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 Davis, who founded the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in
Media 11 years ago, has joined forces with the BFI London Film
Festival to hold the first global symposium on gender in film
outside the United States in London in October.
The Oscar-winning actress, who has held conferences promoting
women in creative media in the United States since 2008,
expressed concerns that films are reinforcing negative gender
stereotypes with movie audiences of all ages.
"Media images have a huge impact on our perceptions and on our
social and cultural beliefs and behaviors," Davis said in a
statement.
Davis, 59, who won a best supporting actress Oscar for her role
in 1988 film "The Accidental Tourist", joins a chorus of
actresses who have recently condemned gender inequality in
Hollywood.
Stars such as Meryl Streep and Kristen Stewart have been vocal
about sexism as well as age biases in the movie industry, with
Stewart saying in one recent interview that women had "to work a
little bit harder to be heard".
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The London global symposium, which will be followed by similar
events in India and Brazil in 2016, will bring together politicians
and key figures within the entertainment industry for two panel
discussions about female characters in film.
The first discussion will be chaired by British Film Institute Chief
Executive Amanda Nevill and the second by Elizabeth Karlsen,
chairwoman of industry group Women in Film & Television.
"The collaboration with the BFI, who have a clear mandate to promote
gender equality and the Geena Davis Institute ... provides a much
needed platform from which to incite change," Karlsen said in a
statement.
(Editing by Belinda Goldsmith; Please credit the Thomson Reuters
Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers
humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, corruption and
climate change. Visit www.trust.org)
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