Female Filmmakers Too: BBC Introducing Arts (2022)

The Anniversary Party

While celebrating their reconciliation and six years of marriage, American actress Sally Nash and British novelist Joe Therrian receive their close friends, some colleagues and their next door neighbors in a party. Under the effect of Ecstasy, revelations are disclosed and relationships deteriorate among the group.

Prison Song

Elijah has been bounced from group home to group home throughout his turbulent young life. What has sustained him is his art. After a promised scholarship is taken away, Elijah ends up in a fight that result in the death of another boy. Now, sentenced to a minimum of fifteen years, the young man must find a way to keep his soul alive behind bars or turn into a hardened bitter criminal.

Effi Briest

Following her parents' wishes, spirited seventeen-year-old Effi Briest marries Baron von Innstetten – a former admirer of her mother – who is twenty years Effi's senior. This marriage of prudence heralds the beginning of a humdrum life, far from home, for Effi. Innstetten devotes himself entirely to his political career, and the sleepy small town of Kessin has very little to offer in terms of variety. But then, one day, Innstetten's old regimental comrade, Major Crampas – a charming womanizer – arrives on the scene.

Old Joy

Soon to be a father, Mark feels the pressure of domestic responsibility closing in, so he is more than happy to accept when his old friend Kurt proposes a camping trip in the Oregon wilderness. During their time together, the men come to grips with the changes in their lives and the effect on their relationship.

The Dead Ones

Markopoulos’ first attempt at making a 35mm feature film, clearly inspired by the cinema of Jean Cocteau, was left unfinished and the materials were lost for many years.

The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things

Young Jeremiah lives in a stable environment with loving foster parents until the day his troubled mother, Sarah, returns to claim him. Jeremiah becomes swept up in his mother's dangerous world of drugs, seedy hotels, strip joints and revolving lovers. Salvation comes in the form of the boy's ultrareligious grandparents, but soon Jeremiah's mother returns. Maternal love binds the pair together on the road until Sarah's desperate and depraved lifestyle finally consumes her.

Se upp för dårarna

Two girls from different backgrounds, one an immigrant from Turkey and the other a girl who needs to get out of her father's shadow, apply to the police academy, where they become close friends.

The Night Porter

A concentration camp survivor discovers her former torturer and lover working as a porter at a hotel in postwar Vienna. When the couple attempt to re-create their sadomasochistic relationship, his former SS comrades begin to stalk them.

Porcupine Lake

During a hot and hazy summertime in northern Ontario, 13-year-old Bea wants a best friend more than anything else, but when she meets boisterous Kate, she gets more than she imagined. A story of bravery, small-town summer love, and the secret world of girls.

Laurita

Laura and her mother are spending their vacation on the seashore, in Sao Paulo, at a middle-class beach house. Laura's adolescent body is changing but not in harmony with her coming of age. She's less bothered by that than the situation the two of them find themselves in.

Balzac: A Life of Passion

This is the sprawling saga of Honoré de Balzac, a man who created a great literary oeuvre from the dramas and adventures of his own life - a life that he shaped into one spectacular and unforgettable blaze of passion. At the heart of the story are the women in Balzac's life. Although gruff, unsophisticated, and far from handsome, Balzac exerts an irresistible fascination on women.

All Those Sunflowers

Marieke, a 27-year-old Dutch woman, works for an advertising agency in New York. She feels lonely in ‘the city that never sleeps’. Her boyfriend Dylan is the only one who can comfort her, although he only drops by occasionally. When she visits the verdant and quiet Long Island on an outing with colleagues, the introverted woman finally blooms. Especially when she is introduced to George. Right at that moment, Dylan asks Marieke to let him go. Subtle drama about loneliness, mourning and starting anew.

The 33

Based on the true story of the collapse of a mine in San Jose, Chile—that left 33 miners isolated underground for 69 days.

35 Shots of Rum

A widower and his daughter witness the retirement of a colleague of his and the closing of her department at her university.

Viva Cuba

The friendship between two children is threatened by their parents’ differences. Malú is from a family that was upper-class before the Revolution and remains well-to-do through remittances from relatives overseas, and her single mother (Larisa Vega Alamar) does not want her to play with Jorgito, as she thinks his background coarse and commonplace. Jorgito’s mother (Luisa María Jiménez Rodríguez),

Mehua

Two young women are about to receive the great honor of being sacrificed to their Mexica gods; but the cruel and bloody ritual does not go as expected.

Die schönste Bescherung

Nobody in the Rigi family is really looking forward to the Christmas Child this year. 13-year-old Sima and her little brother Elyas know: Mom Leonie and dad Kian are going to split up! Even Kian's parents Britta and Navid, who want to spread Christmas cheer, can't turn the tide. Only after a false alarm about Elyas, who has suddenly disappeared, do the tensions ease. The newlyweds make a discovery on their doorstep: a baby just a few weeks old. After a confession from him, the search begins for the mother - and the reason why the foundling should be with parents who are separating.

Kill Me Later

Her goldfish dead, her lover exposed as a rat, Shawn Holloway leaves her bank post and goes to the roof intent on suicide. Before she can leap, she's taken hostage by Charlie Anders, a fleeing bank robber. He and his partners have stolen a million in cash and plan to escape to Venezuela. Shawn agrees to cooperate if Charlie promises to kill her once he's in the clear. Parts of the plan go awry, so Charlie has time to try to pierce her bleak manner and self pity, and she has time for reflection. As night falls, their interlude ends: they're each alone, Charlie facing prison as the police close in, and Shawn staring down at a river from atop a high bridge.

If These Walls Could Talk

A powerful, intimate portrait of three women living in the same house during different eras who all face unplanned pregnancies. The vignettes follow a recently widowed nurse struggling to take control of her life in the early 50s, a mother of four balancing raising a family and maintaining a career in the 70s, and a student making a difficult decision with the help of one woman that will change the course of both their lives in the 90s.

Miss Sweden

Moa is in her early 20s, works at a factory and lives by herself in a cottage in the forest. She is a vegan and follows her friends and demonstrations, mostly to fit in. But at home, by herself, she listens to pop music and use make-up.

The Triumph of Love

A princess is determined to restore her homeland's throne to its rightful heir, a young prince with whom she falls in love.

Pre-Drink

Alexe is a young trans woman, and Carl a gay man. Best friends since forever, an evening spent together destabilizes Alexe, when both decide to have sex together for the first time.

The Golden Wedding

A grandfather recalls how he and his wife met and fell in love during the Second Italian War of Independence.

Truck Driver

In a boarding school, Raidel is witness to the abuse suffered by his schoolmate Randy.

Everything Will Be OK

A series of dark and troubling events forces Bill to reckon with the meaning of his life… or lack thereof.

Yatzy

A teenager relocates to a new environment but can't quite escape the reach of his traumatic past, in Yatzy, a haunting coming of age saga from Norwegian director Katja Jacobsen. At the age of 15, Daggi has fallen in love with the wrong girl, and has experienced horrors so extreme that circumstances force him to move out and take up a new residence in the country with new parents.

Mall Girls

Shopping malls - today's place of creating desires. Best jewelry, clothes, shoes. Unaffordable by young girls, but they "work" to get themselves sponsors for new items.

Under the Same Moon

Tells the parallel stories of nine-year-old Carlitos and his mother, Rosario. In the hopes of providing a better life for her son, Rosario works illegally in the U.S. while her mother cares for Carlitos back in Mexico.

Angela

A ten year old girl named Angela leads her six year old sister, Ellie, through various regimens of 'purification' in an attempt to rid themselves of their evil, which she believes to be the cause of their mother's mental illness. Precocious, to say the least, Angela has visions of Lucifer coming to take her and her sister away, and one of her remedies for this is for them to remain within a circle of their dolls and toys until they see a vision of the virgin Mary come to them. But such thinking can only lead to an ending befitting of her own mental state.

Personal Velocity

In a series of three vignettes, three women in turn struggle to free themselves from the men who restrict their personal freedom.

Who Leads

One couple's new intense connection is questioned in the midst of the disintegration of another couple; who leads when four men come together?

Zelos

Maria, a competitive woman in her late 30's orders a clone from North Korea under the pretense of getting some help around the house so she can spend more time with her husband and two kids, but mostly to compete with her flawless friend Ari.

Beau

Beau, an emerging artist is about to unveil her latest installation. Her lover Paloma, is a devoted supporter. Her final breakthrough hinges on the success of this piece and soon this pressure causes a rife in the two women's relationship.

Janet Planet

In rural Western Massachusetts, 11-year-old Lacy spends the summer of 1991 at home, enthralled by her own imagination and the attention of her mother, Janet. As the months pass, three visitors enter their orbit, all captivated by Janet.

Montana Amazon

The Dunderheads are an eccentric Montana family who've been in the mountains for far too long. Now one step ahead of the law, matriarch Grandma Ira flees to Canada with her two wildly dysfunctional teenage grand kids, across the American West into a comic collision with the mainstream world. Montana Amazon is a both funny and poignant fable on the nature of the human family.

The Tango Lesson

On a trip to Paris Sally meets Pablo, a tango dancer. He starts teaching her to dance then she returns to London to work on some "projects". She visits Buenos Aires and learns more from Pablo's friends. Sally and Pablo meet again but this time their relationship changes, she realises they want different things from each other. On a trip to Buenos Aires they cement their friendship.

My Prison Yard

In Madrid, a petty thief who cannot adjust to life outside of jail puts together a theater troupe her friends -- a prostitute, a gypsy, and a Colombian immigrant -- in an attempt to make a go at a relatively straight life.

Death at Oslo Central

A young boy named Pelle falls in love with the drug addict Lena. Then he and his friend Proffen tries to save her from the drugs.

Mataharis

Private detectives Inés, Eva, and Carmen often invade others' privacy but are clueless about confronting their own secrets. While on the job, these three surveillance specialists will have to cross the thin line dividing public and private matters, bringing their own issues to light in order to solve more than just their professional cases.

The Gay Agenda 26

In this anthology of shorts, the phrase “Gay Agenda” is reclaimed from the religious right and transformed into a celebration of gay culture. Sit back and enjoy “The Carer,” “Into the Storm,” and “Floating Melon.”

Vito-Man

Vito is a sweet little boy with Down syndrome, and this short documentary puts his energetic, jolly personality on full display as he interacts with his loving family. By showing Vito’s dignity and inherent value, Vito-Man tackles the difficult conversation that is the eradication of people with Down syndrome, proving that an extra chromosome should not be a death sentence.

To Crush The Serpent

Esme, the most beautiful woman in her village, is in love with Abbas, the valiant young man of the village, but she is married to the village lord Halim. When Abbas kills Halim, the people of the village lynch Esme and pressures Esme's son to kill her.

High Fantasy

A group of young friends on a camping trip, deep in the South African countryside wake up to discover they have all swapped bodies.

Tigre

After a long period of absence, Rina returns to her island deep in the Tigre river Delta. There she spent a large part of her life and raised her son. Now she wants to recover her home and return there with Facundo, who also left the island. Both, mother and son, will learn that nothing is like it was. Machines on the river are about to destroy everything. A girl is lost in the forest. The water is rising.

Village Rockstars

In a small village in northeast India, 10-year-old Dhunu dreams of having her own rock band. Her vibrant spirit, imagination and self-assurance stand out in a world where girls are expected to be timid and submissive. With her gang of boys and the support of her widowed mother, Dhunu faces the struggles of her daily life and hopes for the day she can finally play on a real guitar.

Messi and Maud

Maud and Frank are on holiday in Chile. Their relationship is fragile and so is Maud. After many years of trying, it is now time to face the fact that they will never have children. However, Maud is in denial. After a huge fight with Frank she runs off and sets out on a road trip through Chile to get her life back on track.

Montana

A young woman returns to her hometown following the death of her grandfather and begins an affair with a married teacher in the debut feature from Israeli filmmaker Limor Shmila. Powerful and intimate, she must confront the secrets of her past as she tours the town of her youth.

Good Favour

A teenage stranger is welcomed into a household in a devout Catholic village and gradually reveals his motives and what seem to be magical powers.

Dear Etranger

Makoto Tanaka is 40-years-old and has remarried. His wife is Nanae and they care for 2 daughters from Nanae's prior marriage. Makoto tries to have an ordinary family. Nanae then becomes pregnant. Afterwards, things begin to change among the family members.

Venus Beauty Institute

Aging beautician Angèle, already wounded by a long-ago romance, gets awkwardly dumped at a train station. Witnessing how she turns around a humiliating situation, younger sculptor Antoine becomes so smitten that he breaks up with his fiancée and sets out to win Angèle's heart. Meanwhile, Angèle attempts to quash the budding romance of her young co-worker, Marie, and a much older widowed client, despite their obvious rapport.

Nowhere Boy

A rebellious teenager, future Beatle John Lennon lives with his Aunt Mimi in working-class mid-1950s Liverpool, England. Mimi's husband suddenly dies, and John spies his mother Julia at the funeral. Despite Mimi's misgivings, John intends to have a real relationship with his mother. Julia introduces him to popular music and the banjo and, though a family conflict looms, young John is inspired to form his own band.

Ruben

Desperately trying to come to terms with his sexuality, gay teenager Ruben finds his path to sexual acceptance complicated, as homophobic bullying brings him ever closer to the brink of suicide.

Own Worst Enemy

James Keaton invents a time machine and goes back seven years to try to thwart the plans of his rival, Frederic Nichols. Meanwhile, Keaton's neglected girlfriend, Leila Locke, finds the time machine and uses it to convince her younger self to not get involved with Keaton in the first place. While in the past, however, she falls in love with the younger Keaton all over again.

Bare Essence of Life

Yojin, an eccentric young farmer living in the countryside, falls in love for the first time in his life. Her name is Machiko, she teaches in a kindergarten and is from Tokyo.

I'm Staying

Many people assume that life does not end after death. Not Dr. Tyrsa, practical and skeptical man, who never believed in this nonsense. However, thanks to the bowling accident, he finds himself in a desert land with people like him not belonging to this world yet not accepted into the other. Now Dr. Tyrsa realizes that the life he used to live was not so bad, and he's got something worth returning to.

Smooth Talk

Connie, the fifteen-year-old black sheep of her family, finds her summertime idyll of beach trips, mall hangouts, and innocent flirtations shattered by an encounter with a mysterious stranger.

Starring Maja

In a hopeless small town in Sweden, lives Maja, 18 years old. Her highest and only dream is to become an actress. She wants to be the center of attention - for everyone to see HER, to see the beautiful person she is inside. It's just a little hard to see. Maja is severely overweight, clumsy and completely without social skills... We get to follow Maja and her struggle to realize her dreams during the last semester of high school.

Place Vendôme

The story of a woman that remained distracted for a long time from her life, from the passions that made her feel alive. The importance of true love is compared with the material value of diamonds. Only one truly lasts forever. She's got to find the thing that values most for her, the thing that gives psychical stability and real happiness again to her life.

Everyone Else

While on a Mediterranean vacation, a seemingly happy boyfriend and girlfriend find their connection to one another tested as they bond with another couple.

Fishy

Micka is a cool and independent single woman who lives for her media career. Until one day when she falls in love with her not so trendy neighbour.

Space Oddity

A space-obsessed man gets the opportunity of a lifetime thanks to a Mars colonization program but finds his plans compromised by his feelings for a woman who brings him down to Earth.

Nanny

Aisha, a Senegalese immigrant who takes a job as a nanny for a wealthy white family in New York City, finds herself consumed by unsettling visions and a growing rage.

Fool's Fire

A crippled dwarf is forced to become jester to a tyrannical king, but when the king abuses a beautiful dwarf with whom the jester is in love the jester plots a terrible revenge.