International Feature Film Competition for Women Directors

International Feature Film Competition for Women Directors

»The work we do affects the way that we see ourselves and the way that we are seen. Women making films is a radical act. Radicals don’t ask for permission, radicals take it.«
– Ava Duvernay, Selma

It would be difficult to describe the women film directors entered for this year’s competition more aptly than US-American film-maker Ava DuVernay in the above quote. For a start, they can all look back on a long creative film career spanning years or even decades. This alone is a huge achievement considering the fact that the proportion of women directors worldwide making feature films barely exceeds 10%.

The film directors taking part in the 2015 competition have, however, managed to assert themselves. Indeed, many of them are often represented at major international film festivals. And the results speak for themselves. Once women directors have overcome the selection committee hurdle, their success is significantly higher. Małgorzata Szumowska, for example, won the Silver Bear with Body and she was one of only three women out of 23 directors in competition at the Berlin International Film Festival 2015. Likewise, when Mariana Rondon’s Pelo Malo won first prize at the San Sebastian Festival 2013, just two of the directors in competition were women, the second being Jasmila Žbanić. Meanwhile on the Croisette in Cannes, Naomi Kawase is one of the few women directors to be regularly celebrated, for which in 2015 she was honoured with the prestigious Order of Arts and Letters from the French Ministry of Culture. Such successes are primarily rooted in the quality of the films, consisting of unusual stories that confront the viewers with surprising perspectives, characters, developments and attitudes.

The films in this year’s competition are stunning. In Frailer, Mijke de Jong has had the courage to document the mortal illness of her friend, actress Leonoor Pauw, taking it as thestart of a fictional narrative – the story of friendship and its limits in the face of death. In Love Island by Jasmila Žbanić, you can almost feel the pleasure of genre. Following several films in which she processed the traumas of war in the Balkan region, she now confounds expectations with this screwball summer comedy. Though this is also politically justified in that she sets out to show people that life in the region is not entirely miserable and they should perhaps allow themselves some happiness after all these years. Małgorzata Szumowska also uses humorous elements as Body pushes genre boundaries with the tale of a young woman’s eating disorders narrated as black comedy.

The RWE Film Award is thus proud to present exactly those woman directors who are radical enough to have their share of the cake and challenge the conventions of film-making. The prize money of €15,000 is divided into two parts – with two thirds going to the German film distribution company to help promote cinema release in Germany. After all, the films made by women directors first have to get into the cinemas and be screened so that viewing figures can be boosted on a sustainable basis. And that, when buying their tickets at the box office, is what audience members are ultimately adjudicating on.

_Stefanie Görtz