In 1973, Tichi Wilkerson Kassel of the Hollywood Reporter founded Women In Film in Los Angeles to create a powerful, creative community for women, forging a path where none had existed before. Today, when women make up only 22% of roles in production, WIF serves over 5,000 individuals annually through its fellowship programs, public arts and culture initiatives, and membership network. The WIF community are women artists across race, ability, financial status, and other socio-economic factors. Through its work, WIF supports artists, the creation of art, and contributes to a thriving diverse creative landscape in Los Angeles.

WIF believes achieving equal cultural representation within our media narratives requires a representative number of skilled storytellers. To that end, WIF programming aims to address the gender disparity by amplifying the voices of talented underrepresented artists, while highlighting the obstacles they face in the field – ultimately, developing the emerging and mid-career creative workforce. Public and membership programming is an anchor to WIF’s mission, and centers around the brilliant work of legacy WIF collaborators, as well as its career programs alum and current fellows, through curated screening series, panel discussions, and craft developing workshops.

The WIF Fellowships, the organization’s anchor career program, supports all creative and below-the-line positions in entertainment, providing specialized year-round mentorship for a new class of 54 fellows in eight different cohorts of artistic discipline annually. Program staff members program 8-12 bespoke events on artistic process and the business of art with over 15 professional mentors.

With hundreds of fellowship program alumni securing positions in writers’ rooms or creating award-winning films, WIF has yielded a deep network of creativity that drives its mission forward.