Women at Sundance

In January 2012, Sundance Institute and Women in Film Los Angeles began an active collaboration to assess and address the role of women directors and producers within the film industry. At this year’s 2013 Sundance Film Festival, Sundance Institute and Women in Film presented a new research study by Professor Stacy L. Smith, Ph.D. and her team at USC Annenberg School focusing on the barriers and opportunities for women in independent film. We are very pleased to report that the initial release of the study at the Sundance Film Festival generated 460 stories, which translated to an estimated 305 million impressions. The full press release is below. We commissioned the research from USC Annenberg to help us create programs that respond to specific needs research would reveal. The study focused on three key opportunities for advancing women behind the camera: Mentorship, Finance Education, Training, and Access and Raising Awareness of the nature and scope of the problem itself. To this list, we have added one more priority: Facilitating Collaboration among organizations dedicated to this purpose. Our proposed activities for the next year fit into these four categories. We all agree that women telling stories in film and television bring valuable perspectives to the culture and that the current representation of women in key storytelling roles leaves significant room for improvement. We welcome any thoughts and ideas you can lend to the conversation as we move forward.