Leah Purcell joins as patron of WIFT Australia’s Inaugural Virtual Film Festival
WIFT AUSTRALIA Women’s Virtual Film Festival
Women in Film and Television (WIFT) Australia are proud to announce the inaugural WIFT V-FEST and are delighted to announce Leah Purcell as the festival’s patron. Leah is a multi-award winning and self-made author, playwright, actor, director, filmmaker, producer, screenwriter, showrunner. She is an icon in the Indigenous and non-Indigenous community and is a trailblazer for women in the
industry.
WIFT V-FEST is WIFT Australia’s women’s virtual film festival and short film competition, sponsored in partnership with Screen Queensland. WIFT V-FEST has been driven by the Queensland chapter of WIFT Australia; Bobbi-Lea Dionysius as Festival Director, along with Ljudan Michaelis-Thorpe and Joanne Tindale as Festival Producers.
WIFT Board Member and Indigenous Lead, Ljudan Michaelis-Thorpe, says, “Our intention is to provide an online platform that will bring together a diverse community of women and gender diverse film practitioners to honour and nurture our roles in the industry. We want to bring a united strength to evoke positive change across our varying sectors.”
WIFT Australia Chair, Katrina Irawati Graham, adds, “WIFT Australia is proud to present a film festival that arises from our deep values of social justice, agency, equality, diversity, safety and healing for the benefit of women and gender diverse filmmakers.”
The three-day festival will run from Friday 26th to Sunday 28th March 2021. WIFT V-FEST offers masterclasses, workshops, panels, keynotes and short film curation from our competition entries. Each evening will screen a female focused tent pole feature film. Entries for the short film competition are now officially open with an early bird deadline of 5 January 2021 (and extended deadline 25 January 2021), and we especially encourage women and gender diverse practitioners from under-represented groups to submit their work.
It is made possible through the support of Screen Queensland through the V-Fest Initiative, as well as our industry sponsors: Screen Producers Association, 113 Partners, APSA (Asian Pacific Screen Academy), Gold Coast Film Festival, Vision Splendid Outback Film Festival, Australian Directors Guild, Australian Cinematographers Society, Australian Screen Editors Guild, Queensland Writers Centre, Screenworks, MEAA Queensland, Griffith Film School, Griffith University, LiveLab, and Femflix.
For further information on competition entry please click on the link: wiftaustralia.org.au/wift-vfest. To join the WIFT community visit our membership page.
