This year at the International Women's Film Festival in Dortmund, the RWE Film Award is being conferred for a sixth time on a feature film director. With the prize money totalling €15,000, eight feature films have been entered – all made by women directors who can look back on a long and notable career of film-making. Including works from Poland, Colombia, Japan and Iran, the spectrum ranges from a Balkan comedy to a radical docufiction drama about cancer and thus celebrates a wealth of film creativity that could hardly be more diverse. Four of the films to be screened in Dortmund are receiving their German premieres.
The award will be decided by an international jury: Kate Kinninmont, Chair of Women in Film & Television UK and the film director and festival manager Amal Ramsis, who comes from Egypt, confirmed their participation yet.
The prize money is to be divided between the director (€5,000) and the German distributing company (€10,000) to help promote the cinema release of the winning film in Germany.
Silke Räbiger, Festival Director of the Dortmund | Cologne International Women's Film Festival: "In recent times, there's been a lot of movement come into the issue of gender equality in the movie business – with the Dortmund | Cologne festival having played no small part. After all, it is one of the most active women's film festivals around the world in terms of initiating networks and debates."
Carl Ernst Giesting, CEO of RWE Vertrieb AG, a power company: "The International Women's Film Festival is an inseparable part of the cultural life of the city. RWE Vertrieb AG is pleased once again to support this future-oriented project for the entire region."
Birgit Jörder, Mayor and Festival Patron: "Here we get to see the entire gamut of female film-making creativity while also giving career starters an opportunity to come and see their role models."
BODY by Małgorzata Szumowska (PL), EDEN by Mia Hansen-Løve (F), ELLA by Libia Stella Gomez (COL), FRAILER by Mijke de Jong (NL), FUTATSUME NO MADO by Naomi Kawase (JP/F/ES),
LOVE ISLAND by Jasmila Žbanić (HR/B|H/D/CH), PELO MALO by Mariana Rondón (VEN), RED ROSE by Sepideh Farsi (IR/GR/F).
All films also compete for the audience award sponsored by trailer ruhr magazine.
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