Trina McQueen,OC, Adjust Professor, MBA Program in Arts & Media Administration, Schulich School of Business (Former President of CTV, Former Vice-President of CBC)

Judy Gladstone, Former Executive Director, Bravo!FACT

Hussain Amarshi, President, Mongrel Media

Jade Raymond, Studio Head, Ubisoft Toronto

Maxine Bailey, Vice President, Advancement. Toronto International Film Festival

The results of the Creative Leaders program will be announced in early June, 2012.  Click here for more information, and to apply.

Information on the petition follows:

There are not many times in the year when the film world comes center stage.  This week we have one of those moments with the opening of the Cannes Film Festival tomorrow night which again for the second time in three years does not have a female directed film in the main competition.  This moment gives us an opportunity to raise our voices in tandem about this issue.

Inspired by the French group La Barbe’s Manifesto, I put together the petition below which I hope you will sign.

We need to get as many high profile women and organizations in the entertainment business and the media business to sign this in the NEXT 24 HOURS.  It is imperative that we have a large body of people as signatories to this in order to have a maximum impact and to also make it safe for people to sign.  I feel that we need to have at least 50 organizations/people as signatories before we send it to the media and post it publicly.

I would also implore you to send this to any high profile women and women directors you know who you think will sign.  The more the better!   All signatures (please include your organization if you would like to be identified in that capacity) should be send to melissa@womenandhollywood.com

Please make your voices heard.

Thank you-

Melissa Silverstein
Women and Hollywood

________________________________________________________________________________

To the Jurors of the Cannes Film Festival

You will spend the next 11 days watching 22 films that the programmers and leaders of the Cannes Film Festival deemed to be the worthiest of this year’s competition. You should be aware that half the world’s talent is being concealed from you.

The Cannes Film Festival is one of the most prestigious festivals in the world.  Festival Films including last year’s Oscar winner The Artist have gone on to have long and successful lives,  and filmmakers’ careers have been launched on the Croisette.  As we all know, the opportunities to have your film seen on a world stage is invaluable.

For the 2012 edition, as with the 2010 edition, there are NO FEMALE DIRECTED FILMS in competition, and in the 64 years of the Festival only one woman — Jane Campion — has been awarded the Palme D’Or.

Festival director Thierry Fremaux responded to the recent manifesto from La Barbe a French feminist action group which decried the lack of women by saying:

“I select work on the basis of it actual qualities. We would never agree to select a film that doesn’t deserve it on the basis it was made by a woman…There is no doubt that greater space needs to be given to women within cinema. But it’s not at Cannes and in the month of May that this question needs to be raised, but rather all year and everywhere.”

Mr. Fremaux is correct in stating that women’s rights must be addressed year round.  Yet this issue must be specifically addressed at Cannes, for the future health and livelihood of the film industry. Filmgoers  need to recognize that a Festival of this stature that does not include women’s voices and women’s perspectives in the competition is not a festival that accurately reflects a current world view.

We call for transparency about the selection process, and for a publicly stated commitment to diversity that includes female filmmakers in the future.

We, the undersigned, also encourage an industry-wide discussion about this problem, and we call on the leaders of all major film festivals and film entities worldwide to participate in and contribute to a dialogue about how we can, to quote Mr. Fremaux, “create a greater space for women within cinema.”

Signed-

Melissa Silverstein, Women and Hollywood
Athena Film Festival
Gloria Steinem
Robin Morgan
The Sisterhood is Global Institute
Julie Burton, The Women’s Media Center
Gayle Nachlis, Women in Film
Maria Maggenti, Screenwriter
Susanna White, Director
Gini Reticker, Director
Shana Feste, Director
Aviva Kempner, Director
Katherine Dieckmann, Writer/Director
Lynn Hershman Leeson, Hotwire Productions
Jaclyn Friedman, Women, Action & the Media!
Antonella Estevez, FEMCINE, Chile’s Women Film Festival
Sue Parrish, Sphinx Theatre Company
Sarah Walker, Writer/Director
Elena Rossini, No Country for Young Women
Jane C. Wagner, Naked Eye Productions Ltd.
Tina DiFeliciantonio, Naked Eye Productions Ltd.
Suhayla El-Bushra, screenwriter
Therese Shechter, Trixie Films

(list in formation)

Pilot program partners media leaders with the next generation of talent.

Rina Fraticelli, Executive Director of Women in View, announced today the launch of Creative Leaders, a new initiative aimed at advancing women into senior leadership positions in Canada’s screen-based media industries. Creative Leaders will support partnerships between today’s industry luminaries and the next generation of media leaders.

While this generation has seen progress in certain occupations, women – especially racialized women – are still a rare sight at the top of television, film, digital media and gaming sectors. “Media is a multi-billion dollar business in Canada,” said Fraticelli. “and talent is the fuel that drives it. But the higher up the chain you go, the less likely you are to see the gender and racial diversity necessary to sustain the level of innovation needed in today’s media industries.”

The program invites influential “sponsors” to move beyond traditional mentoring and become active champions of their protégées – accomplished professionals with clear leadership potential. A sponsor uses his or her influence to advocate for their protégée, something which has been more typically offered by men, to men. As Christine Silva, Toronto-based Senior Director of Research for Catalyst put it, “To make it to the top, someone needs to be pulling you up. What matters is how highly placed the mentors are. That means they are in a position to provide more than advice, guidance and to show you the ropes. Someone very senior can provide sponsorship.”

“Creative Leaders will fill a critical gap,“ said media trailblazer, Trina McQueen, Chair of the Creative Leaders jury. The former broadcast executive McQueen leads a prestigious jury that also includes Judy Gladstone, former Executive Director of BravoFACT, and Hussain Amarshi, President of Mongrel Media. “In some areas, like journalism and TV programming, women have been able to make their mark. In others, there’s a definite lag ” McQueen continued, “and even successful women, if they are looking at top jobs in an integrated media industry, need knowledge and skills in new platforms, new technologies and new business models.”

This is the inaugural year of Creative Partners. Between 5 and 10 teams will be provided with the resources to develop and carry out customized plans over 8 months. The deadline for applications is May 22 and successful teams will be announced in early June.  Go here to apply.

WIV ‘s Creative Leaders grew out of an influential international conference, SexMoneyMedia, held in Vancouver in 2010, addressing the dramatic under-representation of women in the top corporate and decision making tiers of our national media industries.

Marsha Newbery will be in attendance to promote Mainstreaming Media Diversity and officially launch the start of the program development in Vancouver.

Visit http://womeninfilm.ca/ to get tickets.

Listen: Geena Davis Institute-SexMoneyMedia-05.mp3

Featuring:

Madeline Di Nonno,
Executive Director of See Jane and The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media

Stacy Smith,
Associate Professor of Entertainment at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California

Listen: Juhasz_SexMoneyMedia_04.mp3

Featuring:

Alexandra Juhasz, Producer & Professor of Media Studies, Pitzer College

Listen: Culture&Commerce_SexMoneyMedia_03.mp3

Featuring:

Trina McQueen, OC., Broadcast Journalist & former President of CTV Inc.

Rita Deverell, CM., Broadcaster & Nancy’s Chair in Women’s Studies, Mount St. Vincent University

Rita Cugini, Commissioner, CRTC Ontario Region

Valerie Creighton, President & CEO, Canadian Media Fund

After reviewing some of the links between the past and current literature, she turned her attention to the issue of women’s (in)equality within the industry, focusing on a number of issues affecting women as cultural workers. She identified 4 factors: distinctive characteristics of work in the media; failure of inequality laws; new forms of sexism; and the postfeminist problem. All combined, these mitigating factors, Gill argues, have created a hostile climate for women working behind-the-scenes wherein words like “sexism” become “unspeakable” and others like “diversity” are merely empty words used to illustrate workplace equality without actually implementing such change. In her concluding remarks, Gill called for women to (once again) “break the silence.” Amen.

Review by: Natasha Patterson

Listen: RosGillSexMoneyMedia_01.pm3