The International Women’s Film Festival in Dortmund Germany has announced the eight films that will be in competition for International Feature Film Competition for Women Directors.
The Oscar nominated También la lluvia (Even The Rain) directed by Icíar Bollaín, will be the opening film.
Other films include:
Attenberg — Athina Rachel Tsangari
Brownian Movement — Nanouk Leopold
Dom — Zuzana Liová
La mosca en la ceniza (The Fly in the Ashes) — Gabriela David
Lo spazio bianco (The White Space) — Francesca Comencini
Noir Océan (Black Ocean) — Marion Hansel
Rich Ting West (Heading West) — Nicole van Kilsdonk
Here’s some info about why these films were chosen from the press release:
Four of the eight films in the competition are premieres here in Germany — the Belgian entry, for example, Noir Océan (Black Ocean) by Marion Hänsel, which examines the French nuclear bomb tests on the Mururoa Atolls, or the Greek drama film Attenberg by Athina Rachel Tsangari, which has already picked up a number of awards. Many of the competition films would slot seamlessly into the thematic field of this year’s festival: Now What — Films about getting out off here. For all the directors tackle controversial subjects and adopt a clear stance in the process. They uncover social wrongs, show the consequences of political injustice and deliver stylish and challenging analyses of the gender divide in the 21st century.
The winning film gets a 25,000 euro prize which will be split with the director and the distribution company to help encourage more women directed films.
Full disclosure — I will be attending this festival next month as one of the jury members. The other jury members are actress Maren Kroymann, and Claudia Landsberger, head of the Netherland film institute EYE film and one the founding members of EFP (European Film Promotion). I am very excited to attend. I will be blogging about my experience on the jury as much as I can and I am excited to meet all the directors and film professionals who will be in attendance and to learn from them. I will also be speaking at an event sponsored by Women in Film Germany.
More to come.
