We talked to Celine Haddad of Creative England about the new iShorts+: Funny Girls initiative!
Funny Women: Who are your favourite comediennes? Who inspires you and makes you laugh?
Celine Haddad: I like all types of humour. Melissa McCarthy looking for her boss’s balls in THE HEAT makes me laugh, but then so do both Bette Davies and Katherine Hepburn and their brand of humour. I am also a huge fan of Amy Poehler and a French actress called Josiane Balasko.
FW: Why did you choose to run the iShorts+: Funny Girls initiative and why now?
CH: If you look at the Top 200 grossing comedies over the last ten years at the worldwide box office, only 4.5% were directed by women – that’s depressing. We’re also seeing a lot of applications from women through our Talent Centres and over half of our current projects have women in key creative roles, but we’re not seeing that reflected in the comedy genre. That’s something we’d like to change.
FW: How has it been received since your launch last month?
CH: With open arms! In terms of positive reactions online, we’ve had over 4,000 unique visits to our dedicated page on the Creative England website, and so far we’ve reached over 2,500 people on Facebook and 190,000 people on Twitter, and we’re still counting.
FW: What makes iShorts+: Funny Girls different to other one-off initiatives?
CH: The level of expertise and infrastructure we bring to the table as Creative England – not only our development expertise but our holistic approach to talent. We’re not about handing over money, waving goodbye and letting filmmakers make their films in a creative and commercial vacuum. Our ethos is based on collaboration, progression and developing a long-term creative partnership. It’s an integral part of the BFI NET.WORK philosophy.
FW: Who can apply to the iShorts+: Funny Girls scheme?
CH: It’s an England-wide initiative for new and emerging female directors and writer/ directors who are yet to have a feature film theatrically released in the UK. They should be able to demonstrate a distinctive creative voice and the potential to deliver a comedy short that acts as a significant calling card for their feature film aspirations.
FW: How did Big Talk and Baby Cow get involved?
CH: We asked them if they wanted to be involved and they said yes immediately. It was a big win for us as they are two of the biggest comedy brands in the UK and share the ethos that we need greater female visibility in the industry.
FW: What kinds of short film screenplays do you want to see?
CH: We’re looking for stories by women from all comedic backgrounds (short films, TV, theatre, stand up, radio etc.) who not only have something fresh and funny to share, but also have the ambition to build a successful career in film comedy. Their screenplay could focus on any kind of comedy, from surreal and black comedy to mockumentary and slapstick – as long as it’s FUNNY we’re not really that fussy!
FW: How many are you going to make?
CH: We’ll select ten projects to go through a fun (but rigorous!) two-day workshop in November at our Brighton Talent Centre. We’ll then make a final selection of five in December which will shoot next spring and be delivered in summer 2015.
FW: What future is there in comedy for your “Funny Girls” beyond the lifespan of the initiative?
CH: We hope this will be the first rung on the film comedy ladder. We want to nurture aspiring female feature filmmakers and encourage them to challenge the current comedic status-quo – to make us laugh but also make us think. If they do that with iShorts+ there’s every chance we will help them with the next step of their career – getting their feature film developed.
FW: When is your deadline for applications?
CH: Friday 29th August at 5pm sharp… so all you funny women out there get writing!
iShorts+: Funny Girls is delivered through Creative England’s Brighton and Sheffield Talent Centres as part of the BFI NET.WORK. For more information on how to apply visit the Creative England website.
Pictured: Celine Haddad
