Netflix & EPC partner to support European women producers

Netflix is partnering with the European Producers Club (EPC) on a new initiative to create opportunities for European women producers.

Announced at Series Mania yesterday, the new initiative includes a pitch contest for fictional series as well as a workshop run by Netflix about how to best pitch a project.

The producers of the six best projects will get the opportunity to pitch to Netflix and the three best projects will receive an award of €50,000 ($55,000), €20,000 and €10,000 respectively in order to develop their projects further.

The initiative comes as industry research shows that women are still under-represented in the TV fiction industry in Europe.

The pitching competition is reserved for EPC producers working for women-owned companies (with miimum. 50% of ownership). Pitching teams must include at least one woman producer and either a woman writer or director. The workshop is open to all EPC Members.

Alexandra Lebret, MD of EPC, commented: “As the manager of a producers’ organisation, I believe it’s time to look into our own field when it comes to diversity: women producers are scarce, and even more so if you look at the ownership of production companies.

“Gender balance has to be fairly improved at every level of our industry. That’s why we partnered with Netflix to empower and support women producers in telling their stories and working with more women across the industry including writers and directors.”

Christopher Mack, director of Grow Creative at Netflix, added: “We are delighted to work together with the European Producers Club to empower women producers in Europe.

“Representation behind the camera has a direct correlation with representation on screen. We believe that more people deserve to see their lives reflected in the stories we tell and invest in partnerships to identify and support new voices.”