Now in its seventh year, 16 DAYS 16 FILMS returns with the continued aim to empower female filmmakers and address all forms of violence against women on a global scale.

For the first time, the festival will be hosted in association with global communications agency The DDA Group, as well as annual advocacy partners UN Women, Geena Davis Institute, UK Says No More, Voice of Change, Equimundo and Times Up UK.

The festival is open to submissions from female identifying filmmakers with films which explore, emote and educate on all forms of violence against women from:

The UK, Ireland, Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, USA and for the first time in the festival’s history, Argentina and Nigeria.

Find out more about 16 Days 16 Films here and read our press release here.

WATCH: 16 DAYS 16 FILMS - International Women’s Day Screening

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR 2023 WINNERS AND 16 FINALISTS

16 DAYS 16 FILMS 2023 Winners ARE:

Winner - DANDELION (MEX), dir. Lorena R. Valencia

Runner Up - HOMEMAKER (UK), dir. Ciara Kerr

2nd Runner Up - SMILE (UK), dir. Jo Smyth

Audience Award Winner - BARRICADE (UK), dir. Alice Johannessen

Congratulations to these brilliant filmmakers and thank you to our 2023 Jury:

Kalliopi Mingeirou, Chief of the Ending Violence against Women Section at UN-Women in New York; Madeline Di Nonno, CEO Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media; Daniel Guinness, Managing Director at Beyond Equality; Golda Rosheuvel, Actor (Bridgerton); Saffron Burrows, Actor (Enigma, Circle of Friends); Prano Bailey-Bond, Director (Censor); Emily Atef, Director (More Than Ever, 3 Days in Quiberon); Isabella Odoffin, Casting Director (How To Have Sex); Sarah McCaffrey, Founder Solas Mind; Patsy Stevenson, women’s rights campaigner, writer and public speaker.

Read more about our films and jury here.

ACHIEVEMENTS OF OUR PAST FINALISTS

Dir. Molly Manning Walker, 2020 Finalist

🎬HOW TO HAVE SEX (UK release 3 November 2023)

‘How To Have Sex’ premiered at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival and won the Un Certain Regard Prize. 

It received 13 nominations at the 2023 British Independent Film Awards (BIFA), including Best British Independent Film and Best Director. Molly was also nominated for Best Cinematography for ’Scrapper’.

The film ultimately went on to win three BIFAs, including Best Lead Performance (Mia McKenna-Bruce), Best Supporting Performance (Shaun Thomas), and Best Casting (Isabella Odoffin).

It was nominated for 3 BAFTAs including Best British Film, Best Debut - British Writer, Producer or Director (Molly Manning Walker) and Best Casting (Isabella Odoffin).

Dir. Adura Onashile, 2020 Finalist

🎬GIRL (US release 22 January 2023)

Adura’s debut feature film ‘Girl’ premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was the winner of the Best Feature Narrative Jury Award at the 2023 BlackStar Film Festival. 

‘Girl’ received 2 nominations at this year’s BIFA, including Breakthrough Performance and Best Original Music.

Dir. Miranda Stern - 2018 Finalist

🎬CLEAN (UK release 16 August 2022)

Miranda’s documentary short ‘Clean’ won the Scottish Short Film Award at the 16th edition of @glasgowshort (GSFF) and was the official selection of Palm Spring Short Fest 2023.

It was also nominated for a BAFTA Scotland in the short film and animation category!

HER GIRL WEDNESDAY

16 Days 16 Films, alongside Raindance Film Festival, are proud to host a series of regular interviews with women and non-binary folk from the film industry.

In March we spoke with Mania Akbari, an internationally acclaimed intersectional feminist artist and filmmaker who gained early recognition in the Iranian underground art scene, seeking freedom beyond censorship.

Concerned with the socio-political traumatisation of female-identifying bodies, Akbari transforms lived experience into an act of resistance by uncovering hidden historical and cultural memory and examines the transgenerational transmission of trauma. Weaving through the relationship between the camera and the body, Akbari identifies the body as a metaphor, as a political message with a revolutionary capacity against the patriarchal status quo.

Led by a therapeutic approach, Akbari’s practice is often collaborative and participatory, working with other women to question the ways their bodies are positioned and valued in society, and exploring the relational confluence of embodied memory and gendered violence. Drawing on accounts of sexual assault, abortion, pregnancy, illness, body image, gender, and sexuality through archival material and biopolitical fiction, her films generate dialogues between past and present, between trauma and reflexive healing.

A recording of the interview will be made available here soon!