Industry Services
Image copyright of Emma Leslie
While WIFT cannot endorse any service in particular, useful industry organisations include:
Crew Dames
Looking for female crew? Gaffers, grips, camera operators, DOP’s, soundies, composers… this is where you can find them.
Cut-Throat Women
Cut-Throat Women is an edited database of women working in horror film production around the world. It aims to give visibility to the staggering amount of work that women have contributed to the genre and thereby provide a resource to fans, scholars, filmmakers, and critics. Cut-Throat Women invites ongoing submissions that provide thoughtful and rigorous writing on the creative work of individual figures. It will, in turn, bring attention to titles that are rarely seen or written about. Finally, Cut-Throat Women aims to further bridge a gap between the expansive academic community of horror scholars/critics and figures working in horror film production/exhibition through the vibrant and under-explored terrain of women’s groundbreaking roles as creative makers and thinkers of horror.
Contact Cut Throat Women here.
Dame Changer
Dame Changer is a new, progressive Australian women’s organisation chartered to build the leadership capabilities and career success of women in screen. We represent key screen business, creative and technical practitioners from across the board – from development to distribution.
Contact Dame Changer here, or on Facebook or Instagram.
Directed By Women
Inviting the world to fall madly in love with & wildly celebrate women filmmakers & their films.
Contact Directed By Women here, or on Facebook or Instagram.
Film Fatales
Film Fatales advocates for gender parity in the film industry and supports an inclusive community of hundreds of women feature film and television directors around the world. Film Fatales facilitates networking events for women filmmakers in a dozen cities each month and hosts panel discussions and mixers throughout the year. Film Fatales raises the visibility of women directors and increases the talent pool for industry organizations, programmers, and production companies looking to work with more women. By expanding the landscape of storytelling to include more underrepresented voices, Film Fatales continues to bring exciting new films to the screen.
Contact Film Fatales here, or on Facebook or Instagram.
Free the Bid is an effective, simple, game changing action our industry can take to break the cycle that has limited the number of Women Directors working in the Film and TV industry.
Around ten percent of Australian made content is directed by women, including Films, TV and Advertising yet we have 85 percent purchasing power. We’re the market but we’re not creating the content. Changing that is a business no brainer.
Free the Bid has a simple idea: One Woman director to pitch on every project will help make unconscious bias a thing of the past.
Contact Free The Bid, or on Facebook or Instagram.
Free The Bid
Gender Equity Committee (GEC)
The Gender Equity Committee (GEC) is looking forward to working together to find ways to embrace difference, and create diverse stories through music, sound and image.
Contact Gender Equity Committee here.
Glass Elevator is a networking and skill sharing tool for professional women in the industry. It is the free, membership-based international community of over 3,000 vetted women designed to increase the skills and strengthen the contacts of and relationships between our members in an effort to reach gender parity in our business.
Contact Glass Elevator here, or on Facebook or Instagram.
Glass Elevator
The Natalie Miller Fellowship supports the professional leadership of women in the screen industry through fellowships and programs.
Contact the Natalie Miller Fellowship here, or on Facebook.
Natalie Miller Fellowship
Parity Pipeline
Parity Pipeline is a programming initiative that provides a direct pipeline for film festival programmers to connect with filmmakers from underrepresented communities in an industry-wide effort towards more inclusive programming.
Contact Party Pipeline here.
There are many facets to gender inequality, including the issues that working parents and carers face. Raising a family is currently viewed and experienced as a significant career obstacle, with 79% of those in the UK Study by Raising Films stating that their caring role has had a negative impact on their career. The research confirms the urgent need for the film industry to respond positively and practically to the situation many women and men struggle to manage.
In 2018, WIFT NSW followed the lead of the dynamic UK group Raising Films, and launched a sister chapter - Raising Films Australia (RFAU). RFAU seeks to identify the major problem areas preventing parents and carers from participating in the Australian screen industry and will collaborate with the Federal and State agencies, industry organisations and those who work within it to develop initiatives to bridge this gap.
Follow Raising Films Australia on Facebook, email us at raisingfilmsaustralia@wiftaustralia.org.au or sign up to the Raising Films Australia mailing list.
For more information on Raising Films in the UK (including research, reports and initiatives), head to www.raisingfilms.com.
Raising Films Australia
Women in Theatre and Screen (WITS)
The Screen Diversity and Inclusion Network (SDIN) is a network of broadcasters, screen funding agencies, business associations, guilds and industry-aligned education and training organisations who have committed to working together towards an inclusive and diverse screen industry.
Contact SDIN here.
Screen Diversity & Inclusion Network (SDIN)
Screen Vixens
Screen Vixens are a collective and advocacy group of female producers working across all mediums in the Australian screen industry. Founded in 2015, Vixens are a sister group to the global female directors network Film Fatales.
With over 200 members and active chapters operating in Sydney and Perth, Vixens foster collaboration, peer to peer mentoring and monthly networking in order to create strong working relationships in the screen industry.
New members always welcome.
Contact Screen Vixens here, or on Instagram.
Women and Hollywood
Women and Hollywood educates, advocates, and agitates for gender diversity and inclusion in Hollywood and the global film industry. The site was founded in 2007 by Melissa Silverstein.
On a daily basis, Women and Hollywood sets the standard, defines the conversation, fuels coverage, and reinforces messages throughout the specialized and mainstream media to call for gender parity.
Women and Hollywood blogs in a unique proactive style to engage filmgoers and filmmakers with news and information highlighting women filmmakers and agitates for increased opportunities for women.
Contact Women And Hollywood, or on Facebook.