Kathryn Bigelow becomes Award-season frontrunner

Kudos to Kathryn Bigelow for winning the top prize from the Directors Guild of America last Saturday! Even more, she is the FIRST woman to win the guild’s top honor!

And there is a change she might even take home an Academy Award for Best Director for The Hurt Locker.

Not that the Academy tends to generously honor women in top categories…

Kathryn Bigelow is only the 4^th female director to be nominated in the directorial category. Six years ago it was Sofia Coppola for Lost in Translation. No woman has ever won a Best Director Oscar.

More over, Bigelow’s under-the-radar, very manly, war thriller The Hurt Locker is competing with James Cameron’s 3D blockbuster Avatar for Best Picture. And Cameron is none other than her ex-husband. Both are also running for Best Director.

Get ready for the battle of the exes!

Read more in these articles.

http://www.forbes.com/2010/02/02/james-cameron-avatar-kathryn-bigelow-hurt-locker-forbes-woman-time-oscar-nominations.html?boxes=Homepagetoprated

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100131/ap_en_ot/us_film_directors_awards

The Los Angeles Comedy Festival, another festival for funny people!

A reminder that submissions are now officially open for the 5th Broad Humor Film Festival taking place June 11-13, 2010.

We are looking for humor created for the screen generated by women. Women writers. Women directors. It is our goal to showcase the female comic vision. Save money by submitting your work before the early deadline, March 14, 2010.

We also invite you to check out another festival in town that embraces humor and comedy: The Los Angeles Comedy Festival. It is open for creations by both women and men!

The LA Comedy Festival is the place for all things funny! Bringing you the best sketch, improv, standup and film from LA, nationally and around the globe. You’re in for great comedy every night! The Festival will be held from May 6-23 at the beautiful ACME Comedy Theatre. Final deadline to apply is March 5, 2010.

http://www.lacomedyfest.com/

Julie Gray Screenwriting Workshops Go Global

You may remember Julie Gray from the great screenwriting workshop at the 2009 Broad Humor Film Festival, where the script consultant and blogger of The Script Department (justeffing.com) talked in-depth with Laura Shapiro, entertainment consultant and producer, about writing, Hollywood, women and comedy. Both women shared very useful advice and gave much insight on these topics.  She's embarking on a world-wide tour with her workshop Ideas to the Page to the Screen, with workshops in NYC, London, Chicago, San Fran....look for one near you and go! Los Angeles locals can also take Julie's workshop! But hurry. It starts this weekend!

One thing that Julie told us in the workshop last June really made an impression on me at the time: her stats on men vs. women paying for professional help with scripts matched the Hollywood stats for working screenwriters.  Apparently, the guys are more willing to put their cash on the line to get better.  So we broads perhaps shouldn't moan that our scripts aren't getting bought when we don't use professional services to make sure we've got them where they need to be.  I'm not saying you have to pay Julie, but you should be willing to put your script to a professional test someplace and polish with a pro.

Full workshop details below the fold...

Julie Gray is packing her bags and setting off on a whirlwind, world-wide tour to teach you how to get your Ideas to the Page to the Screen. She's off to NYC February 27-28 for an intensive two-day weekend workshop, then jetting across the Atlantic for UK workshops in London (March 6-7) and Oxford (March 13-14). After, that she's taking some much needed time off in Tel Aviv before heading back to the states to teach workshops in Chicago in April and San Francisco in May. All workshops are $329 with deep discounts given to early-birds including a 10% discount at the Writer's Store and $50 off attendance at the Great American Pitch Fest in June. Sign up before February 12 to receive a free bundle of three podcasts from Julie's teleclass series Just Effing Do It!

Oh, and for you local folk, Julie is also teaching The Saturday Series in Los Angeles on Saturdays January 30, February 6, and February 13 at The Lot on Formosa - $50 a class or $125 for all three. Each class runs 9am to 1pm - get in early, get out early, get on with your day! Go to www.justeffing.com to learn more!

Gia Milani Script a Winner at Slamdance

Congrats to Gia Milani for her script, All the Wrong Reasons, winning the Script Accessible Award as part of the 2009 Slamdance Feature Screenplay competition. The awards are in January at Slamdance, so if you're in Park City, get in touch and say hello.

Gia's short film, Bathroom Stalled, was in the very first Broad Humor festival and her short, She Lost Her Marbles, was in the very first alumnae invitational the next year. For more info on her films go to her company website, Shore Road Pictures.

Julia Camara Invitational Reviewed

Julia Camara's Invitational Short has been reviewed here. I started the no-fee invitationals as a way to encourage all our Broads to keep producing new work and develop their craft with a guarantee that the finished film would get at least one festival screening. That many of the films have gone on to have a life after Broad Humor is a testament to the idea that women can do comedy. All we need is a little encouragement.

For info on this year's invitational, check out our home page: broadhumor.com. Remember, any festival participant from any past year can submit a film for no fee and be guaranteed a screening in next year's fest.

It's Not Called HisTube...

I went to a YouTube round table yesterday and got a bit of a jolt in my broad-minded attitude. The guys around the table were all there because they have channels that are popular enough to qualify them as YouTube Partners. Many of them make their living on YouTube.

If you caught my use of the word "guys," good for you. The shock for me was there at the table. Without any studio executive choosing who gets the green light because on YouTube you greenlight yourself; without any prejudice in hiring since nobody there worked for somebody else; without any philosophizing about gender bias in the media, the fact remains that the proportion of guys to broads at the table was as bad as it is in the mainstream movie and TV biz.

And that pissed me off.

The last time I got pissed off like this at the Writers Guild, I started this festival. I gotta do something. And I can't do it alone, gals. If we want a place at the table, we need to start putting it out there, as regularly and as boobs-to-the-tubes as the guys do.

So let's hear all the objections and excuses. Maybe some are valid. And yes, I know some women have very big audiences on YouTube. Nevertheless, we have some explaining to do to ourselves and each other.

Going on Thirteen on KQED

Going on Thirteen, this year's Broad Humor best feature documentary, will be screening at 11 pm November 2 on KQED in the SF Bay area. Check out this great film about four girls coming of age in urban America.