The Academy and Chanel Spotlight Women Filmmakers

For a second year, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences partnered with the French fashion house to celebrate women in the industry

Words by ELIZABETH VARNELL

Academy President Janet Yang.

Beneath the glass-domed terrace of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, with the San Gabriel Mountains as a backdrop, a host of sunglass-clad women from across the film industry came together to celebrate emerging filmmakers at a luncheon held in partnership with Chanel on Thursday, November 9. For a second year, the French house known for its deep ties to the industry — from Gabrielle Chanel’s pioneering work with directors and actresses to Virginie Viard’s continuing partnerships with creatives and the house’s ongoing support of myriad movie projects — joined the Academy in hosting a gathering of women nurturing the next generation of filmmakers. Annette Bening, Gina Prince-Bythewood, Rita Wilson, Diane Warren, and Patty Jenkins joined Academy President Janet Yang, America Ferrera, Kristen Stewart, Leslie Mann and Maude Apatow, Lily-Rose Depp, Riley Keough, Eva Longoria, Lupita Nyong’o, Gina Gammell, Molly Gordon, Sadie Sink, Siân Heder, H.E.R., Laura Karpman, Kristie Macosko Krieger, Greta Lee, Cara Jade Myers, Ashley Park, A.V. Rockwell, and Michelle Satter to toast the sixth anniversary of the Academy’s Gold Fellowship for Women, a one-year program of support and mentorship for a woman director in the U.S. and for one abroad.

“It’s crucial that we continue to support one another. By elevating new voices and ideas our collective work can progress,” said Bening, a former Academy governor who introduced the current U.S. Academy Gold Fellowship recipient, Erica Eng. The director, an Oakland native who is based in L.A., is a fifth generation Chinese American who has won acclaim for her short films, particularly 2021’s Americanized. The afternoon also included a rousing speech by actor, director, and producer America Ferrera, highlighting the collective advocacy of the women in the room. “Every year through this important fellowship the Academy and Chanel give female filmmakers access to career-changing resources and mentorship. Those are some of the ingredients that got all of us where we are today,” said Ferrera. “Being in community creates possibilities for what we can imagine, what we can do together. It completely transforms what’s possible. There is energy, there is joy in community,” she added.