WOMEN DIRECTORS:

HOW TO HACK IT IN HOLLYWOOD

The National Board of Review Sponsors Seminar About Women in the Film Industry

New York, NY – March 23, 2004 – The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures presents its latest educational film seminar, Women Directors:   How to Hack it in Hollywood.   The panel discussion will take place on Thursday, April 22, 2004 at the Harmonie Club (4 East 60 th St.) in Manhattan.   The evening will start with a reception at 6pm; followed by the panel discussion at 7pm. Admission is free.  

Jeanine Basinger , the founder and curator of the Cinema Archives and Chair of the Film Studies Department at Wesleyan University, will serve as moderator of the seven-woman panel. The seminar will focus on their milestones, obstacles, and how their experiences have shaped the role of women directors in Hollywood today.   The panelists participating are:   Lee Grant (Tell Me a Riddle), Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding), Shari Springer Berman (American Splendor), Lisa Krueger (Manny & Lo), Rebecca Miller (Personal Velocity), Bronwen Hughes (Forces of Nature), and Daisy von Scherler Mayer (The Guru).

Previous educational seminars include last year's Bad Girls…And Why We Love Them , hosted by Molly Haskell and Andrew Sarris as well as Strange Loves:   Terry Southern's Affair with the Movies , a survey and panel event of the late screenwriters work.

The National Board of Review, with no commercial ties to the industry, was founded in 1909 to support excellence and free expression in film.   The group works to underwrite educational film programs, like Women Directors , and endow scholarships for film students and grants for up and coming directors.   In addition, the NBR screens over 300 films per year and kicks off the awards season each December by being the first group to announce annual winners.