It is a Festival that wants to make visible women’s work and standpoint in cinematic creation by showing an international selection of fiction and documentary films made by women.

The 3rd edition will take place from 15th to 26th April 2020 when more than 40 movies from the last two years will be screened. During 12 days, female directors, producers and other female industry professionals will be invited to present their work and interact with the public before and after the screenings.

Training sessions, roundtables and debates will take place with an inclusive approach to the industry: female directors, screenwriters, producers, festival directors, directors of photography, editors, sound engineers, art directors, location managers, scripts, music composers and more. This is about cinema created by women.

It is a Festival promoted by women and men who want to give visibility to the cinematographic work of an important part of the population that does not always manage to reach the public under equal conditions as men do.

Through three awards, the festival proposes inspiring models for the youngest filmmakers.

Outstanding Career in the Film Industry Award
The Women Film Festival wants to give an award each year to a woman, or an institution, that stands out for their creative or professional contributions to the film industry. This year the recipient is the editor Teresa Font. This honorific award consists of a jewel-prize designed by the reputed Chus Burés.

Award for Best Film by Women of the Film Festival 2019
The Award for Best Film by Women will be decided by an international jury integrated by Sahari Frilot, Arantxa Aguirre y Álex Mendíbil who decided that this year’ winning film was Fig Tree (Israel) by Alamork Davidian.

The Prize will consists of:
– Jewel Award designed by renowned Spanish artist Chus Burés.
– Award FREE YOUR MIND: correction of the colour in 4K of the following feature film of the director of the award winning film for three weeks in Mistika cinema room of digital film FYM.
– SUBTITULA’M Award to support the distribution of the award winning film: The creation of a DCP in Original version subtitled in Spanish.
– BLOGOS DE ORO Award with a jury composed by Verónica Dávila Verasategui, María Reinoso García y Susana Cabeza Santana. The prize went to Fig Tree (Israel) by Alamork Davidian.

IBERIA Audience Award
The IBERIA Audience Award, which consists on a cash prize of 3.000 euros, will be given thanks to the collaboration of the airline company with the Women Film Festival, whose mission identifies with two of the objectives which IBERIA focuses on: the support and transmission of initiatives for the Spanish culture, as part of their project #talentoabordo, and, on another plane, their compromise with equal opportunities for women, boosting their presence in all spheres and levels, which IBERIA foments through their Plan for Diversity and Inclusion. The IBERIA Audience Award will be voted on by the attendants to the Competition Section. Voters will participate in a raffle for two IBERIA gift plane tickets. This edition it went to the film The kindergarten teacher (USA) by Sara Colangelo

The In Competition Section of the Festival will have 10 films from the last two years -2017, 2018-, not yet released in Madrid, chosen by the Festival’s Programming Committee and directed by one of more female directors from any country.

The Festival has eight screening venues, one for Virtual Reality pieces and one on-line venue:
– Palacio de la Prensa
– Cine Estudio del Círculo de Bellas Artes
– Academia de las Artes y las Ciencias Cinematográficas
– Sala Berlanga de la Fundación SGAE
– Sala Iberia de la Casa de América
– Casa Árabe, Madrid and Córdoba
– Institut Français de Madrid
– Filmoteca Española
– Sala XR del Espacio Fundación Telefónica (Virtual Reality)
– Filmin.es (On-line venue)

The Festival has 4 venues for training and other Industry activities:
– Academia de las Artes y las Ciencias Cinematográficas de España
– Auditorio del Espacio Fundación Telefónica
– Salón de Actos de la Comunidad de Madrid
– Casa de América

We will focus on Switzerland as an example of good practices, due to the results of its recent gender equality criterion in policies, in particular, the Federal Office of Culture program on gender and cinema encouragement: “La question du genre dans l’encouragement du cinema”- 2016/2020. Thanks to this program films made by women receiving Federal financial aid went, in just four years, from 20% to 35%.

The Swiss film industry has internationally acclaimed female directors, both in the fiction and in the documentary fields, despite counting on smaller budgets and perceiving much lower financial compensation for their work than their male colleagues.

Click here for more information

The In Competition Section of the Festival has 10 films chosen by the Festival’s Programming Committee. They have been directed in the last two years, 2017 AND 2018 and have not yet been released in Madrid. They are directed by one of more female directors from any country.

DIRECTED BY WOMEN

They movies will be selected by Festival’s Programming Committee and have to be directed by one of more female directors from any country.

– Fiction Feature Film (70 minutes minimum)
– Documentary Feature Film  (70 minutes minimum)
– Animation Feature Film (70 minutes minimum)

SELECTED WORKS

A notification will be issued to the person or company that sent the copy of each film, with instructions for the transfer to Madrid of the screening copy DCP, H264 or HD Digital.

In order to be screened an email with the below mentioned data has to be sent including:

– Stills, image document of the film’s poster and a picture of the director/s.
– A Word document containing: a logline of no more than a sentence + a film synopsis of no more than a paragraph + the director’s biofilmography +the film’s technical and artistic data + former festivals participation and/or awards granted + Premiere Date
– Trailer.

PROGRAMMING AND SCREENING RIGHTS

The organization reserves the right to screen the selected films during the Festival as many times as it sees fit with prior agreement with the right-holders.

The right-holders agree to the free reproduction of images or excerpts of a minute maximum from the selected films in press, television and any other media aimed to promote the Festival.

2019 JURY

The Award for Best Film, granted by an international jury comprised of renowned professionals, will be presented at the Festival’s closing ceremony.
The Jury’s decision will not be open to appeal.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS ACCEPTANCE

The participation in this competition implies the acceptance of the above detailed terms and conditions.