For six whole days in April, Germany's one and only women's film festival will again be putting the public spotlight on films made by women. Over 800 works by women film-makers from across the world were viewed and sifted for the various sections: Panorama | desired! film lust & queer | Country Focus: Mexico | Debut Feature Film Competition | National Competition for Women Directors of Photography and the Schools Programme. From 19 to 24 April, then, you can see around 100 films of all lengths and genres at selected Cologne cinemas by women film-makers from all corners of the globe were viewed and sifted for the final stages of the Debut Feature Film Competition with its prize money of 10,000 EUR. The works nominated come from Bulgaria, Belgium, Germany, England, Ecuador, Israel, Hungary and the USA. This time round, the central theme for many of the directors is the challenging circumstances faced by the young protagonists.
Opening the festival on 19 April is the Israeli contribution SUFAT CHOL (SAND STORM) by Elite Zexer – about a Bedouin family living in Israel's Negev desert. All the competition films are to be screened during the festival at the Odeon Cinema in Cologne. The prize is awarded by a jury of three international specialists. Director, screen writer and producer Ana Cruz Navarro; director and screenwriter Angelina Maccarone and producer Marilyn Watelet have already agreed to sit on the 2016 jury.
The Panorama section aims to show new, exciting, challenging and entertaining films. Feature films, documentaries, essays, avant-garde, experimental and short formats – anything goes!
Catherine Deneuve plays a juvenile court judge in the acclaimed social drama LA TÊTE HAUTE (Standing Tall, F 2015) by Emmanuelle Bercot. It opened the Cannes Festival last year. Over the years, the judge has repeatedly had a lot to do with Maloney (acted splendidly by Rod Paradot). In fact, he first appeared before her the age of six! Thanks to her outstanding cast, Bercow comes up with a true tour de force, an accurate portrait of a problem child – without becoming maudlin.
Sibylle Berg somehow always manages to provoke. From East German refugee to best-seller author, her life story sounds almost as if she had written it herself. Whereas previously Berg went searching for happiness, though, today she's looking for a house. WER HAT ANGST VOR SIBYLLE BERG? (Who's Afraid of Sibylle Berg?) is the title of the documentary by Sigrun Köhler and Wiltrud Baier about this unique ironic author and playwright. We learn what the masculine form of "writers" is; why on photos they rest their heads in their hands; what useful things one could do in communist East Germany – ice diving, for instance; and, not least, that behind every shy author a shy person does hide. Plus, a still from the film forms the key visual for this year's festival.
I Don’t Belong Anywhere - The Cinema of Chantal Akerman
The desired! film lust & queer section is here to present a best-of selection of the latest queer feminist film, films like SUMMERTIME, REGARDING SUSAN SONTAG, FEMALE TO WHAT THE FUCK and many more.
Country Focus: Mexico
Within the framework of the official Mexico Year in Germany 2016/2017, the Dortmund|Cologne International Women's Film Festival is pleased to organise a Country Focus on Mexico.
Please find more information about the program 2016 in the enclosure and on our website www.frauenfilmfestival.eu