2018 Austin Film Festival and Conference Schedule

Once upon a time there were movies about men who saved the world and women who stood on the sideline and shouted, “Way to go!” And there were romantic dramas and romantic comedies about women who cared about love and almost nothing else. And there were animated movies about princesses who waited around until a man came along to kiss them.

Then one day everyone woke up and decided it wasn’t a good idea for our female characters to be so passive, so the women turned into action stars and the animated princesses turned into warrior princesses or sometimes into just warriors. Whatever the men were doing in a movie, the women had to do it too, only better. Love stories and romantic comedies were deemed a thing of the past that sent the wrong message (i.e., that love matters more than anything else). -

But – What if women really like love stories? And what if girls really like princesses? Is that so wrong? And what if love really does matter more than anything else? Is it OK for our female characters to cry once in a while? Is it OK for them to wear sexy outfits? And is it a better message if the female characters are just as good at fighting and killing as the guys?

Let’s try to figure it out.