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Wednesday 9 March 2016

The National Film Board chose International Women's Day to announce a gender-parity initiative that will see half of its productions and half of all money spent going to women directors.

NFB sets gender-parity initiative on International Women's Day
At least 50% of all productions and 50% spending will be allocated to films directed by women

CBC News, Mar 08, 2016; see full text at:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/nfb-gender-parity-1.3482051



The National Film Board chose International Women's Day to announce a gender-parity initiative that will see half of its productions and half of all money spent going to women directors.

Claude Joli-Coeur made the announcement at the Vancouver Women in Film Festival on Tuesday.  Joli-Coeur, the head of the National Film Board, says it will take three years to implement the board's move to ensure gender parity in its productions. Progress can be monitored at at the NFB website ( . . . )  "In our current fiscal year, films directed by women represent half of our total spending on production. In 2016‒2017, the numbers are projected to be well above that."

However, he added, "numbers can fluctuate. There have been good years and lean years for women's filmmaking at the NFB. No more. Today, I'm making a firm, ongoing commitment to full gender parity, which I hope will help to lead the way for the industry as a whole." According to the news release, it will take three years to fully implement the move, which was sparked in part by a recent report authored by Women in View, a Canadian non-profit that works for gender parity in media both on screen and behind-the-scenes.

In a sample of 91 feature-length films produced in 2013–2014, the report found women represented only 17 per cent of directors, 22 per cent of writers, and 12 per cent of cinematographers. The film board is not far from its goal, the release says ( . . . )