Whānau Mārama: New Zealand International Film Festival proudly presents a selection of European films by women directors – a significant programme of work headlining strong representation of women filmmakers in the 2020 festival.

EUROPE! Voices of Women in Film is a curated selection within the festival presented in association with European Film Promotion and Sydney Film Festival.

This year marks the fifth year the programme has been part of Sydney Film Festival, and the first year for New Zealand.

The seven films from this year’s curated programme will be presented as part of Whānau Mārama: New Zealand International Film Festival from 24 July to 2 August.

“We are thrilled that for the first time our programme EUROPE! Voices of Women in Film goes on tour, reaching out to wider audiences, to very proudly show new exciting works by outstanding female directors from Europe and taking a stand for gender parity and inclusivity,” says EFP's Managing Director Sonja Heinen.

Whānau Mārama New Zealand International Film Festival Director Marten Rabarts added: “We are delighted to be able to present this collection of exceptional films from women filmmakers as part of our 2020 online edition of the festival.

“Through these seven diverse, beautiful and enlightening stories from Estonia, Germany, Kosovo, The Netherlands, Poland, Sweden and Switzerland, our programme is profoundly enriched.”

The EUROPE! Voices of Women in Film selected films are:

• Charter (Sweden, Denmark, Norway)
  Directed by Amanda Kernell
• Kids Run (Germany)
  Directed by Barbara Ott
• Lessons of Love (Poland)
  Directed by Małgorzata Goliszewska & Kasia Mateja
• My Little Sister (Switzerland)
  Directed by Stéphanie Chuat & Véronique Reymond
• They Call Me Babu (The Netherlands)
  Directed by Sandra Beerends
• A Year Full of Drama (Estonia)
  Directed by Marta Pulk
• Zana (Kosovo, Albania)
  Directed by Antoneta Kastrati
• All seven films will screen online as part of NZIFF At Home — Online, while Marta Pulk's film A Year Full of Drama will be shown as part of a special programme at Wellington City Gallery.

The inclusion of EUROPE! Voices of Women in Film in this year’s film festival takes place in a significant year for women filmmakers. In 2016 the 5050x2020 campaign was launched at Cannes Film Festival setting a goal for gender parity in the film industry by the year 2020.

Marten Rabarts said that while the New Zealand International Film Festival did not officially sign up for the campaign, this year the festival programmers have been committed to equal representation and 46% of filmmakers across the festival’s programmes are female, and half of the film’s in this year’s festival are told from a female point of view with female protagonists.

Additionally seven of the eight members of the juries for New Zealand’s Best and Ngā Whanaunga Māori Pasifika Shorts are women, three of the five New Zealand feature films are directed by women, five of the six films short-listed for New Zealand’s Best are directed by women, and half of the programming team at the festival are women.

“We have taken a mindful approach in the curation of the festival programme with strong awareness of gender parity, and amplifying the stories and voices of diverse film practitioners and communities, both within Aotearoa and around the world.”

New Zealand Film Festival Trust Chair Catherine Fitzgerald said she was enormously proud that in 2020 the representation of women filmmakers in the festival is so significant.

“Not only do we see incredible new talent coming through as directors, but reading the credits of the films within this year’s programme shows women are strongly represented as producers, writers, and at all levels of filmmaking. We look forward to continuing to build on this further in coming years.”