News Archive
Exclusive Premiere: Invitation Video for BBQ Films’ Immersive “BEETLEJUICE” Event!
As the immersive horror experience becomes more and more in-demand with each passing event, few can stand with BBQ Films in terms of production and execution. After killing it last fall with their unforgettable BLADE Rave, BBQ Films returns next weekend for an immersive BEETLEJUICE event, hosting a party at Brooklyn’s House of Yes that will re-enact the Wedding Ceremony for Betelgeuse & Lydia Deetz. But what’s a wedding without a formal invitation? Well worry not, fright fans: FANGORIA has the exclusive invitation video (courtesy of BBQ Films) for the petrifying party! Read More…
Davis pushes for more female roles; predicts 100,000 at this year’s Bentonville Film Festival
Geena Davis expects crowds to more than double at this year’s Bentonville Film Festival. About 37,000 people attended last year’s inaugural event and she speculated that number to approach 100,000 during this year’s festival May 3-8. Geena Davis speaks Thursday in Giffels Auditorium in Old Main on the University of Arkansas campus in Fayetteville. She made that bold prediction Thursday during a lecture at the University of Arkansas that drew in a standing-room-only crowd of about 280 to Giffels Auditorium. Read More…
6 Celebrities You Didn’t Know Were Feminists
Emma Watson, Demi Lovato, Amandla Stenberg, Lena Dunham: celebrity feminists are easy to name. They talk openly about feminism and advocate for feminist issues and we love them for it. But what about the celebrities you didn’t know were feminists? The celebs on this list are of the latter variety. Staunchly feminist, but in a way that you might not have noticed because they’re not saying it in every interview or promoting their agenda on stage. That’s not to say these celebrities aren’t doing good work. A lot of them are advocating just as fiercely as the feminists you read about on a daily basis, only they’re not constantly in the media for their work. Read More…
YouTube Funds Women Video Creators, Teams With U.N. and Geena Davis
YouTube, touting itself as a platform that empowers women across the globe, has launched a new initiative to fund and promote content from female creators. The Google-owned video giant program has financed more than 50 videos spotlighting women’s perspectives, shot at YouTube Spaces studios around the world. YouTube also struck a yearlong partnership with the United Nations, which has enlisted seven top YouTube female creators as “change ambassadors” to create videos promoting tolerance and gender equality. In addition, YouTube has partnered with the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, the thesp’s nonprofit org whose mission is to improve gender depictions on-screen and create opportunities for women behind the camera. The group provided consulting to creators as part of YouTube Spaces program. Read More… or Watch Video…
Geena Davis speaks about diversity
Following the controversy surrounding the lack of diversity in the nominations at this year’s Academy Awards, the 60-year-old actress has called out the film industry in America for not creating worthwhile roles for non-white actresses. In an interview with The Guardian newspaper, she said: “There are so few opportunities for women of colour that they barely register in the research (into the numbers of women in film and TV). We are doing a bad job with women and a horrible job with women of colour. There are female actors nominated for the Oscars because we divide by gender – if it were one category for best performance, we would have a really hard time. But the Oscars are emblematic of a deep-seated problem – really, it’s about the product being put out by Hollywood.” Read More…
Beetlejuice To Marry Lydia Deetz In Immersive Ceremony
A recent engagement notice caught our eyes and Den of Geek wrangled an invite to what may well prove to be the wedding of the millennium, or at least a fun way to spend a weekend: BBQ Films have announced the engagement of the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Deetz, Lydia, to Beetlejuice, a long departe, but still upstanding pillar of society with references to prove it. A March wedding is planned for the 20th in Bushwick, Brooklyn. This event also benefits the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media. Read More…
Bentonville Film Festival to use mobile theaters
The Bentonville Film Festival is coming back in two months, and it’s bringing three cinetransformers with it. A cinetransformer is a self-contained portable theater that seats about 100 people. Officials are estimating there will be 1,500 festival attendees each day, with a peak in attendance Saturday. It’s also expected there will be 650 employees and volunteers for the event. The Bentonville Film Festival was founded by Trevor Drinkwater and the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media. It’s the only research-based organization working within the media and entertainment industry using education to improve gender balance in entertainment, according to its website. Read More…
Reel Women in Technology – Reel WiT award – Deadline Extended
You’re in luck. The deadline has been extended to March 10, 2016 for the first-ever Reel Women in Technology (Reel WiT) Award, presented by the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT), the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, and Google. Choose a leading woman from the following programs: Miles from Tomorrowland (TV show): Loretta, She Started It (Documentary): Various/Cast, Silicon Valley (TV show): Carla, Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Film): Rey, or CodeGirl (Documentary): Various/Cast. Read More…
Geena Davis: ‘The more TV a girl watches, the fewer options she thinks she has in life’
It has been 25 years since Geena Davis held hands with Susan Sarandon and hurtled over a cliff in Thelma & Louise. The film – a trailblazing feminist road movie and box-office smash to boot – was hailed a turning point for women in film. And for Davis, at least, it was; for the past quarter of a century she has been trying to convince others of the lessons the film taught her: that society is losing out because there are too few women on our screens. “This is my passion. It’s what I do all day,” she laughs. And she’s not exaggerating – almost a decade ago she created the Geena Davis Institute for Gender in Media to address the gender imbalance in TV programmes and films aimed at children, while she regularly tries to convince studio heads to include more female roles. Read More…
Lack of gender diversity in the Oscars could have far reaching consequences for women globally
Discussions surrounding this year’s Oscars have been dominated by the fact that the nominees are predominantly white males and the lack of female role models could have long term effects on society and the progress of women, according to new research. Global research from the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media and J. Walter Thompson Company looked at how female role models impact the lives of women around the world. The survey of 4,300 women reported that 90 per cent of women globally feel that female role models in film or TV are important. Six in ten (61 per cent) of the respondents said female role models in film and TV have been influential in their lives and 58 per cent said that women have been inspired to be more ambitious or assertive. Read More…
