By The AWFC – Alexandra Hamilton-Ayres, Jenna Fentimen & Kezia Tomsett
On February 11th, the newly-launched UK branch of the Alliance For Women Film Composers held it’s first-ever Networking Event, at the Arts Theatre Club in Soho.
The AWFC are a community of composers and colleagues who strive to support and celebrate the work of women composers through advocacy and education. This visibility is important to herald in equality amongst our industry and bring diverse voices to film, television, advertising, video games and multimedia projects. We are proud to host the first-ever directory of women film composers allowing filmmakers and decision-makers the opportunity to discover new talent.
A recent report in the New York Times, from the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film, showed that of the top 250 films at the domestic box office in 2018, only six percent were scored by women. This event was an open call for all film professionals, music supervisors and composer agents looking to meet fresh and diverse talent in the industry, to get to know the talented women who are active in the music for media community in the UK via an informal ‘Speed Networking’ format
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“There was a real energy in the venue and I have never met so many music supervisors in one room. There was also a positive sense of community about the night where everyone was friendly and wanting to get to know each other. I am excited for the future of film composition. This launch night felt like a positive step towards greater diversity in the industry.” – Alexandra Hamilton-Ayres (ah-a.co.uk – film composer)
“The first step is awareness of the issue. But I like to think that people are waking up/awoken to the gender inequality in composer commissions, so I wanted this first event to be positive and future-facing; a fun and celebratory way to introduce commissioners to the diverse pool of talent available to them. We had a fantastic turn-out and it certainly felt celebratory! We look forward to increasing numbers as the AWFC establishes itself further in London” – Jenna Fentimen (AWFC Director of UK relations, Head of Creative at Manners McDade)
“It’s long been the elephant in the room – where are all the women? But the AWFC have created a safe space for composers to come alongside each other (not against) in an “outward centred” community. It’s amazing to have so many inspiring role models in one room. There’s recently been more transparency and talk highlighting the lack of women in the industry over the last few years but, despite this, there was no percentage rise in employment of women film composers between 2018-2019. Events such as these are strides towards making a difference. We’ve talked about it, now we’re changing it.” Kezia Tomsett (@keztomsett – film composer)
To read more about The Alliance for Women Film Composers, click here!