First New Zealand Women In STEM Film Festival

Auckland will be celebrating women in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) in July with the first ever New Zealand women in STEM film festival.

Hosted by the Association for Women in the Sciences (AWIS), the week-long AUT Women in STEM Film Festival showcases strong female leads in movies based around science and innovation. The line-up includes biopics of inspiring women such as Hedy Lamarr, the Hollywood actress who invented the technology behind modern day Bluetooth® (Bombshell), Marie Curie, the first person, and only female, to receive two Nobel Prizes (Radioactive), and wildlife expert Dian Fossey (Gorillas in the Mist); and science fiction thrillers with strong female roles, such as Gravity, Contagion, Arrival and, for a bit of fun, the 2016 remake of Ghostbusters.

“About 40% of students in New Zealand engaged in STEM undergraduate studies are female, and for subjects like engineering and information technology this drops to around 20%,” says AWIS National Co-Convenor Kieren Arthur. “The AUT Women in STEM film festival allows us to celebrate the role of women in STEM, and hopefully inspire the next generation of female scientists, engineers and innovators.”

Profits from the Film Festival will be used to fund the AWIS Women in STEM Award, a scholarship administered by the New Horizons for Women Trust aimed at supporting women studying a STEM qualification at tertiary level whose social identity is under-represented in their field of study.

The Women in STEM Film Festival is sponsored by AUT University’s School of Science and the University of Auckland’s Faculty of Science and Creative Design and Additive Manufacturing Lab. The AUT Women in STEM Film Festival will run from 1 July 2022 to 8 July 2022 at the Capitol Cinema on Auckland’s Dominion Road. The Film Festival will be opened by Dame Juliet Gerrard, the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor.

To book tickets for the AUT Women in STEM Film Festival, visit the Capitol Cinema or https://www.awis.org.nz/news-and-events/events/aut-women-in-stem-film-festival

© Scoop Media