Women in Film: BBC Introducing Arts (2021)

A Game

Two brothers, Fernando and Pablo, enjoy a playful relationship. One night, their usual games take a different path, becoming something real and completely unknown.

Memory Box

A young mother works at a memory-recreation facility. When a client pushes her to break the rules, she's forced to decide how far she's willing to go. Dreams and fantasy become entangled with memory as power shifts hands.

The Grandpa's Song

An old peasant faces the dispossession of his land, inheriting the final lesson of life to his only granddaughter.

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Art is often an expression of rigorous focus. This story revolves around the internal pressures of the protagonist, and his attempt to escape his own mind and let out his imagination. An artist lives in a world they create, but sometimes fear can break us down.

Parasol

Life in a city is fast and draining. Feeling empty, a woman heads to a log cabin Parasol which her mother had left for her. Breathtaking lights, gentle breezes, and a warm fire. She pauses and catches the scent she had missed. They bring out her feelings about her mother.

Fat Girl

Anaïs is twelve and bears the weight of the world on her shoulders. She watches her older sister, Elena, whom she both loves and hates. Elena is fifteen and devilishly beautiful. Neither more futile, nor more stupid than her younger sister, she cannot understand that she is merely an object of desire. And, as such, she can only be taken. Or had. Indeed, this is the subject: a girl's loss of virginity. And, that summer, it opens a door to tragedy.

How's It Going?

During the making of a video film about a communist printing press, a union member and a leftist activist discuss how to present their information, especially how to caption two specific images: one of a protest in Portugal, the other of a strike in France. One of them decides to write to his son, a manual worker living outside of Paris with his girlfriend, telling the young man about his troubles.

Drunktown's Finest

On a desolate Navajo reservation in New Mexico, three young people – a college-bound, devout Christian; a rebellious and angry father-to-be; and a promiscuous but gorgeous Nádleehi (trans person)- search for love and acceptance.

Born Digital: First Cuts

Collection of tech-related short films marking the 30th anniversary in 2019 of the World Wide Web.

S.A.M.

After choosing to construct a meaningful connection via a S.A.M. service, Noelle may have finally found her perfect someone.

Viktoria

Dreaming of the West, Boryana is determined not to have a child in communist Bulgaria. Nonetheless, her daughter Viktoria enters the world in 1979, curiously missing a belly button, and is declared the country’s Baby of the Decade. Pampered by her mother state until the age of nine, Viktoria’s decade of notoriety comes crashing down with the rest of European communism. But can political collapse and the hardship of new times finally bring Viktoria and her reluctant mother closer together

The Flesh

A debate arises between Jesus Christ and a beautiful nun about her nightlife and whether the scriptures address any punishment for her sins.

Liar's Dice

The film follows Kamala, a young woman from Chitkul village and her girl child Manya, who embarks on a journey leaving their native land in search for her missing husband. Along this journey she encounters Nawazudin, a free spirited army deserter who helps them to get to their destination with his own selfish motive.

MER

A paralyzed girl finds difficulty living a normal life, so she participates in a ritual to metamorphize into a mermaid to replace her useless lower half.

Empty

A disconnected husband and wife fill the void of their marriage with addictive technology to destructive results.

Annaluise & Anton

Luise, called Pünktchen, and Anton are closest of friends. Being the daughter of a wealthy surgeon, young Pünktchen lives in a great house. Her mother, who always travels through the world more for public relation reasons than for the social tasks she pretends to fulfill, is never available to her as a mother. Anton, son of a single and sick mother in financial trouble, does his best to help her out of it by working late. Pünktchen decides to help her only friend (as nobody else would anyway) and starts singing in public places. Trouble arises when Anton can't resist stealing a golden lighter and Pünktchen's secret life is discovered by her parents. Two troubled families finally can see the need for actions to be taken.

In My Skin

Esther's life is panning out nicely. She will soon move in with her boyfriend Vincent and she seems set to get a permanent position at the public relations company where she freelances. All would be fine if Esther didn't accidentally discover a piercing curiosity about her own body.

The Secret

Marie, who works as a successful door-to-door encyclopedia salesperson, has been married to her husband Francois for 12 years and has a two-year-old son. Though she is relatively content with her life, she feels something is wanting. Enter 50-year old African-American Bill. Initially she is annoyed by his insouciance, but she finds that she is irresistibly attracted to him. Soon the two are in the midst of sordid illicit affair. She knows little about her new lover, and he seems uninterested in learning about her, but the long sessions of lovemaking are something else entirely. Feeling out of control, Marie is increasingly repelled by her own actions. Psychologically, she struggles to reconcile her torrid encounters with Bill and mundane domestic chores such as bathing her son. Moreover, she finds herself incapable of hiding her adulterous behavior, rather she comes home with scratches and hickeys all over her body, to the devastation Francois.

Private Photos

A sweet couple invite a third person over for the night, who brings a lustful energy to spice things up.

Fairlane

New in town, Brandon starts working at an auto shop to support his single mother where he's trained by an experienced mechanic, Evan. The two spark up a whirlwind romance which takes an unexpected turn when a secret is revealed, throwing a wrench in their relationship.

Seven Rooms, Kitchen, Bathroom, for Sale

An unusual visit to a large, empty apartment. But is it empty or not? Maybe a family has lived there or is going to live there. Maybe a young girl is going to escape from there. Maybe some of the old-timers who lived there never left. The walls themselves tell the stories of the time passing by.

Shadows

In Manila, a solitary man from a far-away province lives in poverty. The only thing he has is a camera, and he stays at churches hoping people will hire him to take their photographs. During one day, he has three encounters that change his life: the first, with a smooth-talking young man who's standing by the church door who berates him for wasting his life in church, the second with a boy who offers to take his picture, and the third with a Mercedes-driving man who's been stuck in traffic and has no patience left. Is there any deliverance from the soullessness of the city?

Aloft

As we follow a mother and her son, we delve into a past marred by an accident that tears them apart. She will become a renowned artist and healer, and he will grow into his own and a peculiar falconer who bears the marks of a double absence. In the present, a young journalist will bring about an encounter between the two that puts the very meaning of life and art into question, so that we may contemplate the possibility of living life to its fullest, despite the uncertainties littering our paths.

Nea

In Genève, bookseller and publisher Axel Thorpe catches willful, rich 16-year-old Sibylle Ashby shoplifting. She brags about her writing, so he challenges her to produce a book. She writes an erotic novel that Thorpe publishes anonymously, and it becomes a best seller. She also tries to capture the love of this 40-year-old publisher but he drops her for her older sister.

The Craft: Legacy

An eclectic foursome of aspiring teenage witches get more than they bargained for as they lean into their newfound powers.

Family Plan

Nine years ago, high school girl Jeongmin suggested a bizarre plan to her same-sex lover, Yoonseong, that they have a child who looks like both of them. Jeongmin’s wedding, scheduled in a few days, is just the start of that scheme.

Woman Undone

When Terri Hansen (Mary McDonnell) emerges from a fiery car crash as a widow, the local sheriff at first believes her account of the accident. But there's a snag in her story. Namely, a bullet in her dead husband. Just what did happen on that dark desert road? Through a series of telling flashbacks, we and the jury learn the bizarre truth. Randy Quaid and Sam Elliott costar in this riveting drama.

Weeping Lady

Laura is frustrated at having to take care of her baby alone, but what she doesn't know is that her worst nightmare is yet to come.

The EDEN Project

A girl, her father, and an AI system work to preserve the remnants of plant life in a post-apocalyptic ice age.

Home Again

Life for a single mom in Los Angeles takes an unexpected turn when she allows three young guys to move in with her.

Dream Girl

Humans use technology to improve their lives, to forge connections, to create time that doesn’t exist, to replace real interactions. When we devise a second version of ourselves on social media, do we lose a piece of our true selves in the process? Do our digital connections threaten our real life relationships? What happens if the filtered characters we’ve imagined take on a life of their own?

Faustine and the Beautiful Summer

Faustine suffers the wounds of first love. During a summer when she is staying with her grandmother, she comes to know the nearby neighbors. Two brothers live in the large house. One is divorced and one has recently remarried, both of them live there with their teenaged and adult children. Though the boys of the household are drawn to Faustine, she grows ever more smitten with the divorced older man...

The Christmas Lottery

The Davenport sisters have drifted apart over the years but when their Dad wins the lottery all he wants is having his girls home for Christmas. Getting over years of resentment proves a big task but it's pushed aside when their mother suffering from dementia loses the ticket. They put aside their differences to help find the ticket and in doing so get over their differences and finally learn to come together.

Spoiled Milk

When an emotionally abusive father reneges on a lifelong promise, a determined millennial is forced to choose between fighting for her relationship with her father or her freedom. 'Spoiled Milk' is about what it means to have an expiration date as a daughter and the invisible scars of emotional abuse.

My Little Boy

Berlin, 1934. Many men are forced to live their hidden homosexuality. Erich, a photographer, has an appointment in his photo studio with Wolfgang, a Nazi soldier, with whom he shares a loving, tumultuous, and passionate relationship. For both of them, this should not be a problem, but appearances deceive.

The Sin of Those Who Love Us

Something unexpected brings Vitor back to the house where he was born. His return awakes ghosts from the past and a war long ago locked within this family.

Sing

Quiet 10-year-old Zsofi has just changed schools. Feeling out of place at first, she is quickly admitted to the school’s famous choir and befriends her popular classmate Liza. Soon, they have to stand up united against their choir master, who isn’t quite the friendly and inspirational teacher they first thought she was.

Orphans

Orphans is the true story of a forbidden love affair set in the oppressive and violent atmosphere of nineteenth century Mexico. One man, Melchor Ocampo, driven by the twin passions of love and idealism, defies the stain of illegitimacy to shake off the crippling yoke of Spain and the Catholic Church. In so doing he becomes a founding figure of modern day Mexico.

Mary's Sons

After the death of her husband and teenage son, a woman puts an ad in a newspaper for a surrogate child.

Touch the Sky

In a small town in Mexico, Miguel, a 26-year-old disabled man, lives isolated from the world because of his mother's overprotection. When Miguel becomes interested in the most beautiful girl in town, he knows the true cost of her freedom.

Dinner

Two school friends who have drifted apart over the course of adulthood spontaneously arrange to have dinner together. What starts off as an innocent attempt to get back in touch develops into a renegotiation of their shared past, estranged relationship and lost future.

You Can't Do Everything at Once, But You Can Leave Everything at Once

It all began on a couch. He watched her undress and they made love for the first time.

The Purse Snatcher

Alex is very close to his elderly grandmother partly because his busy parents seem to have little or no time for him. One day he surprises two boys from his school leaving her house and is shocked to find her tied up inside – they have robbed her! Alex is sworn to secrecy as his gran is worried that her daughter will think her incompetent. This secret leads Alex into trouble as the two boys accost him in the street and bully him into becoming a pickpocket ("tasjesdief") for them, mugging old ladies. Alex learns how to deal with this situation in the end.

Eden

Eden is a coming-of-age film about a Protestant Confirmation camp on a summer’s week, set in the archipelago of Helsinki. Aliisa is the intellectually confident non-believer, Jenna is the queen bee and Panu is the scared bird. The experience of these teenagers is affected by Tiina, a young and eager priest.

Lock Charmer

Sebastian, a locksmith who doesn't believe in committed relationships, learns from his recent girlfriend, Monica, that she's pregnant and he might be the father. At the same time, he discovers a strange power: when he fixes people's locks, he gets a vision into their lives-a sudden flash revealing their feelings. But this unwanted gift starts to complicate his life. After he warns a maid named Daisy that her boyfriend is trouble, she leaves the boyfriend, and Sebastian takes her in. When yet another vision sheds light on his own life, Sebastian is forced to examine his hang-ups, his family, and his relationship with Monica. - Written by Sundance Film Festival

Another Me

A teenager finds her perfect life upended when she's stalked by a mysterious doppelganger who has her eyes set on assuming her identity.

In Seventh Heaven

Sofiane lives in a high-rise block at the edges of Paris. A violent young man, he tries to be like his gang of friends. However, Sofiane is attracted to guys. Through his contradictions, he embodies the confusion of today's idle young people who have lost their bearings and live withdrawn into themselves.

Amor

Based on the story "The monster in my room" by Miguel Angel López, a girl recounts living with her mother and a monster that stalks her at night.

Migrants

Two polar bears are driven into exile due to global warming. They will encounter brown bears along their journey, with whom they will try to cohabitate.

Hearts of Christmas

When Alice, a beloved neonatal intensive care unit supervisor, is forced to take early retirement, her young colleague Jenny decides to turn the upcoming staff Christmas party into a surprise celebration for her. The plan is complicated by Matt, the hospital’s new CFO, who’s been tasked to cut costs. Initially at loggerheads, Jenny and Matt get to know and understand each other —a sweet Christmas gift neither saw coming.

Paris Je T'aime

Olivier Assayas, Gus Van Sant, Wes Craven and Alfonso Cuaron are among the 20 distinguished directors who contribute to this collection of 18 stories, each exploring a different aspect of Parisian life. The colourful characters in this drama include a pair of mimes, a husband trying to chose between his wife and his lover, and a married man who turns to a prostitute for advice.

Me and You and Everyone We Know

Single dad Richard meets Christine, a starving artist who moonlights as a cabbie. They awkwardly attempt to start a romance, but Richard’s divorce has left him emotionally damaged. Meanwhile, Richard’s sons—one a teenager, the other 6-years-old—take part in clumsy experiments with the opposite sex.

The Cave of the Yellow Dog

The little nomad girl, Nansal, finds a baby dog in the Mongolian veld, who becomes her best friend - against all rejections of her parents. A story about a Mongolian family of nomads - their traditional way of life and the rising call of the City.

Take My Eyes

One winter night, Pilar runs away from home. With her, she takes only a few belongings and her son, Juan. Antonio soon sets out to look for her. He says Pilar is his sunshine, and what's more, "She gave him her eyes"...

Little Children

The lives of two lovelorn spouses from separate marriages, a registered sex offender, and a disgraced ex-police officer intersect as they struggle to resist their vulnerabilities and temptations.

The Virgin Suicides

A group of male friends become obsessed with five mysterious sisters who are sheltered by their strict, religious parents.

Moving Parts

Zhenzhen is smuggled into Trinidad and is threatened upon her arrival. Her brother Wei, who is working on the island in construction, intervenes and although he doesn’t have the money, he promises to pay her debt. Wei finds Zhenzhen a job at a Chinese restaurant and tries to get an advance from his employer.

Pleasure

19 year old Linnéa leaves her small town in Sweden and heads for Los Angeles with the aim of becoming the world's next big porn star, but the road to her goal turns out to be bumpier than she imagined.