Gamechangers at Sundance
(Jacki Zehner is in the center)

Women are the hottest subject at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, and there have been lots of great reports and reviews from women who are there. 

Sundance Board Member Jacki Zehner has been tweeting at @JackiZehner and posting first hand reports on her blog. Her initial piece is at:
http://www.jackizehner.com/2013/01/17/women-at-sundance/

There is some especially exciting news in her report on the Women At Sundance party (http://www.jackizehner.com/2013/01/24/women-at-sundance-party-2013/ )  Over 150 people, both men and women, packed into her house to celebrate the success of women filmmakers at this year’s festival, to discuss ways to further empower women in filmmaking, and to hear the results of a research study called “Exploring the Barriers and Opportunities for Independent Women Filmmakers.”

Also, to assist female directors in breaking through to that elusive mainstream Hollywood success, it was  announced at Women at Sundance that a new fund has been set up in partnership with Impact Partners and Chicken & Egg to directly fund films by women filmmakers. Called Gamechanger, this fund will be run by Producer Mary Jane Skalski, and will fund women directors in a variety of genres with the goal of making commercially successfully films.

Melissa Silverstein of Women and Hollywood has also been posting lots of great articles and reviews.  doing great coverage.  We especially enjoyed Fariha Roisin’s review of Salma about a Tamil woman poet’s struggle against the patriarchy, and Kerensa Cadenas’ list of Sundance Deals for Women’s Films.

We also want to congratulate our Bay Area colleagues at Chicken & Egg Pictures.  Five of their grantees have films at Sundance this year:  After Tiller by Martha Shane & Lana Wilson; Citizen Koch by Tia Lessin & Carl Deal; Gideon’s Army by Dawn Porter; The Square by Jehane Noujaim; Valentine Road by Marta Cunningham.  Also, two films by their grantees have just been nominated for Academy Awards – Kings Point (directed by Sari Gilman) for Best Documentary Short and The Invisible War (directed by Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering) for Best Documentary Feature.