Ealing Film School Launches Female Scholarship
Attempting to redress gender imbalance in filmmaking
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Ealing based Metfilm school has launched a scholarship to help more women in the industry.
The 2019 Voices That Matter Scholarship – Women in the Screen Industries, is designed to support the next generation of female filmmakers.
It follows a recent skills audit of the UK Film Industry by the Work Foundation for the BFI which found in 2015, just 14.4% of writers involved in UK films and 9.4% of directors were female.
The successful students, one from the London and one from the Berlin campus will have unique access to senior executives from the industry, including quarterly mentoring sessions at Viacom’s landmark London HQ offices in Camden, as well as work experience and placement opportunities with the company.
Jonny Persey, Director of MetFilm School said: “The Voices That Matter Scholarship has long been important to MetFilm School since its launch in 2009. The idea was always to open up opportunities to students with something important to say, who would not otherwise be able to access the unique educational experience we offer - whether that’s because of funding, political or personal circumstances, societal prejudice. We wanted to open up the school to people who have through no fault of their own a greater barrier than others to overcome.
“This year we have focused the scholarship towards a female audience, in order to give a proper focus to the shocking gender imbalance that exists in the commercial film industry.
“We’re saying that we value women in this industry, we value what they can offer and what they have to say - their voices genuinely matter. We’re saying that we should challenge every single thing that challenges diversity, because holding back diversity only serves to hold back the industry."
This year’s scholarship focuses on women as part of MetFilms School’s overall outreach to groups who are underserved or underrepresented in film. The deadline to submit an application for the Voices That Matter Scholarship is Sunday 14 July.
The scholarship only applies to MetFilm School degree courses, the BA and MA programmes in London and Berlin. There are two scholarships available, one in London and one in Berlin. Successful applicants will be notified the week commencing Monday 29 July.
June 26, 2019
