For the Alliance for Women Film Composers, change happens through community

As they pass the torch to a new generation of leadership, former Alliance for Women Film Composers co-presidents Heather McIntosh and Allyson Newman reflect on expanding the organisation’s reach, strengthening its community and reshaping opportunities in film scoring.

Founded in 2014, the Alliance for Women Film Composers (AWFC) began as a small collective formed to challenge gender disparities in film music. More than a decade later, the organisation has grown into a global network of 1,500 members, connecting women and gender-diverse composers across the industry.

During their three-year tenure as co-presidents, Heather McIntosh and Allyson Newman expanded that reach internationally while strengthening AWFC’s support systems at every career stage. Alongside other groups including Women in Film, Film Fatales and the Composers Diversity Collective, their work has focused on expanding access to an industry where visibility and opportunity remain unevenly distributed.

For McIntosh and Newman, change happens through a multi-pronged approach: connecting talent with filmmakers and producers, championing members’ work in the rooms that matter, and helping diversify the institutions that shape the industry. These efforts are aimed not only at supporting today’s composers but also at creating lasting structures for future generations through committees, mentorship programmes and a year-round calendar of events designed to sustain momentum.

Following the appointment of new co-presidents Taura Stinson and Ronit Kirchman in April, McIntosh and Newman reflect on community-building, systemic barriers and why changing perceptions of who gets to write film scores remains a long-term project.

Can you introduce yourselves and how you got involved with the Alliance for Women Film Composers?

Heather McIntosh: I’m a composer, and I’ve played in bands from all over the place – with Gnarls Barkley, Lil Wayne, on an Animal Collective record… I got into film music 12 years ago when I started working with a filmmaker named Craig Zobel. We did a film called Compliance together, which went to Sundance.

I started working my way up in the film music space and realised that, systemically, we’re dealing with a lot. I had mentors – [AWFC co-founder] Laura Karpman being a big one of them – who had been like, ‘You should think about going into leadership. There’s work to be done’. And so here we are, trying to figure out how to amplify and celebrate women and gender-diverse composers.

Allyson Newman: I come from a classical background in Sydney, and came to the US to study at USC because I wanted to do film scoring. It was something I always wanted to do. When I started working, it very quickly became apparent who was getting hired for jobs and who was getting opportunities. But you find your community. That’s really what the whole industry is actually about: finding the people that are going to give you opportunities and support.

Then, as Heather was saying, at some point we were called to duty, which we both very happily took on. We felt like it was our time – and our responsibility, to a certain extent – to put in the work and support a community that has been supporting us. You can either sit around and wait for things to change, or you can try and do it yourself with a really cool team of people.

For composers entering the industry, is finding community as important as talent and training?

AN: There’s never one path that’s certain in film scoring – there’s always people that just kind of suddenly show up, and they’re superstars – but for the most part, yes. It’s all about that network. It’s also about mixing with other filmmakers, editors and people who are in different crafts, because you honestly never know where jobs are going to come from.

In practical terms, how have you been supporting the AWFC community in your tenure as co-presidents?

HM: We have all these things that are moving together: our mentorship programme has grown, our educational [ventures] have grown, and over the past three years, our international reach has grown. Especially our UK branch – there are so many events that they’ve been putting on. Most recently, there was a concert put on in London with Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch, who just recently did H is for Hawk, Hannah Peel, Nigji Sanges and Sofia degli Alessandri, who scored Prime Minister. These are incredible composers who provided an opportunity for a showcase and get-together. 

One of the things that we’ve been trying to explore is bringing filmmakers, producers and music editors to us, and having events that are inclusive for everyone. We are so thankful for our composer community, but if we’re just a bunch of composers in a room, it doesn’t really create an opportunity to connect with the infrastructure that lives around us.

AN: We have a mentorship programme now that crosses over with Women in Film as well. That gives our members an opportunity to mix with their fellows who are directors, writers, producers. We’re creating a nice cross-pollination there. 

The vast majority of working women and gender-diverse composers are sitting at a particular level. There are a few who we are getting through to big studio projects, but that’s been our biggest barrier, so we’ve been doing a lot of work there by making connections at film festivals too. People need mentorship at different levels – it’s not just young or emerging people. The organisation creates pipelines for those conversations to be accessible.

What strategies do you have to help people break past that barrier and catch the attention of major film studios?

HM: It’s about visibility: supporting up-and-coming talent, festival outreach, being able to say within our socials, ‘Look at these folks who have films at Sundance or Cannes’. We can shine a light on their work. 

AN: Another thing that we’re trying to do is work with members that we have in voting bodies – whether it’s the AMPAS, the Television Academy or the Recording Academy. We’re finding ways to nominate other people who are ready to be in those spaces. The more women, gender-diverse composers and people of colour that you can get in these spaces, the more it starts to change the voting landscape.

You’ve been running since 2014. What kind of progress have you seen in that time?

AN: In terms of hiring practices, [equality improved] for 10 years, slowly. In 2023 it was at its height, and then it dropped. We reflect what is going on in the world, you know? In politics, especially in the US. [The industry is] a direct reflection of that.

HM: But our membership has also grown incredibly. The communication between members, celebrating each other’s wins – there’s been a shift there too. 

AN: We continue on an upward trajectory.

HM: As [AWFC co-founder] Laura Karpman said at the beginning: we’re gonna do this organisation until we don’t need it anymore. Until we’ve got parity.

Can you share an example of someone whose career has flourished as a result of this work?

AN: As an organisation, we’ve been very careful to make people feel included. Everyone gets an equal amount of support, so I don’t think, as an organisation, we can pinpoint.

But we’ve seen the growth of a lot of different composers, and it is really exciting when you see one of your friends do really well and get an award, or have a film that gets a theatrical release. Like, that’s huge! That’s fun. That’s the good bits.

Film composition appears to be particularly male-dominated, even compared with some other areas of music, from major Hollywood productions to experimental and independent scoring scenes. Are there characteristics of the field itself that might help explain this imbalance?

AN: It’s systemic sexism. The face of what a ‘composer’ looks like has been implanted in our brains for such a long time. It takes a long time to change that narrative and that visual. Which is why we spend so much time plastering people’s faces on our social media – so people start seeing different kinds of faces, and being like, ‘Oh, that’s what a composer looks like’. It’s not just one dude with hair.

HM: The powdered wig… It’s so baked in from the time you’re a little squirt. We’re working from, like, Mozart. It’s baked in classical music, it’s baked in avant-garde music.

AN: It’s in everything.

HM: We’re like a little eight-armed octopus over here, like, ‘We’ve got to do this, and this, and this…’ It’s the only way that you can chip away at it.

There is also an additional layer of challenges and discrimination that trans and gender-diverse composers face.

AN: That’s a space that we’re trying to grow in as well: to make sure that those people feel welcome and supported within our organisation.

What other goals does AWFC have for the next few years?

HM: To focus on producing and publishing rights. There are a lot of places where education is so important to help people advocate for themselves. We can provide a framework there. 

AN: Growth into different regions is really important, like Asia and South America. One of our new board members is down in Mexico City, and one did a programme in Colombia last year.

But ultimately, it’s changing the narrative. It’s changing the face of what a composer ‘looks like’ and who’s getting hired for jobs. It’s creating pipelines and sharing stories and experiences in global communities. That’s a big change, and it takes a really long time. Thankfully, there are always young people. Heather and I’ve been co-presidents for the past three years, but Taura Stinson and Ronit Kirchman are about to take the reins. They’re a fantastic team.

HM: Hopefully, we’ve set up the infrastructure really well to be able to hand this off. It’ll be up to every round of leadership to explore new aspects, and we want it to be elastic in that way. It will be really exciting to see where this new crew goes.