강인한 여성이 등장하는 장단편 극영화, 다큐멘터리를 대상으로 하는 제 14회 아테나 영화제(Athena Film Festival)가 2월 29일부터 3월 3일까지 맨해튼 바나드대(Barnard College)에서 열린다. 주최측은 2월 29일 수상자(작)을 발표했다. 2011년 바나드대 아테나센터에서 주관한 아테나영화제는 그리스 신화에 나오는 지혜, 전쟁, 직물, 요리, 도기, 문명의 여신 아테나(그리스어: Αθηνά, 로마신화의 미네르바)에서 따왔다. https://athenafilmfestival.com

 

 

2024 ATHENA FILM FESTIVAL AT BARNARD COLLEGE UNVEILS HONOREES FOR NEW AND RETURNING AWARDS, PLUS ATHENA LIST WINNERS

 

Festival to Honor SCARCE Writer Mrittika Sarin with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Athena List Development Grant, UNTIL BRANCHES BEND Director Sophie Jarvis with the Breakthrough Award in Partnership with Netflix, and More

 

World Premiere of SOMEONE YOU KNOW to Screen Prior to Abortion Storytelling Panel

 

NEW YORK (February 29, 2024) — Today, the Athena Film Festival (AFF) at Barnard College unveiled the honorees for its festival awards, as well as the winners of the 2024 Athena List. AFF also announced that Asha Dahya’s Someone You Know will have its world premiere as part of the film programming lineup. The 14th annual festival, a partnership between Barnard’s Athena Center for Leadership and the initiative Women and Hollywood, will take place February 29 through March 3 on the Barnard campus in New York City. The annual festival showcases narrative features, documentaries, and short films; in-depth conversations with filmmakers and thought leaders; and a wide variety of events focused on amplifying women’s leadership through storytelling. 

 

2024 awardees include Mrittika “Mou” Sarin, writer of Scarce, as the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Athena List Development Grant.This $20,000 award is given to an Athena List finalist or winner for a script that focuses on a woman in a STEM-themed project. The festival will also honor Sophie Jarvis, director of Until Branches Bend, with the Breakthrough Award in partnership with Netflix. This $25,000 award is given to a feature-length film (narrative or documentary) directed by a first- or second-time filmmaker without a U.S. theatrical distribution deal. Christine Garver, writer of The Pepper, will receive the Chinonye Chukwu Emerging Writer Award in partnership with Christine A. Schantz. This $10,000 award is given to a feature-length writer who has previously participated in an Athena Film Festival Writers Lab and will assist them in the development of their feature-length script. Gabriela Garcia Medina and Katherine Craft, writers of SKRRT!, will be awarded the Disney Athena List Development Grant in partnership with Walt Disney Studios. This $10,000 award is given to a writer/director of a project that is a finalist or winner of the Athena List, to assist them in the development of their script. 

 

“We’re thrilled to celebrate this year’s stellar honorees and to share all of our 2024 programming with audiences at the festival this weekend,” said Athena Film Festival Artistic Director Melissa Silverstein. “Our year-round programs, encompassing grants, fellowships, and lab initiatives, are designed to support writers and women-centered projects at various stages of development, and ultimately to uphold and extend the mission and vision of the festival all year.”

 

As previously announced, the festival will honor writer/director Erica Tremblay with the inaugural Jaya Award for her directorial debut, Fancy Dance, starring Golden Globe winner and Oscar nominee Lily Gladstone. Presented in partnership with the Ilumine Service Foundation, the Jaya Award is a $10,000 grant dedicated to honoring an Indigenous filmmaker from North America whose film features a women-centric narrative with a compelling female lead.

 

In addition, the festival has named the first group of winners to its new lab initiative, the Abortion Pipeline Project (APP). This inaugural screenplay competition aims to increase the number of diverse, accurate, and positive stories related to abortion in the Hollywood script pipeline. Each of the winners will participate in a lab, will receive funds, and will be connected with reproductive justice leaders as mentors to enhance their scripts.

 

“After many months of preparation and hard work, our teams at the festival and the Athena Center could not be more excited to share this year’s curated programming with audiences over the next few days,” said Umbreen Bhatti, the Constance Hess Williams ’66 Director of the Athena Center for Leadership at Barnard College. “The festival continues to be the creative embodiment of the Athena Center’s mission, as a space where we can challenge tired and limiting narratives about women’s leadership and co-create a world that values collaboration, inclusion, and our stories.”

 

After revealing the list of finalists last month, the festival has also selected the winners of the 2024 Athena List, an annual slate spotlighting unproduced screenplays centered on women leaders. Winners include Gina Hackett’s A Bridge Between Us, a biopic about Emily Warren Roebling, the woman behind the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge; Missy Hernandez’s I Don’t Dream in Spanish Anymore, about a scientist confronting an ancestral curse; and Rebecca Jordan Smith’s coming-of-age story, Keesha Goes to Camp.

The full list of Athena List winners, 2024 AFF Writers Lab Fellows, and 2024 AFF Documentary Pitch Program Cohort are listed below.

 

Additional Film

Someone You Know- World Premiere

USA

Director/Writer: Asha Dahya

Producer: Sarah Moshman, Lisa Lackey 

In Someone You Know, we meet three women - Mindy Swank, Valerie Peterson and Sharon Lagos - who have had abortions later in their pregnancies. Making the decision to use their real names and faces, each of the women share their complex, heartbreaking and frustrating stories of having to overcome numerous barriers to get the care they needed, at a time in America when reproductive freedom is being rolled back at an alarming pace.

 

This film will be followed by the previously announced panel Abortion Storytelling featuring filmmaker Asha Dahya and other bold women who are working to dismantle stigma and promote acceptance of abortion storytelling through their own distinct narratives.

 

Grant Recipients

The Disney Athena List Development Grant in partnership with Walt Disney Studios
SKRRT! by Gabriela Garcia Medina and Katherine Craft 

​When a teen girl with muscular dystrophy learns she’s been accepted into Harvard but can’t afford to go, she gathers a crew of high school frenemies to attempt an impossible car heist during Art Basel Miami.

 

The Chinonye Chukwu Emerging Writer Award in partnership with Christine A. Schantz 

The Pepper by Christine Garver
In 1930s Carmel, a brilliant, tenacious immigrant becomes the muse and lover of acclaimed photographer Edward Weston, but as she helps his reputation grow, she struggles to find the space for her own ambitions in the darkroom of a genius. Based on a true story.

 

Athena Film Festival Breakthrough Award in partnership with Netflix 

Until Branches Bend by Sophie Jarvis 

Robin is a cannery worker who struggles to get an abortion. When she finds an invasive insect in a peach at work, she turns her focus toward proving to her community that the danger it poses is real. As her obsession alienates her from friends and family, she sinks deeper into her task. Until Branches Bend is a psychological drama about how trouble beneath the surface will always come to light.

 

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Athena List Development Grant in partnership with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
Scarce by Mrittika “Mou” Sarin
After discovering that the water supply of an underprivileged community has been stolen, a cynical software engineer fights to right this injustice — even as it draws her into conflict with her idealistic son.

 

Athena List Winners
A Bridge Between Us by Gina Hackett
Devoted wife Emily reluctantly steps into her husband’s role as chief engineer of the Brooklyn Bridge when he’s paralyzed during its Victorian-era construction, encountering jealousy and discrimination as she becomes the world’s first female engineer. Based on a true story, A Bridge Between Us tracks the building of a bridge and the collapse of a marriage.

 

I Don’t Dream in Spanish Anymore by Missy Hernandez
A scientist must return to her roots to escape the horrors of an ancestral curse that threatens to kill her and her unborn child.

 

Keesha Goes to Camp by Rebecca Jordan Smith
When a nerdy Black tween is sent to an outdoor summer camp, she finds her introverted book-smart ways challenged by nature, rivals, and the opposite sex.

 

2024 Athena Film Festival Writers Lab Fellowships

The Athena Film Festival Writers Lab is a three-day creative development workshop for emerging writers. Fellows receive additional mentorship and travel and accommodation to attend the festival.

 

The Alfred P. Sloan AFF Writers Lab Fellow 

The Aquanauts by Rachel Caccese

In the summer of 1970, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration sends the first all-female team of marine biologists on a two-week underwater mission. The women must battle the dangers below while overcoming obstacles on the surface. Inspired by real events.

 

The Loreen Arbus AFF Writers Lab Fellow 

SHORTY DOO-WOP, ESQUIRE by Stephan Collins-Stepney

A 15-year-old Black wunderkind graduates from law school and achieves her dream of becoming a public defender, but her idealism is quickly challenged by the isms she encounters in addition to the usual problems of growing up. Encountering ageism and acne, this teenage public defender is up for the challenge before she learns to drive.

 

2024 AFF Documentary Pitch Program Cohort 

Athena’s annual Documentary Pitch Program supports documentarians working on women-centered projects through dynamic coaching and peer mentorship, culminating in a live pitch to industry representatives. This program is underwritten by Secret Sauce Media.

 

Widow Champion
Director/Producer: Zippy Kimundu; Producer: Heather Courtney
Thrown out of her home and off her land by her in-laws, a resilient Kenyan widow transforms into a fierce advocate for women’s land rights in a highly patriarchal community.

Meant to Be Maddie
Director/Producer: Anna Clare Spelman; Producers: Bridgette Cyr, Luchina Fisher
Volatile politics, changing social norms in the U.S., and an ever-growing list of transphobic legislation provide a backdrop to this coming-of-age story of a North Carolina transgender teenager and her family.

Rubbish: The Queer Kingdom of Leilah Babirye
Director: AX Mina; Producers: Kira Simon-Kennedy, Flor de Oro Tejada

One artist’s decade-long quest to build a liberatory queer kingdom from rubbish.

Sister Senators
Director: Emily Harrold; Producer: Robin Hessman
In South Carolina, the only five women of the State Senate defy party lines and join together to fight for women’s representation and reproductive justice in a legislature that is overwhelmingly male and conservative.

Abortion Pipeline Project Winners

This inaugural screenplay competition aims to increase the number of diverse, accurate, and positive stories related to abortion in the Hollywood script pipeline. Each of the winners will participate in a lab, will receive funds, and will be connected with reproductive justice leaders to enhance their scripts.

 

Situationship

Written by Luisa Fernanda Alvarez Restrepo and Rahul Arun Chaturvedi

When their one-night stand leads to an unplanned pregnancy, two strangers take a road trip to find an abortion clinic.

 

Baby

Written by Brandy N. Carie

An anxious young teacher, Shelley, kills her baby nephew in a freak accident at a baby-themed party, isolating her from her family and sending her down a self-destructive spiral. When her worried boyfriend, Peter, brings her to the isolated Minnesota woods to recover her spirits, the calm natural environment seems to work ... until she discovers she’s pregnant.

 

Mamababy

Written by Xenia Matthews

In this fantastical coming-of-age story, a bizarre body-meld time travel adventure, Florida girl Baby Price desires to grow closer to her Mama in the aftermath of her abortion — an abortion that reminds Mama of several of her own. This film delves into the spiral of time, memory, love, and what it is to exist in a black femme body.

 

Let Their Hearts Beat

Written by Emily Saunders

After the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the United States Supreme Court, states where abortion was made illegal started to open up motherhood rehabilitation centers for women who had sought, but failed, to terminate their pregnancies. Let Their Hearts Beat tells the story of five women who have been sent to one such center. It tells of how they got there and the ways that each one deals with the anger, boredom, and frustration of their situation and of Robert, the man put in charge of helping them see the beauty of motherhood.

 

Bringing It Home

Written by Sabine El Gemayel

After returning from her tour in Iraq, 26-year-old war veteran Kay is eager to start college and reunite with her family, but financial hardships force her to find a job. Her life takes an unexpected turn when she meets Hadiya, a 32-year-old Iraqi refugee and former midwife living next door. Kay’s life becomes even more complicated when she becomes pregnant and begins experiencing severe health issues. With Hadiya’s help, Kay must make a heart-wrenching decision: continue with the pregnancy or not.

 

This year’s sponsors include the festival’s founding sponsor, Artemis Rising Foundation and its CEO Regina K. Scully, as well as the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Hanky Panky, Netflix, AMC Networks, The Dobkin Family Foundation, Evenstar, Illumine Service Foundation, Michela & Leslie Masson, Christine A. Schantz, Secret Sauce Media, Walt Disney Studios, ANSIRH Abortion Onscreen, Abigail E. Disney, Jess Jacobs, Sheila Nevins, We Testify, Adrienne Shelly Foundation, The Katie McGrath & JJ Abrams Family Foundation, Lifetime, Reavis Page Jump LLP, and Whitewater Films. The Accessibility Sponsor is The Loreen Arbus Foundation, and the Transportation Sponsor is Attitude New York.

 

The Athena Film Festival is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

 

Passes and tickets are now on sale. Visit the Athena Film Festival website for regular updates and more information.

 

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ABOUT THE ATHENA FILM FESTIVAL
Founded in 2011, the Athena Film Festival champions diverse, nuanced, and complex stories of women leaders through its annual showcase of narrative films, documentaries, and short films, alongside powerful and thought-provoking conversations, and its numerous year-round creative development programs. To date, more than 540 films have been screened at the festival — 90% directed by women or nonbinary individuals — and Athena’s creative development programs have supported more than 700 filmmakers. 

 

ABOUT THE ATHENA CENTER AT BARNARD COLLEGE
The Athena Center for Leadership is a hub for changemakers at Barnard College. We prepare Barnard students to lead change in this extraordinary moment and throughout their lives. 

 

ABOUT WOMEN AND HOLLYWOOD
Women and Hollywood educates, advocates, and agitates for gender parity and inclusion across the entertainment industry. Over the past 16 years, it has grown to be one of the most respected initiatives focused on women’s issues and popular culture, and its founder, Melissa Silverstein, has become a well-respected leader on the subject.

 

ABOUT BARNARD COLLEGE
Barnard provides a singular educational experience, as a world-renowned college focused on excellence across the arts and sciences, with all the academic resources of Columbia University and the City of New York as an extended classroom. Founded in 1889, Barnard was one of the few colleges in the nation where women could receive the same rigorous and challenging education available to men. Today, Barnard is one of the most selective academic institutions in the country and remains devoted to empowering extraordinary women to become even more exceptional.

 

ABOUT ARTEMIS RISING FOUNDATION
Artemis Rising Foundation is dedicated to supporting media projects that transform our culture and challenge the status quo. Led by founder and CEO Regina K. Scully, the foundation champions powerful stories about some of the most challenging social justice issues of our time — including gender bias, healing, trauma, mental health, addiction, and women’s empowerment.