EWA's News

After Cannes Film Festival

Cannes 2015 has been particularly busy and successful for the EWA Network. During this year's Festival, EWA had the privilege to discuss women's undervalued presence in the film industry and how to change this. This year, we had the pleasure to see a film by a female director opening the 68th Cannes Film Festival (Emmanuelle Bercot's La tête haute) as was the case in Berlin with Isabel Coixet's "Nobody wants the night" but on the other hand, there were only 2 films directed by women in the official competition (Maiwenn's "Mon Roi" and "Margueritte & Julien" by Valerie Donzelli).

"Women in motion" talk with Christine Vachon and Elizabeth Karlson, producers of "Carol", selected in competition.

However, the "flatgate" incident also garnered criticism of the festival. On another note, Luxury brand Kering partnered with the festival to host "Women in Motion" - private talks with successful actresses and directors. This is an initiative to highlight women's achievements in film and encourage more diversity.

Many women in business gathered at a grass-roots panel event (Women make great movies: Strategies for success), discussing how to tackle gender inequality in film.

Once again, EWA's Networking Happy Hour Event, held in collaboration with the Croatian Audiovisual Centre on Tuesday May 19 2015, was a major success both as far as attendance and offering networking opportunities for members. The event was attended by men and women from throughout the audiovisual industry - including representatives from many film funds, producers, distributors, festival directors. EWA is immensely pleased to have brought together so many talented people in one of Cannes's beach pavilions at such a busy time in the Festival's calendar. As mentioned the event was once more jointly organized with the Croatian Audiovisual Centre (HAVC) to whom EWA extends their deepest thanks for their help, hospitality and support, in particular to its Director Hrvoje Hribar and his team, especially Katarina Prpić (Department of Promotion); also to Sanja Ravlic (National representative to Eurimages).

EWA Team also met with numerous professionals during the festival regarding the pan-European Research project, of which initial findings will be presented during Venice Film Festival; a collaboration with Luxembourg to host a co-production event; we also had the chance to meet several national women's networks and get inspired to partner with them for future events within Film Festivals, not to mention new partners for the second round of the MRST4FF course - more to follow...