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There's some great news out of the film industry, where five women (three of whom are women of color) have won the second annual Acceleration Grant for Emerging Filmmakers competition. The national organization Women In Film (WIF) and the General Motors Corporation (GM) announced this grant, which supports talented filmmakers from under-represented communities.
 
Each filmmaker submitted an application that was judged by a selection committee that included professional filmmakers and entertainment industry executives.  Judith James, chair of the WIF/GM Alliance, says "We congratulate each of these women for the initiative, drive and creativity that will help them establish and further their careers in film and television... The business and creative foundation provided to grant winners does open doors and benefits both the new talent and the industry."
 
The "2007 WIF-GM Acceleration Grant for Emerging Filmmakers" winners are:
 
Jamie Taucher, Sedona, Ariz. — A graduate from Prescott College where she earned a B.A. in studies in globalization with an emphasis in eco-psychology.

Julia Kots, New York, N.Y. — Kots, originally from the Ukraine, is currently an M.F.A. candidate in the film program at Columbia University's School for the Arts.
 
Connie M. Florez, Honolulu, Hawaii — Florez has been working in the Hawaii film and television industry for 10 years. Her documentary "The Glades Project," about the shift in attitude and behavior toward the native Hawaiian cultural identity of Mahus/trans-gendered community during the '60s, '70s and '80s, won multiple awards. Florez currently serves as a lecturer and instructor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa-Academy for Creative Media, where she teaches cinematic and digital narrative production, and also serves as director of Film Programming for the Honolulu Gay and Lesbian Cultural Foundation/Honolulu Rainbow Film Festival.
 
Joyce Lee, San Francisco, Calif. — Lee has dedicated her craft to telling stories and exploring the themes of the immigrant experience through recanting her own experiences as an Asian immigrant who arrived in the U.S. when she was a child at the end of the 1960s. Her production company, Rising Chimera Productions, is based in San Francisco.
 
Mabel Valdiviezo, San Francisco, Calif. — Valdiviezo has been making documentary, narrative and experimental films for nearly 10 years and recently produced a segment for KQED's SPARK arts series, profiling Chilean playwright Carlos Baron and Nobel Prize-winning poet and political figure Pablo Neruda. Her company Haiku Films is based in San Francisco.

This year's winners were hosted by the WIF/GM Alliance and will meet as a group with a panel of studio executives and distributors in film and television to discuss the trends and criteria shaping the industry. They will also meet with one or more international sales agents to discuss the current trends in buying and selling product for the international market. And they will receive full access badges to the American Film Market (AFM)* to attend AFM seminars and conferences. "By providing the opportunity to attend dedicated workshops and to network with professionals from all aspects of the filmmaking industry,' said James, "these grants will provide these women with a broad base of skills and knowledge of how to turn creative ideas into reality."
 
About the Women In Film/General Motors Alliance:
 
General Motors Corporation is the National Presenting Sponsor of Women In Film. The Women In Film/General Motors Alliance was created to support women in the entertainment industry and to expand Women In Film chapter programs across the country.  The multi-year initiative was announced in Los Angeles in January 2005 and is supporting programs as diverse as the Film Finishing Fund, Women's Film Preservation Fund, Legacy Series, PSAs, scholarships, mentorships and local WIF chapter award events across the nation.  For more information about the WIF/GM Alliance and its programs, visit www.women-in-film.com.  
 
Founded in 1973 in Los Angeles, Women In Film (www.wif.org) is the leading non-profit organization dedicated to women in the global entertainment industry. Its purpose is to empower, promote, nurture and mentor women in the industry through a network of valuable contacts, events, programs, workshops, finishing funds and scholarships. In the U.S., there are chapters in Arizona, California (3), Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas (2), Washington and Washington, D.C.  The international network, Women In Film and Television International (www.wifti.org), of which WIF-Los Angeles is a founding member, boasts 35 chapters on six continents. Member chapters range from developing nations to countries with established industries, including the U.S., Australia, Canada, France, India, Ireland, Jamaica, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa and the United Kingdom, to name a few.
 
General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM), the world's largest automaker, has been the annual global industry sales leader for 76 years. Founded in 1908, GM today employs about 280,000 people around the world.  With global headquarters in Detroit, GM manufactures its cars and trucks in 35 countries.