Relaunch
2021 sees the launch of the festival’s new digital format and its new name, logo and fully revamped website. In addition, the format of different programmes for Dortmund and Cologne has been scrapped, with a new harmonised programme brought in; so this year, the current releases from the Panorama and desired! – film lust & queer sections will be shown on Dortmund’s screens, while Cologne’s special country segment makes way for the theme-based Focus.
History
IFFF Dortmund+Köln was born out of the 2006 merging of the two women’s film festivals femme totale (Dortmund) and Feminale (Cologne). An overview of the important historical stations:
2nd Covid-compliant festival & Relaunch
Due to pandemic restrictions, this year’s festival is taking place online from 15 to 20 June.
The new name and relaunch of Internationales Frauen Film Fest Dortmund+Köln reflect how the two festival location profiles have been harmonised – now the sections desired! – film lust & queer, Panorama and also the Focus as a thematic programme are running in both cities.
The new Spot on, NRW! programme will offer women film-makers from NRW a platform to showcase their work.
1st Covid-compliant festival
The pandemic forces the festival to downsize: events and screenings are held from 9 to 13 September in cinemas, but also online.
The festival marks the first awarding of its Shoot – KHM&IFFF Dortmund+Köln Award for Emerging Female Artist of the Academy of Media Arts Cologne and the ECFA Short Film Award presented by the European Children’s Film Association.
Under new management
Maxa Zoller becomes the festival’s artistic director.
New programmes & Networking
2014: The School Film Programme is now presented in both of the festival’s host cities.
2013: A selection programme is also to be presented in the festival city not hosting the main programme.
2012: 1st international network event Discussion on the Status of Women in Film Business and Gender Equity. This event takes place annually during the Berlinale. Representatives of women’s film festivals in Brussels, London, New York, Munich, Hamburg, Rio de Janeiro, Santiago de Chile and Assen in the Netherlands meet up with women film-makers at the festival in Cologne. In August, the International Women Film Festival Network is established.
The National Competition for Women Directors of Photography is to be held every two years in Cologne.
New Awards
2011: The Dortmund Documentary Film Award, worth €10,000, is presented as an honorary award for two years running in Dortmund. Recipients of the award are Helga Reidemeister and Heddy Honigmann (2013).
2009: The Audience Award, worth €1,000, is presented for the first time in Dortmund.
Under new management
Silke J. Räbiger becomes the festival’s artistic director, and Christina Essenberger is the new Festival Administrator.
Amalgamation
Amalgamation of the Feminale and femme totale festivals, creating the new Internationales Frauen Film Fest Dortmund+Köln which then was called Internationales Frauenfilmfestival Dortmund|Köln. The profiles of the two previous festivals are largely retained for both cities until 2019. The femme totale and Feminale organisations initially remain in place.
Beate Preisler and Silke J. Räbiger take over as artistic directors.
New programmes
femme totale launches the Cinematography Workshop Discussion as a new format, with director of photography Sophie Maintigneux as the first guest. Since 2009, she has hosted the biennial event herself and invites fellow women cinematographers to Cologne to talk about their work.
The festival introduces a development training programme for women film-makers. Up until 2014, experts address a range of subjects in the programme, including networking, financing, pitching, sound and copyright.
femme totale presents the International Feature Film Competition for Women Directors. There is a huge disproportion in the number of women who win awards in the major international competitions worldwide. This award, with €25,000 for the winner, is brought in to start shifting the balance in this area. First winner: Keren Yedaya for Or – My Treasure
Afghan women film-makers
femme totale publishes the first German Women Directors Guide. A digital version is published in 2006.
The Afghanistan Unveiled country programme brings films by Afghan women film-makers to the screen in Europe for the first time since the end of the Taliban government.
Camera Award
For the first time, the femme totale Camera Award for Emerging Women Directors of Photography is presented, with prize money of €5,000. First winner: Jutta Pohlmann for England. At that time, the percentage of women behind the camera was still in the low single digits. This prompted the introduction of the 1st International Women Cinematographers’ Conference How to Improve the World.
First women’s film festival conference
1999: In connection with the Feminale film programme Girls, Gangs Guns, the book of the same name is published, edited by Carla Despineux and Verena Mund.
1998: The debut feature film competition Horizonte becomes a fixed item on the schedule at Feminale, worth almost 5,000 Deutschmarks to the winner.
1997: The first women’s film festival conference in Europe takes place in Dortmund.
1996: femme totale and Feminale jointly publish the book 100 Jahre Frauen & Kino (100 Years of Women & Film).
1st Debut Feature Film Award
In its year between festivals, Feminale introduces its Debut Feature Film Award, with 5,000 Deutschmarks in prize money. First winners of the award are Susanne Ofteringer (Nico Icon) and Ngozi Onwurah (Welcome II the Terrordome)
School Film Programme & Soviet Union
1991: The new festival section School Film Programme for Children and Young Adults is launched at femme totale.
1989: With films by Soviet women film-makers as a thematic focus, femme totale presents the world’s first major exhibition of works by Soviet women directors after perestroika.
1st FrauenFilmFestival femme totale
The FrauenFilmFestival femme totale im Revier makes its debut between 29 April and 3 May in Dortmund with the theme Power and violence in films by women film-makers. The festival was held 10 times in Dortmund up until 2005.
Key members of the femme totale team over the years were Karin Bruns ✝, Petra Cornelissen, Gabriele Farr, Cornelia Foell, Stefanie Görtz, Anne Haage, Silke J. Räbiger (artistic director 1993–2018), Anne Schallenberg ✝ (managing director 1995–2007), Betty Schiel, Angelika Schumann, Claudia Schurian, Dora Scott, Isabelle Werner, Helga Wittenborg, Dorothea Zibner and many others.
Beginning of femme totale
femme totale is created by a feminist women’s project group from the Ruhr region: »We wanted to put into action what the ›FuF Frauen und Film‹ feminist film journal was writing about«. The festival modelled itself as a ‘cinema and convention’-style event, and took a cross-genre thematic and historical approach. The international film programme was accompanied by workshops, talks, exhibitions and concerts.
1st FrauenFilmFest Feminale
The inaugural Feminale women’s film festival took place from 27 to 29 April in Cologne. The festival was held 12 times up until 2004. Initially conceived as a showcase for films and videos made by women from the region, the programme broadened out to include European film-making in the years that followed, then transitioning into an international festival in 1988.
Beginning of Feminale
Feminale is created in Cologne by a group of female students of theatre, film and TV theory from the University of Cologne. As a grassroots democratic set-up, the festival saw itself as part of a ›counterculture‹.
Key members of the Feminale team down the years were Mechthild Buchholz, Carla Despineux, Anja Dreschke, Regina Eichen, Gaby Gehlen, Sonja Hofmann, Eva Hohenberger, Marion Kranen, Jennifer Jones, Karin Jurschick, Katja Mildenberger, Christine Moser, Verena Mund, Beate Preisler ✝, Nicole Rebmann, Irene Schoor and many more.
