The third annual program is sponsored by The Walt Disney Company
Created by WIA and FIAPF (International Federation of Film Producers’ Associations), WIA is pleased to announce that applications for the 2024 session have opened. In its third year, Stories x Women is a program aimed at increasing diversity of voices in animation globally. The program’s goal is to support access to international opportunities for women animators who want to tell their authentic stories from emerging national film and audio-visual animation communities of Africa, Asia-Pacific and Latin America.
The Walt Disney Company is sponsoring the program. Other sponsors may soon be announced.
Up to five two-person teams will be selected from a competitive pool of candidates to benefit from a series of mentoring and coaching sessions led by internationally acclaimed animation experts who will prepare them to pitch their projects at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival and Market. The teams must have a woman in a leading role (e.g. producer, director or screenwriter) and must have pitch-ready projects that are either an animated film or series. All participant expenses are paid for by the program, including travel, lodging, and accreditations. The deadline to apply is March 17, 2024.
“WIA has been advocating to recognize and center talented women and nonbinary creatives in animation for the last 30 years,” said Marge Dean, WIA president. “As we move into the third year of the Stories x Women program, we’re thrilled to be able to continue our commitment to backing deserving creators and providing them with the tools and support to tell their authentic stories.“
In its first two years, women-led teams from more than two dozen countries applied for the Stories x Women program and 11 delegations representing a dozen countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Kenya, Malaysia, Peru, South Africa, and Thailand, have been chosen.
Prior Stories x Women participants said they saw a lot of value in what they learned in the program that went well beyond pitching at Annecy.
“I was very insecure about myself because I thought, ‘I’m a nobody. I’m 28 and I don’t have that much experience in the industry,’” first-time director and 2022 Stories x Women alumni Paula Boffo told AWN when asked how she and her fellow Argentinian team member, Patricio Plaza, benefited from the program. “And I thought I lacked the experience to present myself and our project in front of so many professional people. But I feel like I’ve learned so much on how to manage things in the market. I now understand that we’re all just people talking about possibilities.”
Another team that saw great benefit from the Stories x Women program was the duo behind Cotton Bottom Town, helmed by director and producer Luisa Fernanda Velasquez with co-director Andrés Felipe Rodriguez. Velasquez and Rodriguez told AWN that Stories x Women provided them with “invaluable visibility.” Since taking part in the program, Rodriguez and Velasquez’s series pilot, Astropackers, recently won the Best Episodic Short award at the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival (LALIFF) in 2023. They have also been working on their short film, Where is My Espresso?
