AFI Directing Workshop for Women Announces 2018–2019 Participants
AFI has announced the 2018–2019 participants of its Directing Workshop for Women (DWW). Parisa Barani, Zoe Bell, Jessica Kaye, Shilpi Roy, Amber Sealey, Siyou Tan, Carly Usdin, and Talia Zucker make up this year’s class of filmmakers.
Dedicated to increasing the number of female directors in film and TV, DWW is an annual program that offers participants several months’ worth of tuition-free film training. As part of the workshop, each participant completes production on her own short film. The 2018–2019 DWW shorts will screen at the Directors Guild of America Theater in LA next year.
Workshop alumnae have gone on to premiere films at SXSW and Sundance, adapt their DWW shorts into features, and sign on to direct studio pics.
Kaye is the co-director, co-writer, and star of “Inheritance,” a feature drama about a woman who returns home to Belize after her father dies. Sealey is also a features director whose credits include “No Light and No Land Anywhere” and “How to Cheat.” Usdin made her feature directorial debut with the dark comedy “Suicide Kale” in 2017.
Roy has written, produced, and directed web series “Hipsterhood,” “Disillusioned,” and “Emma Approved.” Her first TV show, “Brown Girls,” was sold to Freeform in 2016. Barani, Tan, and Zucker directed shorts “Ablution,” “2200 volts,” and “Afterwards,” respectively. Former stuntwoman Bell’s first directing effort was in early 2017 with a large commercial campaign for New Zealand’s Arnott’s.
AFI also announced the DWW Class of 2017 award winners. Tannaz Hazemi won the Nancy Malone Award and the Will & Jada Smith Family Foundation Award for “Hail Mary Country,” an action comedy about a burglary gone wrong. Manjari Makijany won the Will & Jada Smith Family Foundation Award and the Adrienne Shelley Foundation Award for “I See You,” a drama about a terrorist having a crisis of conscience.
Go to AFI’s website to find out more about the 2018–2019 DWW participants.
