At last! UnderWire 2011 is now open for submissions. We’re looking for women who are working on the best short films in the UK right now, across all key areas of creativity; we want directors, editors, cinematographers, writers, producers and composers to submit their work. And it’s not only craftswomen that we’re looking for - we also want short films (directed by both women and men) that put interesting female characters at their centre. Sadly, we’ve found these are few and far between, but we’re sure the times are-a-changin’ and we want to see a lot more of this work. If you’re not sure what makes the grade, you might want to try holding your film against the Bechdel Test. Finally, we’re really pleased to be introducing a new category this year for women film journalists. Like the craft of filmmaking itself, the number of women working as professional film critics is far surpassed by the number of male voices we’re used to hearing in mainstream media. But UnderWire wants to change that, encouraging women to step up and get their work seen. As Sight & Sound demonstrated in a competition they ran recently, there are a LOT of smart women out there who should have a platform for their work. With the UnderWire award for Best Film Journalist, we hope to see this happen.

We’re really excited to be steering UnderWire into its second year, and hope to meet a lot of you along the way.

Helen and Gemma