News Archive
Bentonville Film Festival will return for second year
With a turnout of over 37,000 and 50 filmmakers last year, we are proud to say The Bentonville Film Festival will be returning for its second run May 3-8, 2016! Read More…
Bentonville Film Festival to Offer More Diversity in 2016, Says Geena Davis
Academy Award winner and women’s rights activist Geena Davis is bringing her message of diversity in media back to Arkansas for the second annual Bentonville Film Festival (BFF), taking place May 3-8, 2016, in the art-soaked city-cum-global headquarters of fest founding sponsor Walmart. Presenting sponsor Coca-Cola will also return to help shepherd the festival, with Arc Entertainment and AMC Theaters acting as co-hosts. Read More…
Female Filmmakers Initiative Resource Map
Sundance Institute and Women in Film launched an amazing and comprehensive resource for female filmmakers which includes the Institute’s research. Read More…
Geena Davis Institute selected as one nonprofit to receive Cannes Lions proceeds
The Cannes Lions festival had a new award this year called “Glass Lion: The Lion for Change” that celebrates campaigns that highlight gender inequality and the Cannes Lions plans to donate all proceeds from the entry fees and put them back into a program that promotes and enables the creation of a more gender-neutral media landscape. The Geena Davis Institute has been selected as one of the nonprofits who can be awarded up to 87,000 Euros! If you are attending the event, please vote for us as it’s only open to those of you attending the conference. Read More…
Students Create Cartoon Characters to Raise Awareness of Gender Stereotypes
Fair Haven – Students in grades 1 – 5 from across Monmouth County were invited to submit their original drawings and stories into the “If You Can See It, You Can Be It!” contest. Small Factory Productions, an Emmy winning visual arts and media studio for kids and young adults, developed the contest in partnership with the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media sponsored by the Friendship Train Foundation, to bring awareness to gender stereotypes in children’s media and entertainment. Read More…
Geena Davis Gives Voice to Girl Power on ‘Annedroids’
When it comes to empowering young women, Geena Davis doesn’t kid around. The Oscar-winning actress was so disturbed by the lack of female characters in movies and on TV that in 2007, she founded The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media (read more about it here). Now she’s using her star power to bring attention to Season 2 of Amazon’s tech-themed kids’ series Annedroids. Read More…
Bentonville Film Festival pushes diversity message from year one
The first Bentonville Film Festival is a little festival with big aspirations and deep pockets. The aspirations come from Geena Davis — or, more precisely, the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, a research-based advocacy group that tackles issues of gender inequality and stereotyping, particularly in family-oriented movies and TV. Read More…
Geena Davis’ Inaugural Bentonvillle Film Fest Promotes Femme Filmmakers and Diversity in Media
Bentonville, Arkanasas, a sleepy, tree-lined city that exudes a Norman Rockwell-esque vibe but whose citizenry is primarily made up of Walmart employees, morphed into a professional powerhouse of female filmmakers, artists and media gurus May 5-9 for the first annual Bentonville Film Festival, co-founded by Trevor Drinkwater and Academy Award-winning actor Geena Davis of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender and Media and sponsored by Walmart and Coca-Cola. Read More…
Geena Davis: Thelma and Louise star on setting up her own film festival and getting more women on screen
Last year surprised residents of Bentonville, Arkansas, reported that they opened their mailboxes to find recruitment letters from the Ku Klux Klan. One can only imagine what the KKK, headquartered less than a hundred miles away, might make of the first Bentonville Film Festival, specifically designed to champion women and diversity within film. Read More..
The Most Powerful and Inspiring Statements Made at Geena Davis’ First Women and Diversity in Film Festival
Tonight, as Geena Davis and her Institute on Gender and Media wrap up their first-ever film festival dedicated to Women and Diversity in Film, let’s take a look at some of the most powerful and inspiring statements made by industry leaders and entertainment executives at panel discussions earlier this week. Geena Davis on why a women’s empowerment film festival is important: “The ratio of male to female roles in film has not changed since 1946.” Read More…
