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Once again, the Films by Women Madrid Festival contributed to give visibility to the work and point of view of women in the audio-visual and cinematographic creation through a national and international selection of fiction, animation and documentary feature films directed and/or produced by women.
During its sixth edition, held from October 24th to November 5th 2023, 70 feature films from 30 countries were screened, and 15 professional and training activities took place –7 round tables, 3 conversations with professionals from the industry, a lecture and 4 debates– in the 20 face-to-face venues that hosted the festival. In addition, 24 encounters were held with the directors of the films, who spoke with the audience after their screenings.
The Focus Section of the sixth edition featured German filmography, with a selection of 12 films that were screened at the Academia de Cine, Cineteca Madrid and the Goethe-Institut Madrid. The program was supported by the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut and German Films.
This 2023 the festival once again went beyond the capital, thanks to our own online channel in the independent film platform FILMIN, that broadcasted six films from to the sixth edition including The Cord of Life (脐带) by Qiao Sixue, with more than 4,300 views, and Prejudice and Pride - Swedish Film Queer (Fördom och stolthet - En queer filmhistoria) by Eva Beling. In addition, 8madridTV broadcasted six feature films directed by women from its audiovisual collection.
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The results of the sixth edition demonstrate, once again, the importance of the visibility of cinema directed by women and the interest aroused by initiatives like this one. This edition has managed to fill a large number of movie theaters throughout its program, reaching a total of 6,065 in-person attendees: 5,348 at the screenings -9 SOLD OUTS- 637 at the professional and training activities, 35 at the press conference and 45 at the networking meetings.
In addition, it has also attracted 28,965 viewers online: 7,820 on FILMIN; 20,000 on 8madridTV; 637 at galas and screenings; and 490 at professional and training activities. The 2023 edition has therefore gathered a total audience of 35,030 spectators.
As it could not be otherwise, the festival profited the directors' stay in Madrid at the festival, having therefore the opportunity to talk with some of them about their feature films, the subjects behind their creations, their personal vision of the industry, and the changes that they are experiencing in terms of equity. Some of these interviews are already available, as well as the summary videos of the 6th edition and some of the professional and training activities that can be watched on the official channel of the festival on YouTube. Don't miss them!
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The Professional Career Award, awarded by the festival's Programming Committee, went this year to Catherine Gautier, who was part of the program team of the Filmoteca Española since January 1975 and was appointed Deputy Director and Head of Programming at the Cine Doré - Filmoteca Española in 1989, a position she held until the end of 2016. For this reason, we owe her many of the best film specials that we have been able to enjoy for more than 41 years at the headquarters of this institution, in which she has given us her view of cinema and has given voice to new cultural references, as well as giving visibility to women filmmakers of all times, genders and nationalities.
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The 2023 Best Film of the International Competition was awarded to How to have Sex, by British director Molly Manning Walker. The award for "Best Spanish Film" of the Spanish Competition, went to The Master Who Promised the Sea by Patricia Font.
The jury of the International Competition, made up of the Panamanian director Ana Endara, the Spanish actress Natalia de Molina and the Spanish writer and film man Vicente Molina Foix, also decided to give a special mention to the film El Eco by Tatiana Huezo "for its refined way of merging real lives and documentary chronicle".
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On the other hand, in the 13 collaborating venues that made up the Parallel Sections, a varied vision of cinema directed by women was screened with a total of 24 titles, including fiction, documentaries, animation and short films, by female directors from four continents, mostly awarded at festivals around the world.
It is also worth mentioning the International Panorama section at Cineteca Madrid, that screened six recent international titles co-produced by Germany, the Czech Republic, China, the USA, France, the Netherlands, Serbia, Sweden and Türkiye.
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For all these reasons, in the next edition of 2024, the festival will continue to work with equity as an objective and excellence as a banner in bringing to the public a wide variety of the best national and international cinema made by women. Nothing would have been possible without the invaluable contribution of all the collaborating entities and venues that support the festival every year to make it an essential event in the city's cultural calendar.
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