WIDC Feature Film Award: Now valued at $190K

WIDC Signs $120K Three-year Agreement with William F. White International –
Technicolor, Skylab, MELS, and The Research House offer support to
Feature Film Award for Women Directors

Next submission deadline: June 30, 2016
For more information: Applications

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June, 2016: Toronto, ON – Women In the Director’s Chair (WIDC) organizers are delighted to announce a new sponsorship agreement with William F. White International valued at $120K in kind grip and lighting equipment rentals over three years. Technicolor Toronto, Skylab Vancouver, and MELS in Montreal are providing post production services in kind. The Research House will be providing clearance services for the prize-winner’s productions. These sponsorships, combined with the support from previously confirmed sponsors, brings the total value of the WIDC Feature Film Award to nearly $190K per project.

“Whites is dedicated to fostering and developing new talent in Canada’s film and television industry,” says Paul Bronfman, Chairman/CEO of Comweb Group Inc. and William F. White International Inc.. “We’re thrilled to make this significant commitment to supporting more women directors in feature film. We hope it inspires others to do the same.”

Other in kind sponsors include Tattersall Sound and Picture, SIM Digital, Encore Vancouver, Clairmont Camera and Digital, Panavision Canada, North Shore Studios, The Bridge Studios, Vancouver Film Studios, Front Row Insurance; Creative Women Workshops Association which provides executive producing services. Bell Media’s Harold Greenberg Fund committed a cash equity investment to the award last December at the Whistler Film Festival.

“Each sponsor puts appreciable tangible resources on the line for the projects they support, and every ounce of those resources is going on screen,” says Carol Whiteman, President & CEO, Creative Women Workshops Association, and Executive Producer, WIDC Feature Film Award. “As a result, the recipients’ films are even more able to compete in the marketplace.”

Set up in 2009 to help address the issue of gender inequity, the annual WIDC Feature Film Award has already supported four award-winning features directed by Canadian women directors Katrin Bowen (Amazon Falls), Lulu Keating (Lucille’s Ball), Ana Valine (Sitting On the Edge of Marlene), and Siobhan Devine whose debut feature The Birdwatcher, received nine Leo Award nominations and a Best Direction win for Devine. 2014 winner, Kathleen Hepburn is in post production on Never Steady, Never Still. The concept short of the same name was among TIFF’s Top Ten of 2015 and it picked up five Leo Awards including Best Screenplay, Best Short, and Best Direction for Hepburn. Jordan Canning received the 2015 Feature Film Award and wraps production in Calgary this month on her sophomore feature, the female buddy comedy Suck It Up! Celebrated Metis filmmaker Marie Clements’ Red Snow is in financing and packaging.

The sponsorship announcement was celebrated at the WIDC 20^th Anniversary Launch Event, June 17, 2016 at the Gladstone Hotel, 2^nd Floor Gallery, Toronto, and followed by a screening of The Birdwatcher at the Female Eye Film Festival.

Next Award Submission Deadline: June 30, 2016

Contact: Carol Whiteman, WIDC Producer, 778-809-0747 | Awards@widc.ca | www.widc.ca/

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BACKGROUNDER

About WIDC
Founded in 1997 by an initial collaboration among ACTRA, The Banff Centre and Women In Film & Television Vancouver, the Women In the Director’s Chair (WIDC) program is an internationally respected Canadian professional development offering, specially designed to advance the skills, careers and screen projects of women directors. In 1998, the national non-profit Creative Women Workshops Association was formed to oversee WIDC operations the design and delivery of hands-on workshops, mentorships, fiction project development, feature film production awards, and ongoing outreach initiatives with and for the screen community and alumnae. With over 200 director alumnae all across Canada, WIDC is presented with major support from Telefilm Canada, William F. White Intl., Harold Greenberg Fund, and appreciates the participation of the Canada Council for the Arts | Conseil des Arts du Canada, Tattersall Sound & Picture, SIM Digital, Clairmont Camera Film and Digital, Panavision Canada, Deluxe Entertainment Group / Encore Vancouver, Technicolor Toronto, Skylab, North Shore Studios, The Bridge Studios, Vancouver Film Studios, MELS, The Research House, Front Row Insurance, TELUS Optik Local, Actra Fraternal Benefit Society, UBCP/ACTRA, ACTRA Alberta, IATSE 669, Creative BC, BC Arts Council, WIFT Vancouver, Female Eye Film Festival, St John’s International Women’s Film Festival and Whistler Film Festival, and our many community collaborators.

For more information about:

William F. White International: 416.239.5050 | lschrieder@whites.com | www.whites.com

Technicolor Toronto: 416.585.8401 | kate.wisman@technicolor.com | www.technicolor.com

Skylab: 604.879.5800 | info@skylabhq.com | www,skylabhq.com

The Research House Clearance Services Inc.: 604.837.8461 | office@researchhouse. ca | www.resarchhouse.ca

MELS: 514.879.0020 | mp.tetreault@mels-studios.com | www.mels-studios.com