The festival will be held in two stages this year. The online screenings, which will start with the press conference to be held on May 27, can be watched on the Festivalscope platform. Following the online screenings that will end on June 3, the Flying Broom Awards will be given to the winners at the ceremony to be held on June 4. Festival films will meet with the audience at Doğan Taşdelen Contemporary Arts Center and the open-air cinema in CerModern between June 4-11.
The festival will be held with the valuable support of nearly 20 institutions prominently Ankara Metropolitan Municipality, Çankaya Municipality, Yenimahalle Municipality; Ankara City Council, European Union Think Civil Program, UN Women (United Nations Women's Unit), Ankara Chamber of Commerce, Ankara Chamber of Industry 2nd Organized Industrial Zone, Women Employers and Industrialists Association – KAİSDER. In addition, MG Agency, which undertook the festival's promotion campaign; Kendine Has, CerModern, Penti, are among the organizations that contributed to the festival. The embassies of Germany, France, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Italy, Canada, and Norway, whose countries' films screened in the program, also supported the festival as well as every year.
12 Films Competing for the FIPRESCI Award
The films that will compete for the FIPRESCI Award at the festival will be screened both online and at the festival venues in the section called Each Different Color. Samaher Alqadi's documentary "As I Want", which was also screened at the Berlin Film Festival, about the revolt of Egyptian women against the gang rapes that took place in the streets during the demonstrations on the second anniversary of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, Amanda Kernell's "Charter", in which Alice, unable to meet her husband's children after a difficult divorce, takes every risk and abducts her children to the Canary Islands, "Made in Bangladesh", in which Rubaiyat Hossain tells the story of Shiumu, a textile worker who was overwhelmed by the pressure from the bosses at work and her husband at home and decided to form a union with the women in the factory where he worked, "When I'm Done Dying", which is written and directed by Nisan Dağ, tells the story of Fehmi in a poor district of Istanbul, where rap and addiction are intertwined, and stands out with the soundtracks made for the film, Kaouther Ben Hania's "The Man Who Sold His Skin," tells the story of Sam Ali, a Syrian refugee who consented to have his skin turned into a work of art by a world-renowned artist so he could go to Europe
are among the films to be evaluated by the FIPRESCI jury.
Other films in the FIPRESCI Competition are "My Wonderful Wanda", which was also screened at the Tribeca Film Festival, in which Bettina Oberli tells the story of the character Wanda, which she created based on immigrant women, mostly Hungarian and Polish, who work as caregivers for wealthy families in Switzerland;
"Restless River", where Marie-Hélène Cousineau and Madeline Ivalu follow Elsa's journey, set in the 1940s in Nunavik, under colonial occupation in northern Canada, who did not succumb to the traditions of her people, Inuks, or the oppression of the colonists.
By Icíar Bollaín, "Rosa's Wedding" featuring the well-known Spanish actress Candela Peña with his distinctive female roles in the films "All About My Mother", "Take My Eyes" and "Princesses", as Rosa who inspired by the newspaper reports about self-marrying women in Asian countries, decided to change the life she devoted to her family in her mid-40s.
By Anne Zohra Berrached, based on the true story of Ziad Jarrah and her lover Aysel Şengün, one of the perpetrators of the September 11 attack, "Copilot" tells the story of the marriage of Aslı, who is on her way to become a promising scientist, and Saeed, who is studying dentistry, despite the objections of their families and Saeed's radicalization,
Directed by Rintu Thomes and Sushmit Ghosh and won the Special Jury and Audience Awards in the World Cinema-Documentary section of the Sundance Film Festival, "Writing With Fire", which focuses on the correspondents and the transition to digital media of the weekly newspaper Khabar Lahariya, founded by Dalit women, who are among the lowest in the caste system in India, and broadcasts in different dialects of Hindi.
Małgorzata Szumowska and Michał Englert's "Never Gonna Snow Again," tells in a dark and humorous style how the immigrant masseur Zhenia, who crossed the border from Ukraine to Poland, got a job in a top-notch estate and changed the lives of the residents,
"Skies of Lebanon" is Chloé Mazlo's film, in which she also incorporates animation, of which she is a master, about a family whose happy life was turned upside down by the outbreak of the civil war in Lebanon in 1975, inspired by her grandmother's life.
In addition, Chloé Mazlo, director of Skies of Lebanon, and Nisan Dağ, director of Another Breath, will answer questions from the audience after the film screening to be held outdoors.
Women's Memory stretches from London to Beirut, from Naples to Bethlehem!
Directed and starring Maïwenn, one of the films in the Women's Memory selection, "ADN", which also bears traces of her own life story, tells the story of a large family that comes together around Neige's grandfather, who has Alzheimer's disease, who is staying in a nursing home, despite their difficult relationships.
"Nevia", which director Nunzia De Stefano set out from the container neighborhood where she spent her childhood while writing the script, tells the world of seventeen-year-old Nevia, who is trying to support her family with small jobs, that has changed with the circus that came to the neighborhood.
Natalie Erika James's emotional retelling of death and the progression of the disease, "Relic," brings to the screen the story of a daughter who faces her mother's dementia and whose elderly mother goes missing.
"Where Are You Going, Aida?/Quo Vadis Aida?" by Jamila Žbanić, who was nominated for the Best International Film category for the Oscar Awards this year, in which Aida, who was a translator for the United Nations in Srebrenica, tried to save the lives of her husband and children during the war.
"Ghosts", in which Azra Deniz Okyay, who won the Future Lion Award in Venice and the Best Film Award at the Antalya Film Festival, tells the story of 4 different characters who cross paths on a day when there was a power cut across the country, in an innovative and striking language.
Céline Sciamma's film, "Petite Mama", which received critical acclaim for Portrait of a Teenage Girl on Fire, includes pieces from her childhood,
"Memory Box" and "I'm Your Man", which met with the audience as part of the main competition at the Berlin Film Festival in February, are also in the selection. Directed by Khalil Joreige and Joana Hadjithomas, Memory Box tells the story of a young girl who learns everything she never knew about her mother from a box full of letters, photographs, and audio recordings from the 80s, while Maria Schrader's "I'm Your Man" tells the story of meeting our emotional needs of the technology we are captive and looking for an answer to the question of how much it can afford.
The America of women is different from America we know!
Written and directed by Chloé Zhao, adapted from Jessica Bruder's book “Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century”, one of the films to be screened in the Women's America selection, “Nomadland”, which won the Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actress Oscars, is inspired by real events, a story of homelessness.
It tells the story of Fern, who is in her 60s, and her struggle to earn a living with temporary jobs after losing her job and her husband.
"Shirley", Josephine Decker's adaptation of Susan Scarf Merrell's book of the same name, which tells a chapter from the life of the famous horror novelist Shirley Jackson, starring Elisabeth Moss, Gia Cappola's film "Mainstream", in which emojis play an important role and present a critique of what social media brings to our lives, "Promising Young Woman," the winner of the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and controversial in feminist circles, is Emerald Fennell's ambitious student Cassandra who drops out of school and dedicates herself to avenging her friend's rape. Another film in the selection is "The Assistant," which focusing on one day of Kitty Green as an executive assistant for a film company, Jane, and offers an inside look at #MeToo.
Women's History is written by women!
This year's festival features documentaries where female directors look back at history and pass it through their sifters. In the section titled Women's History, Rubika Shah, whose films met with the audience at the Berlin Film Festival, sheds light on the anti-fascist struggle carried out with punk aesthetics in the 1970s in London, where the “Black Lives Matter” movement today responds, "White Riot", the movie named after the song “The Clash”.
Sofía Rocha's film "Street Out", which will make its world premiere at the festival, tells the story of the cross paths of sex workers in Argentina with feminism and their struggle for their rights; Shengze Zhu's film A River Runs, Turns, Erases, Replaces, where she commemorates the losses of Wuhan, the city first hit by the Covid disaster, which she shot by the river before the epidemic started in January 2020 and Wuhan was closed, by giving place to the letters they sent to each other.
"Both Muslim and Feminist" by Nebiye Arı, focusing on Konca Kuriş's feminism and the feminization process of Muslim women, "Patrida", shot by Ayça Damgacı with Tümay Göktepe, focusing on the revisit of the lands where her 87-year-old Western Thrace immigrant father İsmet Damgacı was born and left due to forced migration, "Ah Gözel Istanbul", which Zeynep Dadak revisits 350 years later, following the writings of Traveller Eremya Çelebi Kömürciyan, on Istanbul, one of the most layered cities in the world, "Faya Dayi", the film of Jessica Beshir, who fled the conflicts in Ethiopia with her family and settled in Mexico, her mother's hometown, in her youth, when she returns to her childhood home and reflects on daily life and people, "When the Milk is Money", in which Nihan Ağır Işıkman tells the story of women who revive milk and cheese production in the village of Boğatepe, Kars, by protecting biodiversity despite all the harsh conditions and Öğrenci's "Gurbet is a Home Now", which tells the current effects of discriminatory urban policies against guest workers in Berlin, giving the floor to immigrant women, through their experiences, are other documentaries in the festival program.
Again with "Four Mothers" in this episode, directors Dana Keidar Levin and Rephael Levin talk about the peaceful struggle of four mothers who united their voices to prevent more soldiers from dying in the security zone created by Israel during the occupation of Lebanon; "Walchensee Forever" directed by Janna Ji Wonders, which received great acclaim at the Berlin Film Festival last year, tells the story of four generations in the director's family through the eyes of women who, in their way, opposed male-dominated structures in their own time. "Dying to Divorce", directed by Chloe Fairweather over five years, looks at the legal side of the fight against male violence against women in Turkey, and tells the battle for justice between the political turmoil of two women, who were attacked and maimed by the men they live with, and their lawyers.
The directors of the documentaries to be screened in the Women's History section; Ayça Damgacı, Tümay Göktepe, Nebiye Arı, Zeynep Dadak, Pınar Student and Nihan Yavaş will meet with the audience after the screenings of their films.
In the Short Wave section, there will be twelve short films shot by women to be screened as part of the "Ear to Ear" Collective Video Production Workshop within the framework of Anadolu Kültür's BAK project, in addition to Aylin Kuryel's "Balcony and Our Dreams", Rasel Meseri and Aylin Kuryel's "Cemile Sezgin", Büşra Bülbül's "Bleached", Burcu Görgün Toptaş's "Forty Candles", Irmak Karasu's "Mamaville" ", Ayşe Nur Gençalp's "Names Gone First", Umut Alaz Kökçü's "Best Actress" and Nursel Doğan's "Hûşbe!/Shut up!". Also, Farah Nabulsi's BAFTA Award-winning, Oscar-nominated short film "The Present" will be screened in this episode. "The Present" is about Yusuf, who passes through the checkpoint that the Israeli state puts between Bethlehem and Jerusalem every morning to go to work, this time with his daughter from the military zone. The directors of the films in the Short Wave section will also meet with the audience after the screenings.
On the other hand, "Rocca Changes the World", which will attract the attention of both children and adults, will be shown in the section "If Girls Want It," directed by Katia Benrath with the contributions of Cüneyt Cebenoyan Children's and Cinema Platform, about a brave 12-year-old girl standing on her own feet. The film will meet with little moviegoers free of charge on June 9 at 17.00 in the open area in front of the City Council.
Awards will be given on the evening of June 4th!
The awards given by the 24th Flying Broom International Women's Film Festival to emphasize the importance of women's work in our cinema and to encourage the new generation of female filmmakers will be presented at the ceremony to be held on the evening of June 4. This year Honor Awards go to actress Nur Sürer and actress-singer Zuhal Olcay; Bilge Olgaç Achievement Awards go to actress-singer Ayta Sözeri, actress Demet Evgar, musician Ekin Fil and Meetings on the Bridge Manager Gülin Üstün; The Young Witch Award will be given to actress Ahsen Eroğlu.
"The Cherry is Blossoming" starring Nur Sürer, one of the actors to whom the Flying Broom Awards will be presented; "Hidden Face" starring Zuhal Olcay; "Between the Family" starring Demet Evgar and Ayta Sözeri; "Anxiety", for which Ekin Fil composed the music, are among the films to be screened within the framework of the festival.
This year's Theme Awards goes to; ESIK - Women's Platform for Equality, which was established to protect the vested rights of women, Ni Una Menos (We Will Not Miss One More), which started in Argentina and whose struggle against femicide spread all over Latin America, and the struggle for the right to abortion of Polish women, Strajk Kobiet (Women's Strike), which defends the basic rights of women with its women's strike practice.