LOS ANGELES — Adult site xHamster today launched a fund for women filmmakers to grow its “Porn for Women” category.
xHamster plans on committing more than $25,000 to provide new and established filmmakers awards and grants, ranging from smaller contests to major development deals, said Alex Hawkins, xHamster’s vice president.
“Over the past few years, we’ve seen the number of women coming to our site skyrocket. Women make up more than a quarter of our fans but 95 percent of production is intended for a male audience,” Hawkins said. “We want to launch a revolution in content made by and for women, and we want to see it on xHamster.”
Awards and grants individually range in size from $500 to $10,000, Hawkins noted.
Submissions can range from short clips to full-scale productions. Smaller, amateur clips will compete in monthly showcases for judged awards.
More established productions can apply for grant money to help supplement their productions and pay performers a fair wage. Larger productions can apply to xHamster for co-production status.
In most cases, xHamster is not requesting or retaining any ownership of the content.
A rotating panel of women, featuring performers, journalists, academics directors and xHamster staff, will judge the submissions.
“We’re hoping to see strong Porn for Women submissions at every level of production, from homemade phone clips to sex tapes to large-scale productions,” Hawkins said. “We’re hoping to use this fund to help better understand what women respond to, while giving them the financial incentive to create it.”
Applications and information about the Porn for Women Fund are available at xHamster.com/media/women. Submissions for grant and award money will begin Saturday, Sept. 1.