San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) took over the San Diego Convention Center and Gaslamp District from July 25-28th. This convention ignites with panels and presentations across multiple genres of fandom. Attendees hear directly from the actors, creators, and industry titans themselves as they spill secrets about upcoming projects and reveal behind-the-scenes magic. Among these panels was “5th Annual Hollywood Game Changers: A Conversation with the Women Behind Popular Film and TV Projects.” This panel hosted a powerhouse of women leading the charge of popular entertainment projects and companies. We spoke with Carlye Tamaren and Nicole Lipp, co-founders of the project “Not Your Daddy’s Films.”

What is “Not Your Daddy’s Films?”

“Not your Daddy’s Films” is an organization that is dedicated to empowering women and nonbinary filmmakers. The community within the project seeks to educate and uplift those in the entertainment industry through screenings, panels, and so much more. Being part of a community of like-minded people is an important part of turning a passion into a professional endeavor.

There are five “Daddies” (founders/members) who came together to create this project. Each of them are filmmakers in some capacity. From directors, writers, and editors, each founding member was looking for a place to show their work. Nicole says:

We all just wanted a place to show our own work and create a community and learn from each other. And, we couldn’t find that place somehow. We live in L.A. and we just weren’t finding what we were looking for. […] We put on our first little event to show our own films, and people were just, like, obsessed and wanted more. And, it just kind of snowballed and became its own thing.

Carlye says, “We like to say that it created itself out of necessity. Truly, we just got a space. We just had a bar, you know, and that created everything.”

The best place to find the community is on social media. Furthermore, Carlye and Nicole highly suggest being added to their mailing list. This way, aspiring “daddies” do not miss out on events and critical information.