I am positively beaming to announce that I have become a member of the UnderWire Festival advisory panel, set up to help shape, support and spread the word (and eat a bit of soup and cake on the way). We held our first meeting last week, tucked up in a doorbell-free London flat, Soup a la Jack in bellies, talking through plans, discussing the festival ethos and how it fits with the programme, sharing ideas, things we’ve seen and heard about, and all that jazz. 

UnderWire has got the extraordinary Gemma Mitchell and Helen Jack at the helm and these seasoned event maestros don’t mess around, so its safe to say that you’re all very much in for a treat again this year. Plus we have some incredibly inspiring and talented Patrons and wonderful Media Partners supporting the festival.

For those of you unfamiliar with the festival, UnderWire was launched in November 2010 with the belief that women working in the UK film industry needed more encouragement and a bigger platform for their work. The fact remains that women still make up a small proportion of film creatives, and UnderWire looks to recognise the best short work made by women across a range of crafts.

With awards for Best Director, Best Producer, Best Writer, Best Editor, Best Cinematographer, Best Composer and Best Film Journalist, the festival hopes to move us towards a more gender balanced industry. There is also the XX Award which is open to both female and male directors whose films have interesting female characters at their centre. This, UnderWire believes, will benefit everyone by creating a diversity of perspectives, stories and experiences for audiences.

The festival accepts work of different genres including drama, animation, documentary, music video and artist film and the submission deadline is 16 October 2011. The full guidelines can be found on the UnderWire site at www.underwirefestival.com. As months progress, UnderWire will be announcing news of events, screenings and interesting happenings so keep your eye on the site.