VOWSS Founders on Celebrating Creative Women

When it comes to gender equality and promoting women in adland, we'd do well to heed Elvis' sage demands for a little less conversation, a little more action please. We've had the thought pieces and barnstorming speeches. Now we want to actually see more of the work. After all, creativity is a proof-based business.

At least, that's what Laura Jordan-Bambach and Maureen Bryant thought when they set up The VOWSS, a new showcase for female creativity at Cannes Lions, which launches today in Cannes. A global collaboration between The Voice of a Woman film festival, of which Bryant is president, and global creative network SheSays, founded by Jordan-Bambach, it aims, simply, to celebrate "brilliant creative work led and directed by women".

The two-day event kicks off tomorrow [Wednesday 21 June], with a showcase of short films – commercials, branded content, dramas, documentaries, art/experimental-films and music-videos – created by women from around the globe, from which a winner will be chosen by a jury of leading lights from the ad and film world. The following day will see work from five new female directors screened during Lions Entertainment.

We caught up with Bryant [left, top image] and Jordan-Bambach to find out more.

How did The VOWSS come about? Had SheSays and Voice of a Woman ever worked together before?

Laura Jordan-Bambach: We had the concept and the venue sorted almost immediately, but it took the next six months to make it awesome. Maureen and I were introduced last year by a mutual friend, an amazing creative director Resh Sidhu, a creative director at Framestore (and now a judge for The VOWSS). Within an hour of meeting, we had a plan for The VOWSS 2017. As with all good things, it felt there was kismet in abundance. Not only our introduction by Resh, but the fact that I’d recently been chatting to Ed Sayers about the Straight 8 film festival (which happens at the Cinema Les Arcades in Cannes), so I was able to contact the venue through him and secure a screening space immediately.

The VOWSS aims to highlight great creative work led/directed by women – do you feel this is an overdue step given how long the discussions around gender equality have been going on?

LJB: The discussions on gender are front and centre of the industry now. Both around who makes the work and how women are represented in the work we make. However, whilst male creatives can be free of this discussion to show off the amazing nature of the work, it feels like creative women are often put in the “women box”and asked to speak publicly only about these issues. Talking about gender and representation does nothing to effect the prejudices around creativity and gender. We want to highlight the creative rock-god status of the best women in the world.

What kind of response have you received to the call for entries?

LJB: The response has been phenomenal - we received over 250 entries, much more than expected for our first year! We’ve had pieces from all around the world entered through the SheSays network, plus Maureen has brought her incredible skills to bear in finding the best films from the major film fests such as Berlin, Cannes etc. and bringing the directors on board. We have been blown away by the work.

And what will the jury be looking for in the winning entry?

Maureen Bryant: Creative excellence. Great ideas, and beautifully crafted stories.

As part of the initiative, there will be a screening of five new female directors during Lions Entertainment – tell us more about that and how you went about getting Cannes Lions on board?

LJB: Cannes Lions Entertainment has been enormously supportive from the start, and when we were looking at how to make both events special, it seemed to make great sense to focus the Palais session on new female directors. This gives both events the space to breathe and means that there is something completely new both days. We’re hoping to take both formats forward next year, and build on our success.

With increasing numbers of agencies signing up to #FreeTheBid, and the announcement that Cannes juries this year were 43 percent female, is the pendulum is starting to swing towards gender equality in the industry? What other practical steps could or should be taken to ensure more women rise through the ranks in the creative industries?

MB: Agencies and industry leaders must create change. But the question is, if left to them will it just be business as usual or will change ever happen in our lifetimes? In Sweden, for example, equality has been achieved, but this required a real push through a quota system. I hadn’t been a supporter of quotas for a very long time, but now seeing very little change after years of talking about the same thing, some kind of intervention upon the film and creative industries with quotas may just be necessary.

LJB: What the industry needs is equal pay and equal recognition. The understanding that unchecked meritocracy is often gendered. And the bravery to change the status quo.

How do you see The VOWSS developing – is there scope to take it to other advertising festivals?

LJB: The plan for The VOWSS is to make this something that can run at any big industry event. I’d particularly love to do something for the D&AD Festival next year. We’ve had some great headline support this year from Facebook Creative Shop, Mr President and RISE, and we’re hoping to build on that next year too so that it steps up another gear in terms of polish and reach.

Which work from female directors or creatives has impressed you recently?

LJB: I have to say I love the new Marks & Spencer ad [Spend It Well] that Vicki Maguire at Grey has done. It feels like an M&S ad made from a women’s perspective for the first time. It made me so happy to see it. Not treating women like bouncing, strutting clothes horses but as people with lives well lived.

MB: I also love what Madonna Badger has done with 'Women Not Objects' and her agency, Badger Winter's, commitment to women in general. I love director Karen Cunningham’s work with BBDO San Francisco on Dads Who Play Barbie. A short film that stands out is writer/director Jennifer Sheridan’s Set Adrift. Jennifer Zheng’s animation Tough is also brilliant. I could go on, there are so many great works that I can’t mention all of them here - so you’ll have to come to check out the VOWSS at Cannes Lions this year!