorial debut, “The Road Forward,” opened Vancouver’s Doxa Film Festival and screened at Hot Docs, and past Feature Film Award recipients like Gloria Ui Young Kim (“Debra & Mona”), Jordan Canning (“Suck It Up”), and Kathleen Hepburn (“Never Steady, Never Still”).
First or second-time Canadian female filmmakers of a scripted fiction film project are eligible for the WIDC Feature Film Award. Valued at about $190K ($141,000 USD), the award offers “in kind rentals and services from companies all across Canada, including a director’s chair spot at Story & Leadership, WIDC’s flagship program.”
In the past year, several organizations in the Canadian film industry have unveiled plans to address gender inequality behind the camera. March saw the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television introduce an apprenticeship program for female directors, and the National Film Board of Canada expand its gender-equity plan by advocating for more women cinematographers, composers, and screenwriters.
In November Telefilm Canada, the country’s biggest film financier, introduced measures to ensure half of the movies it finances will now be directed or written by women. The public broadcaster CBC announced last summer that at least half of the episodes of its popular scripted programs like “Murdoch Mysteries” and “Heartland” will be directed by women.
WIDC Feature Film Award submissions will be accepted until June 30, 2017. Head over to WIDC’s site to apply.
You can access the WIDC Almunae Directory here.
