AFI’S DIRECTING WORKSHOP FOR WOMEN

"Art is a nation’s most precious heritage. For it is in our works of art that we reveal to ourselves, and to others, the inner vision which guides us as a nation. And where there is not vision, the people perish. We will create an American Film Institute, bringing together leading artists of the film industry, outstanding educators and young men and women who wish to pursue the 20th Century art form as their life’s work."

President Lyndon B. Johnson
September 29, 1965

For over three decades, AFI's Directing Workshop for Women (DWW) has been the premiere institution working to increase the number of women behind the camera. With a less than 4% acceptance rate, the DWW is a highly competitive program designed to "provide talented women who have established themselves within film, television, and theatre with the opportunity to direct narrative film projects."

The DWW is essentially a Fellowship, similar to being awarded a Fulbright grant or a Guggenheim, and the script for The Honeysting was selected from hundreds of submissions. Only 8 women are selected from an applicant pool of over 200 for this selective program – the only of its kind in existence. What makes the DWW truly unique is that participants are not only awarded a film grant; they additionally take part in an intensive three-week workshop, where they further develop their script in the Jessica Kaplan Screenwriting Workshop, and take courses taught by some of the most legendary filmmakers in the film industry. The DWW provides participants with the education and resources to formally develop, and then direct their short film.

There has long been a decline in the number of female directors, which is surprising given the role women played in launching the film industry. In the early days of cinema, women were an integral and natural part of the filmmaking process, with over thirty women directors working in the industry prior to 1920. Alice Guy-Blaché, regarded as the first filmmaker to develop the concept of the narrative film, was an accomplished and inventive director of over one thousand (1,000) films. As famous as D.W. Griffith and Cecil B. de Mille, Lois Weber was, during her heyday, the highest paid director at Universal Studios.

Over one hundred years later, 96% of all movies are directed by men. According to the Executive Director of the Center for the Study of Women in TV and Film at San Diego State University, Martha Lauzen: "In Hollywood there's this perception that films made by women do not earn as much as films made by men, and that actually is not true. We have done the statistical analysis on box office grosses, comparing films that had women behind the scenes with others. The notion that films made by women don't earn as much just doesn't hold up." Women have proven to possess a unique voice, a refreshing perspective, and the talent and competence to deliver films that are both cinematically creative and commercially successful.

The DWW is dedicated to increasing the number of women working professionally as film and television directors, and has successfully launched many careers. Some DWW alumnae include Lesli Linka Glatter (Mad Men, House, Heroes, The West Wing, The Closer); Randa Haines (Children of a Lesser God, Dance with Me); Victoria Hochberg (Notes from the Underbelly, Sex and the City, Ghost Whisperer); Neema Barnette (Gilmore Girls, Civil Brand); Maya Angelou (Down in the Delta); Tricia Brock (Saving Grace, Lipstick Jungle, Dirt, The L Word, Grey’s Anatomy, Ugly Betty); and Deb Hagan (College).

For more information on AFI and the DWW, visit www.afi.com and www.afi.com/education/dww/.