Despite their trailblazing contributions to the medium, women are historically under-recognized and underrepresented in the film industry. In 95 years of the Academy Awards, only seven have been nominated for Best Director — and only three have won. This erasure within the award sphere has real-world effects on female filmmakers, making it more difficult for them to receive funding and closing them out of opportunities readily available to their male counterparts.

For Women's History Month, we were briefed to come up with new creative that expanded the First Strides ethos and tapped into the insight that women were under-represented at the Oscars. Strategically, we chose to celebrate the accomplishments of filmmaking women, rather than calling further attention to the men pushing them out of the category. Thus, our communication goal was two-fold: amplify the voices of female filmmakers, and encourage the public to do the same by watching more women-made

We turned Hollywood's most iconic symbol on its head by creating our own red carpet, honoring the industry-defying strides of female filmmakers. Our tapestry featured seven innovative filmmaking women from around the world, none of whom had ever been nominated for Best Director.

To further even the playing field, we partnered with streaming platform/production company MUBI to promote women-made films. Whenever someone searched for Oscar nominations online, we redirected them toward MUBI’s women-made films offering. We continued to celebrate throughout the month with Women-Made Wednesday, a social content experience inviting viewers to pour a custom cocktail and watch more women-made films.

But we didn't stop there. Thanks to our surround-sound media plan, media outlets that covered the Oscars shifted their stories from women's fashion to women-made films. We also projected our “watch more women-made films” message in 200+ cinemas and sent cocktail kits to influencers to drive awareness.

Taking from the insight that women filmmakers make up only 24%* of the top filmmaking roles in the industry, we set three objectives: celebrate the achievements of trailblazing women with Women In Film, inspire future generations of women storytellers, and provide greater access to women-told stories with MUBI.

We leveraged the cultural moment of the Oscars to insert Johnnie Walker into the conversation, using the symbol of the red carpet to raise awareness about the lack of recognition of women filmmakers.

By leaning into partnerships with Women In Film and MUBI, we were able to further expand our reach to consumers, with the call to action “watch more women-made films.”

*Lauzen, M. M. (2023, January 2). Employment of Behind-the-Scenes Women on Top Grossing U.S. Films in 2022.

Our red carpet honoring filmmaking women unrolled at various Oscars parties around Los Angeles, namely Women In Film's and Vanity Fair's. We partnered with Laura Dern and Chloé Zhao to further amplify our message at the events.

At the same time, we took to the streets, plastering our message across iconic Hollywood landmarks like the Walk of Fame using wheat-pastings and projections. We also projected our “watch more women-made films” message in 200+ theaters and sent out custom cocktail kits to influencers.

Our MUBI partnership and Women-Made Wednesday initiative was live throughout March. Anyone who signed up was able to watch women-made films for free, for a month, courtesy of Johnnie Walker.

Coverage surrounding Red Carpet Strides was overwhelmingly positive, reaching a wide range of consumer audiences across ad/marketing trade and entertainment publications including Ad Age, The Drum, and The Hollywood Reporter.

Our amplifying spokesperson Chloé Zhao spoke to The Hollywood Reporter and Variety before the Oscars, emphasizing the importance of uplifting women in film.

The WIF Oscar Party was filled with change-making women, like Malala Yousafzai, Raven-Symone, Sophia Bush, Barbie Ferreira, and Christina Hendricks.

Our MUBI partnership was also successful. Women-made films clicks increased by 80% in March vs. February, directly due to our campaign. Views for the Women Directors group increased by 90%.

Overall, Red Carpet Strides has generated impactful conversation across the media landscape, producing over 90 placements, 66.5m media impressions, and 1.9 billion earned impressions to date.

Since launching the First Strides initiative in March 2022, Johnnie Walker has contributed $1M+ to support women's progress.