FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 20, 2017 (Vancouver, BC) – Organizers of the internationally respected Women In the Director’s Chair (WIDC) program are pleased to announce that they have been funded by TELUS STORYHIVE to deliver a new professional development offering for emerging content creators this summer.

The Career Accelerator presented by Creative Women Workshops Association (CWWA), supported by STORYHIVE, is designed to enhance the capacity of up to 6 emerging Canadian British Columbia or Alberta-based writers, directors, and producers to advance and achieve their career and project goals, primarily in scripted production.

In keeping with WIDC’s mandate to increase the number of women-led fiction productions in Canada, no less than 50% of the selected participants will be female.

This new workshop is adapted from WIDC’s successful Career Advancement Module (CAM) that has been delivered in collaboration with Canada’s three international women’s film festivals in St John’s, Vancouver and Toronto since 2009. It offers up to six emerging filmmaker participants two days of intensive master classes and one-to-one meetings with senior mentors.

Applicants must submit a portfolio via email to directors@widc.ca. They should include: a brief cover letter, resume, a 200-word biography, link to a sample of their previous work or a reference letter, and a paragraph synopsis of a fiction project they are developing. Any genre and any screen format will be considered as long as it is an original work of fiction.

The deadline for submissions is July 30, 2017. The workshop takes place in Prince George, BC, August 26 and 27, 2017. Partial travel grants are available.

The selected participants will identify and cultivate their authentic storytelling voice, practice effective pitching techniques and develop a plan to advance their next screen fiction project. The workshop also includes a one-hour follow up coaching session for each participant before the end of September 2017.

Participants will meet with a WIDC alumna director who will offer career advancement insights to the group. Award-winning WIDC producer Carol Whiteman will facilitate the workshop.

“STORYHIVE is dedicated to developing original storytelling voices in Canada and we are delighted to again partner with WIDC in that pursuit,” said Kim Guise, Director of Content, TELUS. “With WIDC’s track record for delivering effective professional development in Canada’s screen industry for the last 20 years, content creators are in for a special experience in Prince George this summer.”

Media Contact, get GAT:
Ingrid Hamilton | ingrid@gat.ca | 1-416-731-3034

WIDC Contact:
Carol Whiteman | carol@widc.ca |1-778-809-0747| www.widc.ca | @WIDC_ca

ABOUT WIDC – Founded in 1997, Women In the Director’s Chair (WIDC) is an internationally respected Canadian professional development offering, specially designed to advance the skills, careers and fiction screen projects of women directors. With 200 director alumnae across Canada, who have earned over 100 awards and nominations for their work this year alone, over the last twenty years WIDC has fostered the development of a generation of women screen directors.

WIDC is presented with major support from Telefilm Canada, Harold Greenberg Fund, and ACTRA, and with the participation of the Canada Council for the Arts | Conseil des Arts du Canada, Actra Fraternal Benefit Society, ACTRA National, TELUS Optik Local, Creative BC, UBCP/ACTRA, Independent Production Fund, ACTRA Alberta, IATSE 669.

WIDC appreciates community collaborations with 1st Weekend Club’s Canada Screens, National Film Board, WIFT Vancouver’s International Women In Film Festival, Female Eye Film Festival, St John’s International Women’s Film Festival, WIFT Toronto, WIFT Atlantic, Film Fatales Toronto, Black Women Film-Canada, Women In View, New York WIF&T, Alliance of Women Directors, Tangerine Entertainment, Crazy 8’s, TIFF, and the Whistler Film Festival.

The WIDC Feature Film Award is supported by Bell Media’s Harold Greenberg Fund, William F. White International, Tattersall Sound and Picture, Panavision Canada, SIM Digital, Clairmont Camera Film and Digital, Encore Vancouver, Technicolor Toronto, Skylab Vancouver, North Shore Studios, The Bridge Studios, Vancouver Film Studios, The Research House Clearance Services Inc., MELS Studios, Front Row Insurance, and Descriptive Video Works.

WIDC Contact: enquiries@widc.ca | www.widc.ca | facebook.com/widc.ca | @WIDC_ca | #WIDC

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