Women’s Panel (SBIFF) | USA

This year, like in many years past, the women’s panel  was funny, informative and an overall great experience. The women who were chosen to take part of the panel at this years Santa Barbara International Film Festival were Kristine Belson (Producer on “The Croods”), Dede Gardner (Producer of “12 Years a Slave”), Lauren Macmullan (Director of “Get a Horse!”), Gabrielle Tana (Producer on Philomena), Rachel Winter (Producer on Dallas Buyer’s Club) and Sara Woodhatch (Producer on Before Midnight.) All of these talented and very successful women (who, by the way, are all nominated for an Academy Award) had very insightful and interesting things to say during the panel. The vibe was playful and it seemed like all of the women were comfortable with each other up their on stage. At times, it almost seemed like they were just friends having a playful conversation up on that stage. One thing that struck out to me in articular was how all of them repeated that all of them had that on important person that gave them their big break. They stressed the important of teamwork and how they could never have made it this far on their own. That really struck me as an aspiring filmmaker because it made me realize that everyone needs help on their projects and everyone needs connections no matter how brilliant you think you are.

Another thing occurrence that really made an impression on me was that ll of the women on the stage talked about how many problems they had to deal with during pre production, production and post-production and how they still got the film done beautifully in spite of those problems. One such example that was given was that Rachel Winter of Dallas Buyer’s Club said that it took so long to actually make the movie that the studio decided to cut all of the budget for studio lighting in the film. So they had to shoot the entire film using natural light, and did so in a very beautiful and powerful manner.

All of these women had to go through a lot to become as successful as they are today. Many of the women on the panel are trailblazers in the filmmaking profession. One example of that is that Lauren Macmullan became the first woman to solely direct a Disney animated film (short-length or feature-length) when she directed the disney short-animated film “Get a Horse.” Another thing that surprised me was that Rachel Winter said that she first started off in film in the pornography industry. That really surprised me because you wouldn’t think that people in pornography would ever be able to make it into Hollywood, but it just goes to show that everyone has different backgrounds and that there isn’t just one way to success in Hollywood. There are many avenues you can take and many different types of roles you can play in the filmmaking process in order to be successful. In order to become successful in Hollywood you have to work really hard and make tons of sacrifices. Like the classic nike slogan says “Just do it.”