Women in Comedy Festival presents the Rachel Bloom Comedy Short Challenge! Using an opening line of dialogue provided by co-creator, writer and star of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Rachel Bloom, WICF want people to create a short comedy film for the festival to win a one on one mentoring call with Rachel Bloom!
Held from 19th April to 23rd April 2017, this will be the eighth Annual Women in Comedy Festival in Boston. Past live-performance headliners at WICF have included Maria Bamford, Jane Lynch, Wendy Liebman, Rachel Dratch, Kristen Schaal, Jen Kirkman, Morgan Murphy, Horatio Sanz, Kevin Allison, Ilana Glazer, Sasheer Zamata, Jackie Kashian and Kelly MacFarland.
WICF’s mission is to pave the way for more unconventional female characters and storylines to be written, directed, and produced by women. They are looking for female-driven short comedy films that go beyond the typical tropes. All genders are welcome to submit.
According to The Celluloid Ceiling Report “In 2015, women accounted for 9% of directors, up 2 percentage points from 2014. In other roles, women comprised 11% of writers, 26% of producers, 20% of executive producers, 22% of editors, and 6% of cinematographers.” And in front of the camera: “In 2015, females comprised 22% of protagonists, 18% of antagonists, 34% of major characters, and 33% of all speaking characters in the top 100 domestic grossing films.”
Rachel Bloom said: “Even though it feels like women have made strides in film, women still only make up about 6% of film directors. Awareness is the first step, women becoming filmmakers is the next one!”
Rachel’s challenge for entrants is to film a one to five minute short comedy film using the opening line: “You can’t do that.”
While all genders are welcome to submit, for films to qualify, a woman must hold at least one of the following roles: producer, director, or writer and the Protagonist must be a woman. The film must be original and completed in the time frame of the contest 21st November, 2016 to 13th February 2017.
WICF is also holding another comedy short competition for a film that can be one to 10 minutes long and can be about anything. To find out more about both competitions click here!
If comedy film-making is your thing, keep an eye out for our own Funny Women Comedy Shorts Award next year!
