Artemis Motion Pictures brings you The Artemis Women In Action Film Festival 2018. This film festival is the first film festival dedicated to honoring female action and empowerment heroes.
Artemis celebrates powerful women taking action onscreen. From female action heroes to female activists, Artemis shine a spotlight on women in narrative, documentary and animated films who are fearless, fierce, and revolutionary.
AWIAFF extols the women who kick ass and change culture! Film has both the power to entertain and to awaken – to awaken awareness of the dynamic and powerful roles of women in our society and throughout the world. The Artemis Women in Action Film Festival has a mission to both kick ass and open minds.
Every spring they offer a special affair, The Artemis Women In Action Film Festival, to honor those contributing to the female action and empowerment genres, showcase amazing works featuring females in leading roles of all kinds that inspire audiences. The Artemis Women In Action Film Festival 2018 also includes The Artemis Awards Gala. Below is information about those involved in the The Artemis Awards Gala 2018. The Presenters and Honorees are in order of appearance.
The Artemis Awards Gala 2018
Artemis Awards Gala 2018 Host:
Grace Parra
Artemis Women In Action Film Festival Founder:
Melanie Wise
Artemis Awards Gala 2018 Presenters:
Melissa R. Stubbs
Jessica Harbeck
Heidi Moneymaker
Tammie Baird
Zoë Bell
Kim Renee
Victoria Smurfit
Dot-Marie Jones
Yancy Butler
Kristanna Loken
Melanie Wise
Artemis Awards Gala 2018 Entertainment:
Kaylene Peoples – Singer/Musician
Sheena Metal – Comedian
Artemis Awards Gala 2018 Honorees:
Ms. Cassandra Ebner
Stunt Next Wave
Artemis Women in Action Film Festival is proud to honor Cassandra Ebner with the Artemis Action Stunt Next Wave Award for amassing a huge body of breath-taking work in an amazingly short time.
She is living her childhood dream of being a superhero. She was literally the Star Wars kid swinging the broom handle like a light saber in her garage dreaming big. She worked hard and made it happen for real! Ms. Ebner now does mind-boggling stunts in television shows such as Game of Thrones, Arrow, The Flash and Once Upon a Time. Not one to sit and wait for a job to come, Ms. Ebner has also written and directed plays, short films and videos, some showcased on her youtube channel.
Cassandra’s response to being recognized as Artemis’ 2018 Stunt Next Wave Honoree is, “As a performer amongst an industry full of many people with amazing talents, I am absolutely honoured to be recognized for mine. I grew up watching powerhouse action women and superheroes hoping I could be as confident, cool, hilarious and bring an incline of that inspiration to others. For those that don’t know me, I am not that confident, pretty nerdy, and sometimes funny. That in itself should give at least one person inspiration to accomplish their dreams! But in all seriousness, to be honoured with an award for Stunt Next Wave at a Film festival celebrating Empowerment and Women in action, is a dream come true, thank you!”
Amassing over 45 credits in only the last 4 years, the never-stop-working Ms. Ebner will prove to be a ground-breaking, glass-ceiling shattering talent. (Biography)
Ms. Heidi Pascoe
Stunt Warrior
Artemis Women in Action Film Festival is proud to honor Heidi Pascoe with the Artemis Stunt Warrior Award for demonstrating that women can achieve stunts that are both breath-taking and death-defying.
A lot of stunt women come from athletic backgrounds, but very few were professional high divers. Heidi performed high diving shows as well as winning cliff-diving championships, which segued very well into a profession of fearless stunt work.
In a relatively short period of time, she has amassed over 120 credits in films and TV. One of her specialties is the rare willingness and ability to perform high falls (usually 100 feet or more), including a fall from 11 stories up!
Some of her credits include Wrinkle in Time, American Woman, Fantastic Four, Fear the Walking Dead, Bones, CSI, and NCIS. She has won awards from The Taurus World Stunt Awards and the Screen Actors Guild, showing her individual skills while also being a great team player. She has done her most recognizable work doubling for Anna Paquin, in the incredibly popular series True Blood.
Not one to sit still, Ms. Pascoe has further stretched her limits working in the capacity of stunt coordinator – Go Heidi! (Biography)
Ms. Kachina Dechert
Stunt Powerhouse
Artemis Women in Action Film Festival is proud to honor Kachina Dechert with the Artemis Action Stunt Powerhouse Award for making an art of fearlessly performing sensational stunts.
Kachina Dechert was born in London England to Rock and Roll musicians Jody Linscott (percussionist for The Who, Paul McCartney, Elton John, Tom Jones, etc.) and Greg Dechert (keyboards for Bad Company, Uriah Heap, David Gilmore). Kachina spent most of her youth and teens on the road touring the world with these bands.
Drawn to high speed vehicles Kachina, like a surprising amount of stuntwomen, started racing motorcycles on and off road. Her skills on the track soon lead her to the Stunt World where her size, look and all around athletic abilities led quickly to a full time career. Always looking to expand her skills, Kachina joined stunt driving school, Drivers East, and became the only female on one of the top driving crews in the US.
Being British-American-Canadian has allowed her to film all around the world on projects like Mission Impossible 6, The Mummy, Inferno and many more. Kachina has doubled for a litany of actresses including Jessica Biel, Anette Benning, Mila Kunis, and Uma Thurman. Recently Kachina was named stunt coordinator for two action series ‘Caught’ and Jason Momoa’s ‘Frontier’. She is currently directing a feature film documentary about her mother – ‘A Rock N Roll Life’. (Biography)
Ms. Danielle Burgio
Stunt Unsung Heroine
Artemis Women in Action Film Festival is proud to honor Danielle Burgio with the Artemis Stunt Unsung Heroine Award.
She left home, went to New York and within two weeks landed her first acting job in Starlight Express. For those of you unfamiliar: it is an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical with roller skating – incredibly successful and staggeringly difficult to perform!
While being upbeat and incredibly personable, Danielle has a surprisingly indomitable spirit. “It is my immense privilege to be receiving the Unsung Hero Award from Artemis, who continues to blaze a mighty trail in recognizing powerful women in motion pictures. My journey in this industry has been a lesson in facing fear and learning the true definition of perseverance (both of which I continue to face on a daily basis!) and one that wouldn’t be possible without the love and support of my friends, family and peers. Thank you for showing me that grit pays off!” says Ms. Burgio.
After New York, Danielle headed for Hollywood and has created a mind-boggling amount of work as the triple threat of actress, dancer, and stuntwoman. She has worked consistently in both TV and film and continues to stretch her skills. Ms. Burgio ‘moonlights’ as a director/writer, most recently two award winning shorts, Lucy Falls and Girl Trip.
As a stuntwoman in both film and television, Danielle has stunt doubled for a huge array of stars, including Jennifer Garner, Michelle Monahan, and her possible favorite, Carrie Anne Moss (Trinity) in the Matrix sequels. Her work can be seen in TV shows such as Ghost Whisperer, Angel, and Scandal. Her films include the aforementioned Matrix sequels, Daredevil, The Green Hornet and she was stunt coordinator for The Blackout. (Biography)
Ms. Alicia Vela-Bailey
Stunt Icon
Artemis Women in Action Film Festival is proud to honor Alicia Vela-Bailey with the Artemis Action Stunt Icon Award for using her skills both as a stuntwoman and an actress to portray dynamic, unstoppable female characters.
Her first film as a stunt double had her stepping in for the star of Bloodrayne (2015 Artemis Honoree Kristanna Loken). Her next film was doubling for Milla Jovovich in Ultraviolet. She has created amazing stunts in television and tent-pole studio actioners – being able to do amazing fight action as well as falls and driving. In the last three years alone, she has done amazing work in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Underworld and the incredibly successful Wonderwoman. She has just finished her work in the highly anticipated Robert Rodriguez vehicle: Alita: Battle Angel and currently in the Avatar sequels.
While doing all those stunts, Ms. Vela-Bailey has created indelible roles as an actress. She plays a recurring role as an “Inhuman” in Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. She has terrified audiences in horror thrillers such as The Purge, Hostel 3 and the highly successful Lights Out.
Whether she is in front of the camera speaking lines or diving over a table firing weapons, Ms. Vela-Bailey is unforgettable and is leaving a trail of magnificent performances in both fields. We certainly look forward to more. (Biography)
Ms. Debbie Evans
Stunt Lifetime Achievement
Artemis Women in Action Film Festival is proud to honor Debbie Evans with the Artemis Stunt Lifetime Achievement Award for mastering and furthering the importance of women in the stunt world for more than four decades and still counting!
Ms. Evans says, “I am excited and honored to be receiving the 2018 Artemis Lifetime Achievement Award. It makes me so glad to see so many talented women finally having more opportunities to put their skills to work and do what they love in the art of making action motion pictures. My hope is that girls will no longer say ‘I can’t but ‘I can’, and know that with hard work, and dedication, the Sky is the Limit!”
What is there to say? She has over 217 credits since 1973, doing amazing stunts in classics such as Ghostbusters II, Back to the Future III, Kindergarten Cop continuing all the way through to The Fast and the Furious, Charlie’s Angels II, Furious 6 & 7 and most recently Fate of the Furious. She was integral in the remarkable freeway scene in Matrix II, doing some of the most impressive motorcycle stunts in cinema history.
Starting out as a professional motorcycle racer, she began riding at 6 years old and was competing when she was 9! Successfully competing against men, she became the first women to reach the rank of expert. Her famous move was a headstand on the seat of a moving motorcycle.
Her IMDB credits include stuntwork for The Young and the Restless and The Muppets. We would love to know what kind of stunts that involved!:) Her first big break, though, began with Deathsport where she was hired to jump a 30 foot ravine on a motorcycle. Piece of cake! Since then she has worked continuously as a stuntwoman, while continuing to break records as a competing motorcyclist.
She has won five Taurus Awards, one for her work in The Fast and the Furious. We can’t wait to see her stunts in the next installation of the Fast and Furious franchise. (Interview) (Biography)
Ms. Rosemary Rodriguez
Action Champion
Artemis Women in Action Film Festival is proud to honor Rosemary Rodriguez with the Artemis Action Champion Award for a career of directing films and TV where the women are as strong, capable and kick-ass as the men.
Ms. Rodriguez says, “There is nothing more satisfying than collaborating with strong, talented, intelligent women in roles that mirror their own human superpowers, rather than sell their talents short. It’s exhilarating to discover those moments while directing that are bigger than any of us and inspire us to keep going!”
She wrote and directed her first film, the award winning Acts of Worship. From that she began her long TV career with Third Watch, which featured men and women cops and paramedics, all equally tough and vulnerable. Third Watch, she says, was where she learned how to shoot car chases and action – and she got to put a car into the East River. Since then she has directed an impressive list of shows such as The Walking Dead, The Tick, Rescue Me, Law & Order: SVU; The Good Wife, and Jessica Jones. She just directed the pilot of Cagney & Lacey. Female detectives! Action! She has brought out the best of the powerful women in all of these shows.
She brings her influence, but makes it clear “I’m not trying to change the show; I’m just trying to bring what I know my strengths are and what I’m confident I can bring.” (Biography)
Ms. Dana DeLorenzo
Action Next Wave
Artemis Women in Action Film Festival is proud to honor Dana DeLorenzo with the Artemis Action Next Wave Award for delivering a character who makes killing demons and monsters with style seem like a lot of fun. Her breakout role in Ash vs. Evil Dead (2015) brilliantly shows why she is an exceptional up and comer in the action world.
She says of her recognition, ”Words cannot express how much this honor means to me. Playing Kelly Maxwell taught me that it’s okay to be afraid. Strength means finding the courage to do something in spite of fear. Consider the risks — but if the reward excites your spirit, go for it! When you do that, you’ve already won”.
Ms. DeLorenzo’s talent as a performer has been obvious from the start. She began acting as a child in radio commercials for a clothing store owned by her father. She used her exquisite comic timing to great effect in her recurring role as an NBC executive on The Late Show with Craig Ferguson.
Her comedic skills blend perfectly with the action in Ash vs. Evil Dead (2015). She is equally proficient at blowing away zombies and delivering perfect zingers. She tells jokes just as well with her fists and feet as she does with her eyes and mouth. As bullets are flying, bones are cracking, and blood is spattering, she’s serving up sarcasm that makes you think and laugh as you’re waiting to see just how much ass she can kick. Because you know there is going to be a lot of ass that is kicked. But great action, and great comedy, are always well-served by moments of quiet absurdity, and she is equally adept at making wonderfully ridiculous moments seem perfectly reasonable. It takes a rare talent who can flirt while using a shotgun as a bong. We are very eager to see what happens next with this great talent. (Biography)
Mr. T.J. Scott
Action Rebel
Artemis Women in Action Film Festival is proud to honor T.J. Scott with the Artemis Action Rebel Award for making a career of championing powerful action roles for women.
TJ’s directing credits reveal a who’s who of kickass women characters: Xena (1996-1998); La Femme Nikita (1997-1999); the very fun Cleopatra 2525 (2000-200) (starring 2015 Honoree Gina Torres); all the clones in Orphan Black (2013) and currently a female-strong cast in the latest television Star Trek:Discovery (2018-2019). In response to being named Artemis’ 2018 Action Rebel, TJ said, “It is an absolute honor to be recognized as an Action Rebel – I couldn’t be more thrilled!”
Some of his drive for directing great action might come from his experience as a stuntman and second unit director. He evolved into a master director and has helmed countless television shows, very many of them featuring tough, powerful women with copious amounts of kickass action!
Along with his career as a director, he is an avid photographer and he used that skill to create a series of books called “In The Tub.” He and all of the actors, musicians & celebrities donated their time to this title created strictly to raise funds for breast cancer research and awareness.
As he continues his career, be sure that kickass women will play a strong part of his projects. (Biography)
Ms. Ming-Na Wen
Action Paladin
Artemis Women in Action Film Festival is proud to honor Ming-Na Wen with the Artemis Action Paladin Award for consistently portraying characters who use their skills to protect and help others.
Let’s face it, Ming Na Wen plays two of the toughest heroines in film or TV. She created the indelible voice portrait of the warrior princess, Mulan, and she is currently the enforcer of enforcers in Marvel’s Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Both characters truly embody warrior women. Ms. Wen says of her recognition, “I love portraying strong female characters like Agent May, Mulan and Chun-Li. They are not only fun to play as an actor, but they inspire and entertain both men and women. More importantly, these roles help women and girls to find their own inner strength. I also am honored to represent minorities and prove that anyone can be a bad ass at any age!”
Ms. Wen proves she can do anything: early performances wowed audiences with her fantastic dramatic portrayal in the breakout hit, The Joy Luck Club; she co-starred in a successful sitcom, The Single Guy, then starred as a doctor in the mammoth ER, standing out among a superb cast. She had recurring roles in hits such as SGU Stargate Universe, Two and a Half Men and Eureka. She starred as an FBI agent in Vanished, and played another tough doctor in Miami Medical. While she worked on camera, she was constantly doing amazing (and award-winning) voiceover work from the classic Mulan, to shows such as Final Fantasy, Batman, Phineas and Herb and, of course, Robot Chicken.
Finally, the perfect marriage of actor and character was born when Ms. Wen was cast as Melinda May, the perfect warrior to back up the laconic, tougher-than-he-looks, Agent Carlson. Doing her own fight stunts, Ms. Wen brings an intensity to this character that is unique and thrilling. Whenever true fighting needs to be done, Melinda May delivers. When rescuing members of her team, she triumphs. Indomitable, powerful yet still compassionate and caring.
Ms. Wen has thrilled and captured audiences around the world and we can’t wait to see more. (Biography)
Ms. Michelle Rodriguez Action Revolutionary
Artemis Women in Action Film Festival is proud to honor Michelle Rodriguez with the Artemis Action Revolutionary Award for not only refusing roles where the characters are the ’average’ female role, the characters she does play are inspirational and indelible. She is a co-star in three of the most popular action franchises: The Fast and the Furious, Avatar and Resident: Evil. She has been described as “arguably the most iconic actress in the action genre in Hollywood.”
Her first speaking role was starring as a boxer, in Girlfight (2000). Gaining tremendous critical acclaim, she went onto The Fast and the Furious franchise. Not looking back, she has become synonymous with action films and has starred in some of the most successful, kick-ass movies of the last 17 years.
Unstoppable, unapologetic, and uncontainable, Ms. Rodriguez continues to amaze and inspire. She is the perfect living example of our festival’s mission statement, and we are proud to award her this honor. (Biography)
Artemis Women in Action Film Festival 2018 Winners
