A strong signal for women’s rights: from 23 to 29 October, the 24th Women’s Worlds Film Festival, organised by the human rights organisation TERRE DES FEMMES, presented 24 international short, feature and documentary films at the cinema in the KulturBrauerei that raise awareness of ongoing human rights violations against women and empower girls and women at the same time. This year’s only German film festival on women’s rights attracted almost 2600 visitors. An exciting supporting programme accompanied the curated films, including an exhibition on menstrual health and hygiene in cooperation with NIDISI, a city tour on women’s history and discussion panels with directors, protagonists and experts. This year, actress and singer Jasmin Tabatabai also took over the patronage of the festival for the first time.
This year’s film selection was based on three main themes: ‘Domestic and sexualised violence against women’, ‘Women’s rights in a religious context’ and ‘Health care for women’. A total of thirteen German and Berlin premieres were shown in the programme. ‘We are very pleased with the large number of visitors this year and the resulting interest in the topic of women’s rights. In addition to our opening, many films were completely sold out, including BYE BYE TIBERIAS and DIE GESCHÜTZTEN MÄNNER,’ says film festival director Sabrina Kürzinger. The opening film THE BRINK OF DREAMS – an Egyptian documentary about a female street theatre group that rebels against traditional role models – was shown at the festival kick-off with around 450 guests. ‘THE BRINK OF DREAMS is one of the highlights of this year’s programme. The film was shot over four years, during which the directing duo were able to build up a very close relationship with the girls, which made the very intimate insights into the girls‘ lives possible in the first place,’ adds Sabrina Kürzinger.
The film celebrated its Berlin premiere at the festival opening and Ayman El Amir, one of the two directors, shared his personal experiences with the audience on the evening of the opening. Another highlight was the film THE WITNESS on the subject of women’s rights in Iran. Following the screening, director Nader Saeivar talked about the film’s creation process and the current political situation and mood in Iran. The German comedy DIE GESCHÜTZEN MÄNNER by Irene von Alberti proved to be a particular crowd-puller this year. The director and two actors talked about the shooting, the background to the film and the approach to the individual film characters in the Q&A session.
In addition to the film programme, this year’s supporting programme also made an important contribution to the relevance of the festival. The STORIES OF MENSTRUATION exhibition in collaboration with the NGO NIDISI, which deals with the deep-rooted menstrual discrimination in Nepal, attracted around 1,000 visitors to the cinema in the KulturBrauerei.
Next year, the Women’s Worlds Film Festival will be celebrating its 25th anniversary and will inspire with a strong anniversary programme from 29 October to 4 November 2025 at the cinema in the KulturBrauerei.