International Feature Film Competition for Women Directors

International Feature Film Competition for Women Directors

»THERE’S A CULTURAL COUNTER-REVOLUTION GOING ON RIGHT NOW, WHICH WE SEE WITH JAROSŁAW KACZYN´ SKI, AS WELL AS IN RUSSIA AND THE US, COUNTRIES REPRESENTED BY MEN WHO HAVE A POPULIST AUTHORITARIAN AGENDA THAT DIRECTLY ATTACKS WOMEN’S RIGHTS AND NATURE CONSERVATION.«
AGNIESZKA HOLLAND

The seventh edition of the Award for Best Woman Director of a Feature Film will take place in Dortmund. Eight new feature films are competing for the €15,000 first prize, to be split between the director (€5,000) and the German distributor (€10,000). The list of previous winners includes some illustrious names: Keren Yedaya (2005), Andrea Arnold (2007), Maren Ade (2009), Athina Rachel Tsangari (2011), Małgośka Szumowska (2013) and Naomi Kawase (2015). The competition has a clear aim: to honour women feature film directors who have found their own narrative style, and to promote the distribution of their films in Germany.
Films are always a vehicle for communicating issues central to the society in which they are of importance. But not everyone gets the chance to be represented and heard. This applies to roles behind the camera and also on the big screen. Complex female characters who have something to say, nonwhite people, people whose perspective and lifestyle do not marry with the hetero-normative position, are still rarely seen in mainstream cinema. In real life, too, they are currently experiencing a rising number of political setbacks.
This year’s competition brings together women directors who are overcoming these forms of marginalisation – some having done so for decades now. No fewer than four star directors are nominated: Sally Potter, Agnieszka Holland, Marion Hänsel and Dominique Cabrera.
The selection includes films that explore globally and socially contentious topics, and all films feature characters who are strong yet hitherto unnoticed, whose stories have remained unknown up to now. The main character in Holland’s Spoor is an eccentric, retired female civil engineer who campaigns for more conscientious dealings with our natural environment. The thriller is an allegory of the deeply divided society that Holland’s native Poland has become under its populist-nationalist government. Sally Potter’s star-studded British screwball satire The Party is an explosive social comedy. Potter makes a statement on role stereotypes and political ideals and tells the story of people who, before the UK’s referendum on EU membership, »had lost touch with politics and their ability at all to judge what is the truth.« (Sally Potter)
The same idea, in another guise, also applies to the two women soldiers in The Stopover by Delphine and Muriel Coulin. Returning from Afghanistan, the pair spend three days with their troop in a luxury resort in Cyprus – for »decompression« as it’s called in military jargon. The film presents striking images for this bizarre situation and highlights the far-reaching effect of having experienced violence. Tess by Meg Rickards is also a fervent appeal against sexual violence and »rape culture«. Rickards depicts the life of young sex worker Tess and presents a less familiar picture of the white lower class in South Africa.
A keen interest in young protagonists again features prominently in this year’s competition. How do young people cope with increasingly hostile attitudes? How do they find their own way in conflicting social systems? How do they resist patriarchal norms? These issues are covered in the coming-of-age stories Corniche Kennedy, Don’t Call Me Son, and Parisienne. Marion Hänsel’s maritime road movie Upstream joins the ranks of people and stories rarely found in this complexity in mainstream cinema. _Stefanie Görtz