MUMBAI: The MIPCOM 2016 Women in Global Entertainment Power Lunch once again features some of the industry’s heavy-hitters discussing the role of women, both on and off-screen.
The fifth edition of MIPCOM’s annual thought leadership and networking event for the most influential women shaping the future of TV and entertainment is run in partnership with A+E Networks and Lifetime, along with The Hollywood Reporter.
The global entertainment content market, MIPCOM takes place in Cannes, France, from 17-20 October. The Women in Global Entertainment Power Lunch is scheduled for Monday 17 October, at the Hotel Majestic.
The event will be introduced by A+E Networks chief marketing officer Amanda Hill, who will take a deep dive into the female experience, uncovering and highlighting the important issues facing women today via a recent Lifetime study. In addition, Hill will discuss Lifetime’s launch of a new multiplatform initiative called The Fempire, which targets fourth-wave feminists. Its mission is to create content for women, by women, about women, and to engage with them 24/7.
This will be followed by a presentation from Emmy® Award-nominated Constance Zimmer and fellow actress Shiri Appleby, who both star in Lifetime’s “UnREAL”. They will talk about their respective roles in the series, and how it ties into Lifetime’s ethos and what female empowerment means today.
The Women in Global Entertainment programme continues with an inspirational conversation between two leading figures of the film and TV industries, Betsy Beers, Partner at Shondaland, and pioneering French Director, Screenwriter, and Producer Euzhan Palcy.
A multi-award-winning producer, Beers is Executive Producer of ABC Studios’ hit series “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Scandal,” “How to Get Away With Murder,” and “The Catch,” along with the upcoming new Untitled Shondaland Project (formerly known as "Still Star-Crossed"). In 2008, Beers partnered with Shonda Rhimes and her company Shondaland to develop and produce additional feature film and television projects. Prior to her exclusive foray into television, Beers served as President of the Mark Gordon Company, President of director Mike Newell’s Dogstar Films, and developed and produced such films as “200 Cigarettes,” “High Fidelity,” and “Pushing Tin” among many others. In 2014, Beers and Rhimes were honoured by the Directors Guild of America with the coveted Diversity Award for their commitment to diversity hiring and their long record of providing opportunities to women and minorities. (Rhimes is also being honoured as MIPCOM 2016 Personality of the Year.)
Euzhan Palcy is an award-winning filmmaker, and the first black female director produced by a major Hollywood studio, through her apartheid-themed feature movie, “A Dry White Season” (MGM, 1989). She is also the first black person ever to win a Cesar, the French Film Academy Awards, and the only woman ever to have directed Marlon Brando. Through films such as “Sugar Cane Alley,” “Ruby Bridges” and “The Killing Yard,” her work explores themes of race, gender, and social justice from a decidedly feminist and humanist perspective. In 2016, Palcy received the Honorary Award of the first Positive Cinema Week of Cannes, and The Wrap included her on its list of 17 Most Influential Women Who Revolutionised Hollywood. Palcy will unveil exclusive images in Cannes from an interview she did with the late South African President in a segment entitled “Nelson Mandela and the Role of Women,” an extract from a 25-minute filmed interview.
“For the fifth edition of MIPCOM’s Women in Global Entertainment Power Lunch, we are delighted to welcome a line-up of women who are behind some of the most creative and challenging content in contemporary television. The summit is thus continuing its mission as a key event for those women who are shaping the future of TV and entertainment,” said Reed MIDEM’s Television Division director Laurine Garaude.
