New York Women in Film & Television Honors ITVS President

ITVS President and CEO Sally Jo Fifer was awarded the Loreen Arbus Award for Those Who Take Action and Effect Change on Wednesday, December 7 in New York City. ITVS was recognized for spearheading public media’s Women and Girls Lead campaign.

Each December, New York Women in Film & Television (NYWIFT) presents the Muse Awards for Vision and Achievement, honoring women who have made significant contributions to the field.

Some 1,200 industry guests gathered to celebrate the accomplishments of the 2011 Muse Award recipients: actors Claire Danes and Christine Baranski, TV celebrity Martha Stewart, Sony Pictures Classics co-founder Marcie Bloom, and Budd Enterprises president Nadine Schramm. At the same luncheon, Sally Fifer accepted the Loreen Arbus Award on behalf of ITVS, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and PBS and expressed great appreciation for the independent filmmakers who provided the powerful stories at the core of Women and Girls Lead.

"Women and Girls Lead didn’t start in the offices of ITVS or CPB or PBS," Fifer told the audience. "It started with these filmmakers zooming in on unsung heroes in Calcutta, Los Angeles, Liberia.  Capturing stories of the women who would share the Nobel Peace Prize, of presidents, soldiers, mothers and daughters.  Of women and girls everywhere striving to realize their potential, often against heavy odds." 

The first Loreen Arbus Award was given in 2006 to producer John Wells for his Minority Directors Program, which increased the number of women and minorities working as directors in prime-time television. Since then, the award has been given to producer Gale Anne Hurd, for her hiring practices and philanthropic activity, Eastman Kodak Company for their exceptional support for women cinematographers, and Chicken & Egg Pictures, among others. 

Learn more about ITVS’s commitment to the Women and Girls Lead Campaign