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Celebrating International Women’s Day 2022!

By Elise Czyzowska

08 March 2022

Today is International Women’s Day, and we’re already feeling inspired by everything we’ve seen women in the industry achieve this year – from Jane Campion becoming the first woman to receive two Best Director nominations at the Oscars, to the headline awards at Berlinale being ‘dominated by women‘.

Beyond trophies and awards, we’re also extremely excited to see women thriving throughout the industry. A couple of projects we’re particularly excited to see include Mimi Cave’s recently released Fresh (starring MetFilm School Masterclass speaker Daisy Edgar-Jones), Quinn Shephard’s Not Okay, and while she’s only directing one episode of the series, we can’t wait to see what magic Isabel Sandoval works on Under the Banner of Heaven.

This year, we’ve collected some of the achievements of women in the industry, many of which involve MetFilm School students, alumni and tutors. Read on to feel inspired this International Women’s Day!

Female-focused collectives and magazines

1.     GRRL HAUS

GRRL HAUS CINEMA is an ongoing programme in Berlin of short films and video art made by women, non-binary, trans, and genderqueer artists. The aim of this collective is to share and celebrate work that doesn’t typically get included in film festivals.

Since 2014, they have continued to grow, with projects now ranging from monthly screenings (designed for local filmmakers in Berlin), to holding 3-4 ‘Mobile Kino Berlin’ screenings each year. With submissions currently open for their Spring and Summer 2022 Season, now’s your chance to get involved with GRRL HAUS!

MetFilm School Berlin graduate Emily Jade Hagan, who’s most recent interview we have linked below, brought her film BEE to the GRRL HAUS Festival back in Berlin, July 2021!

2.     Cinegirl Magazine

A couple of years ago, we interviewed MA Cinematography graduate Francesca Zerenghi to talk about the magazine she had founded, Cinegirl. The magazine, which is female-focused, has been growing ever since, with features on topics such as ‘How the internet has shaped the way films get made‘, to interviews such as their Winter 2021 piece with Winnie Imara, founder of 7blackwomen.

When we spoke to Francesca in 2018, she said that her mission was ‘to provide a safe platform where women can be heard’. With over four thousand Instagram followers, and a Cinegirl Club which hosts regular events, we think she’s achieved her mission (and then some)!

Watch our 2018 interview with Francesca at the Smart Screen Creative Awards

3.   Women Film Sound Network

The Women Film Sound Network is a German-based network of women working in the film industry, specifically as sound professionals. With the organisation including a number of MetFilm School Berlin tutors, they aim to change the fact that only 4% of film sound professionals are women.

4.   Generation Tochter

A freelance, independent film collective based in Berlin, Generation Tochter was created to improve accessibility and to rethink the hierarchical structure holding back women and filmmakers in the industry. Last year, we spoke to MetFilm Berlin Eight-Week Documentary Filmmaking student, Marielle Samstad, who directed the collective’s feature film.

Their latest project follows a young girl, Clara, who has been living underground for years, and suddenly finds herself afforded new freedom. When she meets Aleyna at a club, the pair join forces against a seemingly hopeless situation.

Watch the crowdfunding teaser Generation Tochter released for the film last year

MetFilm School Voices that Matter Scholarship – Women in the Screen Industries

The MetFilm School Voices that Matter Scholarship exists to help students who, without financial assistance, would be unable to study at MetFilm School. One of these scholarships is the Women in the Screen Industries, which is supported by the MTV Staying Alive Foundation. You can meet the 2020 recipient of this scholarship, Hyunju Lee, in this blog post!

Applications are still open for 2022 entry to both our Voices that Matter Scholarships: Women in the Screen Industries, and our Dan Demissie Scholarship, which was set up in memory of MetFilm School graduate Dan Demissie, and is awarded to a Black student of talent each year. Learn more about what is needed to apply for these scholarships.

Recent MetFilm School Guest Speakers

In the lead-up to International Women’s Day, we also made sure to highlight women in the industry through our Masterclasses. At the start of February, we were joined by the CineSisters for an amazing panel for students looking to get into directing.

The panel at our Masterclass with CineSisters consisted of founding members Samantha Harrie and Nicola Mills, as well as core team members Naomi Wight and Christine Lalla

Since then, we’ve hosted sessions with Poppy Dixon (Director of Documentary and Factual Commissioning at Sky), Rubikha Shah (Director of White Riot, an award-winning feature documentary on the Rock Against Racism movement), and Sahar Zand (an award-winning journalist, presenter and documentary maker). Tomorrow’s blog will revisit our masterclass with Sahar to share what we learnt, so be sure to check it out then!

MetFilm School stories

We regularly publish student and alumni stories on our blog to share how our students are creating, inspiring and thriving all year round. For International Women’s Day, here are eight success stories, interviews, and profiles we think you should read:

  1. Isabelle Siegal Certificate in Acting for Film student who spoke to us about her time working at The Imaginarium Studios, and what the world of performance and motion capture has taught her about acting.
  2. Deniz Bensusan MA Directing student who joined us for an interview about her final project, Bluebird Society, which ihas mpressed at film festivals and was even shown at the 2021 Cannes Short Film Corner!
  3. Emily Jade Hagan MA Directing student who spoke about what she has learnt from working with first-time actors, to directing music videos, and how film school helped her to hone her craft.
  4. Elín Ramette BA Practical Filmmaking student who, in her first professional credit, worked as a Production Assistant on Beautiful Beings, which had its world premiere at Berlinale 2022, and won ‘Best European Film’ in the Europa Cinemas Label prize!
  5. Angel Marilia BA Content, Media and Film Production student who switched Ealing Studios for Elstree Studios when she got the opportunity to work as a costume trainee on the set of the Netflix global hit, The Crown.
  6. Tunde Aladese BA Practical Filmmaking student at MetFilm School Berlin who spent her lockdown writing and directing a brilliant 65-part mini-series, MTV Shuga Alone Together.
  7. Chiara Fulgoni MA Cinematography graduate who now works as a tutor on MetFilm School’s ScreenSpace course, joined us to share her highlights of film school, and how she knew it was the right choice for her.
  8. Reel Women meet three inspiring women who teach across MetFilm School, including director Ella Bennett, Emma Lindley (who has worked on Coronation Street and My Parents are Aliens), and Deidre Mulcahy, who teaches camera skills lectures for ScreenSpace.

 

Celebrate International Women’s Day with this 2021 Netflix video!