If Viola Davis's awe-inspiring Oscars acceptance speech left you craving more wisdom from the women of Hollywood, NYU's Fusion Film Festival is here for you. Designed to empower young female storytellers competing in male-dominated Tinseltown, the Festival spotlights and mentors talent across creative fields, ranging from virtual reality to TV, news media, and animation.
Scheduled for March 2 - 4, the Fusion Film Festival will feature workshops and presentations given by industry luminaries, including Grammy Award-winning director Melina Matsoukas and executive producer of HBO's Insecure and HBO's Vice President of Talent Development, Kelly Edwards. This year marks its 15th anniversary and the Festival's continued status as an Allied Partner of The Sundance Women's Initiative (don't miss our coverage of Sundance from earlier this winter). Did we mention that seating is free and available on a first-come basis?
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Refinery29's Shatterbox Anthology is proud to kick off the Festival on Thursday, March 2 with screenings of films by groundbreaking directors Chloë Sevigny and Anu Valia, among others. We'll also host a Q&A with the producers and insiders fighting Hollywood's astonishing gender gap by empowering women to move behind the camera.
Watch the video below to hear more from the female visionaries changing the film industry from the inside.
Just 7% of 2016's top films were directed by women. Refinery29 wants to change this by giving 12 female directors a chance to claim their power. Our message to Hollywood? You can't win without women. Watch new films every month on Refinery29.com/Shatterbox and Comcast Watchable.