Film Festivals

Arizona Women’s Film Festival

Arizona Women’s Film Festival promotes a world where all people thrive as healthy, equal, and complete members of all communities while fostering respect, inclusiveness, and integrity. Through the medium of film, we explore the femxle experience from any avenue.

Athena Film Festival

The Athena Film Festival at Barnard College in New York City, is a weekend of inspiring films that tell the extraordinary stories of fierce and fearless women leaders. Over the last nine years, the Festival has welcomed more than 30,000 people from all over the world to 200+ screenings of narratives, documentaries, and shorts that feature diverse stories of ambition, courage, and resilience.  Additionally, as part of our work we offer writing labs for TV and film writers, masterclasses and works in progress programs for women filmmakers, and other skill-building panels and opportunities for women who are breaking into film.

Bentonville Film Festival

Bentonville Film Festival (BFF), chaired by Academy Award® winner Geena Davis, promotes underrepresented voices of inclusive storytellers. We amplify stories by and about people who identify as female, non-binary, LGBTQIA+, BIPOC, and people with disabilities in entertainment and media. We do this through research, education, and supporting the production and distribution of inclusive content with our primary research partner, the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media. Since the inaugural 2015 festival, BFF has grown into a year-long platform through BFFoundation, culminating with an annual festival.

Black Women Film Network

Established in 1997, the Black Women Film Network (BWFN) was founded to prepare black women to enter the film and television industries. The organization seeks to preserve the voice of these women through film and educational programs that empower and inform.

Breakthroughs Film Festival

Established in 2011, Breakthroughs Film Festival (BFF) is a not for profit organization dedicated to supporting emerging filmmakers who identify as women, trans, or non-binary. Our main yearly event is a festival that takes place in downtown Toronto, showcasing Canadian and International short films in all genres made by directors of all ages. BFF’s vision is to bridge the gender gap in the filmmaking industry, where women-identifying, trans, and non-binary directors make up a small percentage and must work even harder than their male counterparts to finance and exhibit their projects. Acknowledging the lack of representation in mainstream festival spaces, we prioritize the work, expressions, and experiences of those who identify as Black, Indigenous, people of colour, trans, non-binary, working class, neurodiverse, or people with disabilities. BFF is committed to programming independent films by emerging artists whose voices, perspectives, and artistic approaches counter dominant mainstream narratives.

Broad Humor Film Festival

Broad Humor started as a film festival in 2015, with its first event in the summer of 2016 in Venice, California. The goal was to fill the near-total void of comic films by women in film festivals around the country. It’s great fun. Come and join us.

Cinéma de Femmes d’Amérique du Sud

Cinéma de Femmes intends to enlighten films about or made by women from South America. We aim to encourage European audiences to discover and question themselves about the representations of women from the southern Latin-American culture. This venue is taking place in Paris during March every year and then in Italy and Spain along the year.

Davis Feminist Film Festival

The Davis Feminist Film Festival is an annual grassroots event that uses alternative media as a springboard for linking art to social issues. The festival aims to showcase independent films, including documentary, narrative, and experimental genres, to explore perspectives often missing from mainstream media and culture.

Dortmund | Cologne International Women’s Film Festival

Unique in Germany, the Dortmund|Cologne International Women’s Film Festival provides a perfect platform for presenting the latest developments and trends related to women working in all areas of film production. Not just women directors but women cinematographers, film-music composers, and other women filmmakers are given an unrivaled opportunity to showcase their latest work. The festival is open to all genres and styles. It takes place once a year, with the location alternating between two major and culturally important cities Cologne and Dortmund. The structures there that have organically grown over the last thirty years will guarantee that the tradition of expertly presenting the work of women involved in film production will be continued. The Festival is a forum for networking activities, sharing experiences, and training opportunities. Questions on gender equity, diversity, production conditions, the role of international women’s film networks, etc., regularly come under the spotlight.

Elles Tournent Women Film Festival Brussels

Four days of films made by women—the yearly place to be for movie lovers! Elles Tournent promotes and enhances the work of women in the arts and cultural world in general, particularly in the audiovisual and media sectors. To this end, the association develops activities such as the creation and animation of socio-cultural events, festivals, exhibitions, workshops, conferences, and artistic performances.

Etheria Film Showcase

Etheria is the world’s most respected competition showcase of new short sci-fi, fantasy, action, thriller, and horror films directed by women.

Everett Film Festival

In 1997 a group of visionary women banded together in the firm belief that the time had come for Everett and Snohomish County to experience quality international film in a festival setting. With this idea in mind, the Everett Women’s Film Festival was born. The festival was dedicated to highlighting the strength, humor, and creativity of women through provocative and entertaining films.

Female Eye Film Festival

Founder / Artistic and Executive Director Leslie-Ann Coles conceived the Female Eye Film Festival in 2001, having observed that women directors were a minority among filmmakers at the international film festivals she attended with her debut film, “In The Refrigerator.”

Femcine: Festival Cine de Mujeres

The engine of FEMCINE is to celebrate and spread the cinema made by women and the one that has women as protagonists, when we say “Cinema that sees you” it is because we believe that these films can help us to make visible and better understand the diversity of the realities of Be a woman today. We believe that there are many ways to inhabit the world, that each person is marked by their experiences and context and that one of the most brutal damages of patriarchy has been to want to homologate in an stereotype what it means to be a woman or a man.

Festival Internacional de Cine por mujeres 

The festival wants to show the work and the standpoint of women at the five steps in the process of creating a film: creation and training > production and screening > promotion and marketing > distribution and sales > consumption of cultural goods, and accessibility. Over the years, the festival has grown in quality, number of screenings, and venues, with a total of 16 in the past 3rd edition: Casa Árabe, Círculo de Bellas Artes, Cineteca Madrid, Fundación Telefónica, Goethe-Institut, Institut Français, La Morada de Malasaña, MK2 Palacio de Hielo, Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum, Palacio de la Prensa, Sala Berlanga, Academia de Cine, Casa de América, and 8madrid TV. Training is also a basic cornerstone of our festival with lectures, roundtables, meetings, and debates with female directors, scriptwriters, producers, actresses, distributors, music composers, art directors, production design directors, location scouting, scripts… all of them female creators. 

Filmmor Women’s Cooperative

Filmmor Women’s Cooperative; aims to increase the involvement of women in cinema and media, to enhance their communication and production areas, opportunities and empowering for them to express themselves in these fields, to spread women’s non-sexist representations and experiences. Organizes cinema workshops, courses, campaigns, films, videos, visuals, exhibitions, conferences, Filmmor Women’s Film Festival on Wheels for 17 years. Dreams of a life free of sexism, violence and discrimination in cinema, media and finally everywhere…

Film De Femmes

By taking the initiative to promote cinema made by women, the Festival chooses to fight against censorship and self-censorship and to open a door for film professionals on the distribution and financing circuits. By being open to the whole world, it probes both the evolution of creation and the place of women in the cinema professions.

Flying Broom International Women’s Film Festival

Flying Broom International Women’s Film Festival, with the official name the Flying Broom International Women’s Films Festival, has been organized by Flying Broom annually since 1998.  Flying Broom was established officially in November 1996 with the aim of bringing together women’s organizations and individuals who are sensitive to the women’s movement. It aimed at increasing the communication, cooperation, and solidarity among them, transferring their experiences to the next generation, and establishing a national and international communication network. It has implemented a number of projects to increase sensitivity to gender equality since the day it was established and continues to do so.  The festival is an international organization where feature-length, short, documentary, and animation films by women directors from Turkey and around the world are presented to the audiences in a framework of specific themes, panels, discussions, and exhibitions. In addition to the film screenings, local and international directors, press members, and film critics are hosted in Ankara as a part of the festival.  The festival aims to appeal to wide audiences with the activities it organizes every year. 

Freiburger Lesben Filmtage

The Freiburg Lesbian Film Days is a lesbian centered film festival hosted in Freiberg, Germany and screens multiple films in it’s competitions from all over the world.

Fusion Film Festival

Fusion Film Festival at NYU, an Allied Partner of the Sundance Women’s Initiative, celebrates women in film, TV, and new media. Founded in 2003 at Tisch School of the Arts by two students Emma Heald and Gina Abatemarco, Fusion has been passionately guided by Kanbar Professor Susan Sandler. Fusion offers programming throughout the school year, culminating in a three day spring festival of screenings, industry panels, master classes, retrospectives, networking events, and student competitions in fourteen categories all focused on women’s voices and work behind the camera. In the seventeen years since its launch, Fusion has attracted scores of accomplished artists and visionaries from across the industry including Melina Matsoukas, Barbara Kopple, Reed Morano, Christine Vachon, Misha Green, Amy Sherman-Palladino, Kasi Lemmons, Maryse Alberti, Kelly Edwards, Amy Emmerich, and Lauren Zalaznick to mentor and inspire the next generation of great storytellers.

IAWRT Asian Women’s Film Festival

Our festival, held every year at the India International Centre in New Delhi, aims to bring together the works of Asian women directors in a range of genres: animation, documentary, experimental, short fiction, and television reportage.

Image Of Black Women Film Festival

Imagine This Women’s Film Festival

Imagine This Women’s Film Festival (ITWIFF), a minority and women-owned registered 501(c)3 non-profit is dedicated to providing womxn storytellers and filmmakers a platform to encourage and develop creative projects by womxn. ITWIFF aims to amplify and empower independent and aspiring womxn filmmakers from around the world.

ITWIFF’s goal is to support womxn by sharing their work with the public, promoting equal opportunities for BIPOC womxn and the LGBTQIA+ community while providing educational support and pr.ofessional development, and serving as a resource information network.

International Film Festival (Netherlands)

International Film Festival Assen (IFA) is an annual three-day film festival with a current (inter) national program, in which women in front and behind the camera are central. IFA reinforces the position of women in the film world by stimulating female talent and offering a stage. 

KIN International Women’s Film Festival

The purpose of the KIN (kin means “a woman” in Armenian) International Film Festival is to discuss the problem of Gender Equality through films, problems of violence, inequality, discrimination and other problems related to women’s rights and gender problems.  The festival’s goal is to promote women’s creativity, establish a network between women filmmakers from different parts of the world and give hand to a better understanding of different cultures and each other.

LA Femme Film Festival

LA Femme International Film Festival is a premier festival that focuses on platforming women filmmakers “by women, for everyone”. Our Festival was created in 2005, when it became apparent that there was a need to enhance women behind the camera as Directors, Producers, and Writers.

Lady Filmmakers Film Festival

Lady Filmmakers Festival is a trend-setting and forward-thinking film festival known by veteran Hollywood insiders and rising indie filmmakers alike for screening outstanding films from around the world and having top notch speakers and networking events. All festival events take place in the world-famous Beverly Hills, California.

London Lesbian Film Festival

North America’s Longest Running & Canada’s Only Lesbian Film Festival

The London Lesbian Film Festival is a celebratory gathering at which we project our images, challenge our politics, and reflect upon our lives. The festival aims to portray the richness and diversity of lesbian experiences and to strengthen our communities. We are a registered not-for-profit organization.

The Festival is held every year in London, Ontario, Canada. There are usually 3 days of films, and each screening lasts 2-3 hours.The London Lesbian Film festival is organized every year by the Reeling Spinsters.

Anyone who self-identifies as a woman is welcome to attend all film screenings and all festival events. The Sunday film screening is open to all.

Mostra Internacional Films de Dones

With it’s creation in June 1993 with the aim of promoting films directed by women and giving visibility to women’s audiovisual culture. Thus, the festival has projected the filmographies of women from all over the world, highlighting the importance of women’s contribution to the development of audiovisual creation.

Paris International Lesbian and Feminist Film Festival

The fight against lesbophobia is not the only objective of the festival nor of its organisers. We also want to bring great lesbian films to the public eye. The desire to organise a festival grew out of discontent and frustration with the Women’s Film Festival at Créteil: despite the fact that THE lesbian film always won the People’s Choice Award (prix du public) at Créteil, hardly any space was given to lesbian films and lesbian festival goers.

Reel Sisters of the Diaspora Film Series

Reel Sisters of the Diaspora Film Festival & Lecture Series is the first Academy Award-Qualifying Festival for short narratives devoted to showcasing films produced, directed and written by women of color. Established in 1997 by African Voices magazine and the LIU Media Arts Department, Reel Sisters brings together film lovers and industry professionals from across the U.S. and globe to celebrate the contributions women of color make to the film industry. 

Regards de Femmes 

Regards de Femmes is held by the Tunisian Federation of Cinema Societies and is the first Women’s Film Festival in Tunisia. The festival was founded in 2017 and aims to empower women in the film industry. Recently, it has improved its ability to show international films, support young filmmakers through screenwriting residencies, and present talks and debates.

Remake. Frankfurt Women’s Film Days

In November 2018, the Kinothek Asta Nielsen in Frankfurt am Main presented the inaugural edition of Remake. Frankfurt Women’s Film Days. “Remake” refers to the connection with history that characterises all the Kinothek’s work: films spanning more than a hundred years emerge anew in the perception of viewers when they are shown today. Films exist only in their screening, so that the presentation of films is itself a form of film-making, a re-make. The formal structure of Remake corresponds to the content, whereby various epochs and genres are woven together in the programme. Topics such as women and gender relations in film, or aspects of queer cinema, come to light through their interconnection with other social phenomena, as with women’s emancipation in the context of migration, colonialism, or racism. Each edition of the Frankfurt Women’s Film Days originates in contextual links and expands in a variety of programmes.

Rocky Mountain Women’s Film Festival

Rocky Mountain Women’s Film builds community around film by elevating the stories of women and others who are often unheard or unseen. As a women-led organization, we seek to discover, support, connect, and inspire filmmakers while cultivating connection and conversation around their work.

Through Women’s Eyes International Film Festival

Through Women’s Eyes International Film Festival (TWE) is an international film festival offering films with a focus on international women’s issues, stories, and lives as well as films by women filmmakers on any topic by women. We seek film offerings from any and all nations. Volunteer-run, all TWE proceeds support programs of UN Women around the world.

Tricky Women/Tricky Realities

TRICKY WOMEN/TRICKY REALITIES declared aim is to confront the world with the unlimited aesthetics of animation films made by female artists from around the world. Besides the competition the festival shows themed programs and retrospectives, historical curiosities and contemporary productions. The goal of creating a pool of international acknowledged experts is reached by now. Each year we give an overview about the latest trends and developments. Over the years a dense network emerged which reaches from Vienna over Moscow and Beijing to Montreal.

UN Association Film Festival

As one of the oldest solely documentary film festivals in the US, UNAFF has grown and earned the respect of audiences and filmmakers alike for its fearless independence and integrity. In addition to providing early outlets for films, many of which later went on to win major awards and accolades, UNAFF prides itself in creating a community forum with year-round programs for discovery and dialogue about different cultures, issues and solutions.

Vancouver International Women in Film Festival

Women’s Film Festival (Brattleboro, VT)

The annual Women’s Film Festival in Brattleboro, VT is the longest running women’s film festival in New England. It is a celebration of movies from around the world directed by and about women; a platform for women to tell their own stories. It is also a major fundraiser for the work of the Women’s Freedom Center, a non-profit domestic and sexual violence organization in Southeastern Vermont. Over the course of two weeks in March, documentaries, feature films, and shorts are screened. There is truly something for everyone with films about sports, arts, friendship, activism, lesbian/queer lives, motherhood, gender roles, religion, and romance. The festival brings films to Southern Vermont that can often only be seen if you’re lucky enough to be able to travel to film festivals like Tribeca and Sundance. 
Contact: Vickie Sterling, [email protected] 

Women + Film Festival

The Women+Film Festival is a six-day showcase of documentaries, narratives and short films celebrating the best in women-centric programming. The Festival includes panel discussions, in-person guests and receptions while highlighting thought-provoking, inspirational stories of women from around the world.

Women’s International Film and Arts Festival (WIFF)

The Women’s International Film & Arts Festival (WIFF) is the leading international cultural event featuring films, visual and performance arts produced by and about women. WIFF attracts industry and audience participants from around the world to empower and celebrate women’s voices and visions.

Women Make Waves Int’l Film Festival (Taipei, Taiwan)

Founded in 1993, Women Make Waves Film Festival has emerged as one of the major film festivals in Taiwan, and has established itself as the biggest one dedicated to the promotion of female talents. By covering a wide range of genres, issues, and representations of women, WMWFF seeks to promote great cinematic art by female directors, and to advocate gender equality through films with a feminist consciousness from a variety of subjects.

Women’s Voices Now

Women’s Voices Now (WVN), a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, uses the medium of film to advocate for global women’s rights. We carry out our mission with our annual online film festival, a free streaming archive of international women’s rights based films, educational programs, screening events, and multimedia workshops. As a non-governmental organization with special consultative status to the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) since 2017, our work is internationally recognized as impacting the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs): increasing good health and well being (SDG3); providing quality education (SDG4); promoting gender equality (SDG5); working toward reduced inequalities (SDG10); establishing peace, justice and strong institutions (SDG16); and establishing partnerships to achieve the SDGs (SDG17).

Women of African Descent Film Festival

 The Women of African Descent Film Festival (WADFF) is celebrating its 19th Anniversary in 2020. The media constantly bombards us with negative images of people of African descent. Our positive accomplishments, uplifting experiences, and gifts to humanity get little attention.

Women Under the Influence Festival

WUTI GOES IDYLLWILD is a three day festival celebrating film DIRECTED BY WOMEN, FOR EVERYONE PAST & PRESENT!  Part festival, part creative experience, part summer camp. Prepare for a weekend of DISCOVERY, CULTURE AND COMMUNITY.  This curated weekend champions the trailblazers who have paved the way, whilst spotlighting today’s creative talents. Programming ranges from art house to activism, comedy to cutting edge technology, gathering inspirational participants, and the creatively curious to the magical town of Idyllwild, CA.

WOMEN UNDER THE INFLUENCE is a community, founded in 2015 by Director Tabitha Denholm. By sharing the stories of cinema directed by women, through events and media, WUTI pushes back against the industry’s bias.”

Women X Film Festival 

With Women X, our goal is to help break down the barriers that underrepresented voices face in the industry. Not only does our weekend-long festival showcase an amazing array of short films from women and non-binary filmmakers, it also brings together people from all across the globe to revel in their love of cinema and support each other in a safe and inclusive space. After the success of 2020, we’ll be bringing back a great variety of workshops, panels, networking opportunities and self-care spaces to supplement our official film selection and ensure that Women X’s culture remains intrinsically connected to community and the championing of one another.

Feminist Border Arts Film Festival

The Feminist Border Arts Film Festival (FBAFF) stands at the forefront of interdisciplinary cinematic experiences, blending film, media, scholarship, and creative expression. Showcasing a curated selection of media arts from the Borderlands, across the U.S., and around the world, FBAFF presents a focused offering of relevant topics, genres, and approaches. Our lineup includes evocative animations, incisive documentaries, and cutting-edge digital storytelling, alongside video art that pushes boundaries. Emphasizing works that provoke, enlighten, and transform, the festival is a confluence of narratives that challenge conventional discourse and rethink the avant-garde. FBAFF cultivates a space for critical engagement, fostering community, and advancing dialogue in feminist, LGBTQ+, and socially informed media arts.