Female Filmmakers Too: BBC Introducing Arts (2022)

Love Me

Across a language barrier, a Turkish groom-to-be on an engagement party in Kyiv meets a Ukrainian that represents the 'other woman' for a marriage there.

Woodpeckers Don't Get Headaches

A young boy grapples with first love and his ambitions as a drummer during an eventful summer holiday.

Monday Morning

Frivolous girl falls in love with a young construction worker. He trusts her and decides to include her in his team of workers. In the beginning, she is happy, but soon starts to feel the tensions between the people in the team. Hypocrisy and demagogy fill her with indignation and she does not keep silent about the shortcomings and mistakes of her colleagues. Gradually, her superiors become uneasy about her and the girl has to go. Her boyfriend offers her marriage, but she decides to take her own path and lead a worthy life. The movie was shot in 1966 but was censored by the communist government and released in theatres on 31st October 1988.

High Tide

When the recently divorced Tarik spends time alone in a holiday cottage on the Veluwe, he meets the owner of the house, Jonas. But when they seem to grow towards one-another, it proves difficult for Tarik to not let his true feelings emerge.

Postcards from the End of the World

Trapped in a seemingly dull family vacation, Dimitra, Dimitris and their two daughters will have to find a way out of a secluded island in the Mediterranean, when confronted with the unexpected end of the world.

Hotel Boy

The young Samir accompanies the politician Stefan to a hotel room. Samir is in love and has set everything aside to be able to go with Stefan, as they had planned. But under the surface lies a big misunderstanding, and outside in the rain a journalist is waiting for the next big headline.

Marie Antoinette

The retelling of France’s iconic but ill-fated queen, Marie Antoinette - from her betrothal and marriage to Louis XVI at fifteen to her reign as queen at nineteen and ultimately the fall of Versailles.

Children of a Lesser God

Starting his new job as an instructor at a New England school for the deaf, James Leeds meets Sarah Norman, a young deaf woman who works at the school as a member of the custodial staff. In spite of Sarah's withdrawn emotional state, a romance slowly develops between the pair.

Or (My Treasure)

Or shoulders a lot: she's 17 or 18, a student, works evenings at a restaurant, recycles cans and bottles for cash, and tries to keep her mother Ruthie from returning to streetwalking in Tel Aviv. Ruthie calls Or "my treasure," but Ruthie is a burden. She's just out of hospital, weak, and Or has found her a job as a house cleaner. The call of the quick money on the street is tough for Ruthie to ignore. Or's emotions roil further when the mother of the youth she's in love with comes to the flat to warn her off. With love fading and Ruthie perhaps beyond help, Or's choices narrow.

Away from Her

Fiona and Grant have been married for nearly 50 years. They have to face the fact that Fiona’s absent-mindedness is a symptom of Alzheimer’s disease. She must go to a specialized nursing home, where she slowly forgets Grant and turns her affection to Aubrey, another patient in the home.

11 Minutes, 9 Seconds, 1 Image

An anthology of short films inspired by the events of the September 11 World Trade Center attacks.

Me and My Sister

Louise, who has just written a novel, comes to Paris to meet with a potential publisher. While in the city, she stays with her older sister, Martine, who in many ways is the exact opposite of Louise: she lives in a fashionable neighborhood, is cold to others, and has snobby friends, while Louise lives in a small town and is thoroughly unpretentious. Louise's apparent happiness -- and similarities to their mother -- gradually gets on Martine's nerves.

Life in Color

An aging, closeted Alzheimer's patient, clashing against his strong-willed daughter, struggles to hold on to the memory of his long lost lover.

Thick Skinned

Two brothers set fire to a barn while drunk, inadvertently causing the death of a sleeping wanderer. One of them takes all the blame for the incident and spends ten years in prison.

Little Pink House

A Connecticut nurse finds herself at the center of a political firestorm and a Supreme Court case centering on eminent domain.

What's This Country Called Now?

A Bosnian woman, working as a reporter during the Siege of Sarajevo, interviews a living witness to the assassination of the Archduke Ferdinand in 1914, and his wisdom gives her a deeper understanding of the Bosnian War, and her role in it.

Juan Gabriel is Dead

Best friends Beto and Daniel spend most of their time together. Daniel struggles with his gender identity just to hide his feelings for Beto. To be himself, he has to overcome his fear by showing Beto what he truly feels.

Mitosis

Kaveh is an LGBT sculptor. He lives in Iran and lives in isolation because of his sexual orientation. He has a lover named Farhad. Their relationship is not very good. It is Kaveh who is not happy with this relationship, he lives in his workshop because of the repression of LGBTs in Iran. He is making a statue when he suddenly realizes that this statue is talking to him. The words of the statue are not clear and are more like chatter. He breaks up his relationship with Farhad like his previous relationships, because something more than sex requires a relationship. He enjoys being alone more, but now he realizes that Farhad has destroyed the only statue they made together. The whispering sound of the statue increases and every moment Kaveh's mental state is more disturbed, to the point that he works day and night to build that statue. The statue is completed as if the statue is the lost lover of Kaveh. By completing the statue of Kaveh, he becomes a statue.

In a Moment

Max isn't sure about his sexual orientation until he meets Leon at his new school. When Max is singing a song at a school concert something beautiful happens.

Bend It Like Beckham

Jess Bhamra, the daughter of a strict Indian couple in London, is not permitted to play organized soccer, even though she is 18. When Jess is playing for fun one day, her impressive skills are seen by Jules Paxton, who then convinces Jess to play for her semi-pro team. Jess uses elaborate excuses to hide her matches from her family while also dealing with her romantic feelings for her coach, Joe.

36 Fillette

Lili, a pouty and voluptuous 14-year-old, is caravan camping with her family in Biarritz. She's self-aware and holds her own in a café conversation with a concert pianist she meets, but she has a wild streak and she's testing her powers over men, finding that she doesn't always control her moods or actions, and she's impatient with being a virgin. She sets off with her brother to a disco, latching onto an aging playboy who is himself hot and cold to her. She is ambivalent about losing her virginity that night, willing the next, and determined by the third.

Monsoon Wedding

As the romantic monsoon rains loom, the extended Verma family reunites from around the globe for a last-minute arranged marriage in New Delhi. This film traces five intersecting stories, each navigating different aspects of love as they cross boundaries of class, continent and morality.

Cléo from 5 to 7

Agnès Varda eloquently captures Paris in the sixties with this real-time portrait of a singer set adrift in the city as she awaits test results of a biopsy. A chronicle of the minutes of one woman’s life, Cléo from 5 to 7 is a spirited mix of vivid vérité and melodrama, featuring a score by Michel Legrand and cameos by Jean-Luc Godard and Anna Karina.

Monster

An emotionally scarred highway drifter shoots a sadistic trick who rapes her, and ultimately becomes America's first female serial killer.

Fire

In a barren, arranged marriage to an amateur swami who seeks enlightenment through celibacy, Radha's life takes an irresistible turn when her beautiful young sister-in-law seeks to free herself from the confines of her own loveless marriage.

The Atomic Dream

Set against the aftermath of President Kennedy's assassination and the era's pervasive nuclear fears, Frank and his estranged mother-in-law, Sophia, must confront the strange and otherworldly realities of their fast-changing existence.

The Funeral

A girl gives a eulogy for her father's funeral.

Dominant Chord

Country music star Adam has to choose between damaging his career by coming out in the closed-minded world of country music or losing his long-time partner Brian.

The Anarchist's Wife

Manuela is left behind when her husband Justo fights for his ideals against Franco's Nationalists during the Spanish Civil War. He is deported to a concentration camp, and upon his release, continues the fight against nationalism in the French resistance. Years pass without a word from him, but his wife never gives up hope of seeing him again.

Clara

A look at the lives of 19th-century composers Clara and Robert Schumann.

The Headless Woman

After running into something with her car, Vero experiences a particular psychological state. She realizes she might have killed someone.

God's Offices

A realist dramedy about dedicated social workers who devote their long shifts to helping pregnant women.

Linha de Passe

In the periphery of São Paulo, the pregnant single mother Cleuza works as maid in the apartment of a middle-class family. Each of her sons has a different unknown father: the oldest, Dênis, has a baby son that lives with his mother and he works as motorcycle courier.

Amelia

A look at the life of legendary American pilot Amelia Earhart, who disappeared while flying over the Pacific Ocean in 1937 in an attempt to make a flight around the world.

Deep Impact

A seven-mile-wide space rock is hurtling toward Earth, threatening to obliterate the planet. Now, it's up to the president of the United States to save the world. He appoints a tough-as-nails veteran astronaut to lead a joint American-Russian crew into space to destroy the comet before impact. Meanwhile, an enterprising reporter uses her smarts to uncover the scoop of the century.

K-19: The Widowmaker

When Russia's first nuclear submarine malfunctions on its maiden voyage, the crew must race to save the ship and prevent a nuclear disaster.

The Black Balloon

Thomas is turning 16. His dad's in the army and they've just moved to a town in New South Wales; his mom is pregnant; his older brother, Charlie, who's autistic, has his own adolescent sexual issues. Thomas finds Charlie an embarrassment in public, so when Thomas is attracted to Jackie, a girl in his swim class, Charlie presents any number of obstacles when she drops by their house, when the three of them go for a walk, and during a family birthday dinner. Can Thomas find a way to enter the world of teen romance and still be his brother's keeper, or is Charlie's disability going to prove more than Thomas can handle?

Frontera

During the last moments of a romantic involvement with an older man, Martina finds herself deeply overwhelmed by disappointment and confusion, left alone to question who she really is.

Naked Acts

An aspiring actress has lost considerable weight to land her first movie role, but what the director didn’t tell her was that it includes a nude scene. Reluctant to do it, she embarks on a personal journey that unveils secrets once hidden under her weight, as she discovers emotional nudity is just as revealing as taking her clothes off.

Chicken

Mick and Kev, teen Irish lads, are at the shore, throwing rocks at empty cans, drinking cider. Mick's the pushy one, engaging Kev in a game of mumbly peg, his hand on top of Kev's, fingers splayed. As Mick moves the knife between their fingers, a train is heard approaching. What's Mick's purpose?

Blue My Mind

15-year-old Mia faces an overwhelming transformation which puts her entire existence into question. Her body is changing radically, and despite desperate attempts to halt the process, Mia is soon forced to accept that nature is far more powerful than she is.

Late for Break Time

During a football training, two friends celebrate a goal effusively, which causes an unexpected reaction in one of them.

Harvey's Dream

A typical Saturday morning for an unhappily married couple decades into their lives together becomes anything but typical when the husband's neurological decline and uncertain memory may or may not reveal unthinkable tragedy.

Dedication

"Dedication" is the story of a maid working in a hotel who uses a black magic spell in the hopes of harnessing the talent of one of the hotel's frequent guests - an eccentric writer - and passing it on to her unborn son.

Two Fish

Max is spending his summer on campus. A lonely place in maintenance. His best friend Taylor comes back from Europe and their relationship takes a new turn.

Painted Skin

I loved someone once and I wanted to be with her wholeheartedly.

SIN-SFO

As they drive to San Francisco, married couple Angie and Danny debate a decision which will change their lives forever.

Zinzan

After his son insists on bringing his boyfriend to practice, a rugby-mad father fears for his son’s chances of getting onto the national team.

Swans

By living his entire life fearing the prejudice of others, Aksel inadvertently made himself the source of true bias. Now, the real victims of prejudice will be revealed, as his secret is laid out for the world to see.

The Tree and the Swing

Coming home to make amends with her estranged father, Eleni finds herself confronted with an unexpected kinship.

The Vanished

Minutes before leaving the floor that they have shared for years and ending their relationship, Gala and Marçal try to confront all those feelings that they have never been able to express.

Test Pattern

A relationship is put to the test after the girlfriend is sexually assaulted and the boyfriend drives her from hospital to hospital in search of a rape kit.

There's Still Tomorrow

In postwar Rome, a working-class woman dreams of a better future for herself and her daughter while facing abuse at the hands of her domineering husband. When a mysterious letter arrives, she discovers the courage to change the circumstances of her life.

The Heart Is a Dark Forest

A woman's life is destroyed when she discovers that her husband has another family.

Waiting for the Light to Change

Over the course of a week-long beachside getaway, Amy, having recently undergone dramatic weight loss, finds herself wrestling between loyalty to her best friend Kim and her attraction to Kim's new boyfriend.

Women's Letters

On the front lines of the Great War, nurse Simon repairs the broken faces of the soldiers every day with love letters, words from women that have the power to heal the wounds of these paper soldiers. Simon himself seems impervious to holes, uncreasable, untearable in his white coat. His secret is his war godmother, who occupies all his thoughts whenever he has a moment to breathe. But when death strikes where it is least expected, can words written on paper still erase the pain?

When Jeff Tried to Save the World

When Jeff discovers that the bowling alley he manages is being sold, he must do everything he can to save the place he's come to call home. This is the original / short.