Vimeo Wants to Help Women Get into the Film Industry
After the recent reveal of the Oscars committee’s male makeup (77%) and the buzzing Bechdel test, it has become increasingly obvious that there aren’t nearly enough women working in film. In 2015, female directors were responsible for a mere 9% of the top 250 top grossing films. Additionally, over the course of the Oscar’s 86-year existence, only four women have been nominated for Best Director – and only one has won. To help facilitate some much-needed progression, Vimeo is launching “Share the Screen,” a new initiative that will invest in a minimum of five projects from female voices in 2016.
Through “Share the Screen” Vimeo plans to lead educational workshops, meetups and interviews for female filmmakers. The projects Vimeo picks will receive a marketing push and global distribution on Vimeo’s paid streaming service Vimeo On Demand.
In a release about the initiative, Vimeo writes, “Gender inequality in filmmaking isn’t simply a woman’s problem: it’s everyone’s problem. When diverse voices are given equal consideration and weight, more informed artistic decisions are made, better stories are told — and it’s also the right thing to do as human beings.”
The program is set to kick off on February 18 with the original short film Darby Forever, which was written by and stars SNL’s Aidy Bryant. Much like the female-driven initiative Sephora recently launched, “Share the Screen” is not exactly an open call for submissions. However, if you’d like to get involved, Vimeo suggests adding the tags #ShareTheScreen and #behindthevid in your social media posts and videos so the folks in charge can find you. When you’re making that acceptance speech, don’t forget to give us a shout out, okay?
Are you a female filmmaker with a story to share? Send us a note on Twitter @britandco.
(Photo via Steve Sands/Getty)
