Degnz Announces Women Filmmaker Incubator

Degnz Announces Women Filmmaker Incubator

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

23 May 2016

The Directors & Editors Guild of New Zealand (DEGNZ) is delighted to announce its year-long Women Filmmaker Incubator with financial assistance from the New Zealand Film Commission (NZFC).

The Incubator, launching in the second half of 2016, will comprise of five workshops designed to give up to eight emerging female directors the opportunity to build their knowledge, skills and networks as a means to advance their careers and projects in the screen industry.

“One of our goals within the NZFC’s gender policy is to encourage proposals from Guilds that support and enhance the upskilling of women in the industry,” says NZFC CEO Dave Gibson. “This programme fits that brief perfectly and compliments our 2016 Gaylene Preston Director’s Award.”

The Incubator targets women with a track record as a director in their area of focus and the intent to make their first feature or equivalent (corresponding work in TV, web series, feature documentary or drama). Applicants will have a project in development that has not yet been presented to a network or funder.

Each workshop in the programme will bring in highly successful filmmakers and experts in a stepped approach that will develop participants’ confidence and capability to engage with the screen industry as they seek to get their own projects through development and into production.

“We have been working for close to a year to put this initiative in place,” said DEGNZ Executive Director Tui Ruwhiu. “We are extremely thankful to NZFC for providing financial support that will enable us to help address gender inequality for women directors.”

For DEGNZ, the Women Filmmaker Incubator is its latest effort focused on turning around the poor statistics for women directors in television drama and feature film in New Zealand, which reflect the trend internationally.

A call for applications for the Incubator will be issued in June.

ENDS

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