Women's Voices Now (WVN) is an American non-profit organization that "uses film to drive positive social change that advances girls' and women's rights globally".[1] It organizes online short film festivals and other activities in its mission to "amplif[y] the voices of all women by promoting the free expression of women's struggles for civil, economic, political, and gender rights worldwide".[2] [3] [4] [5] In addition to its festivals, WVN expanded to include an archive of films, a publication, educational programs, screenings, workshops and training, as well as providing scholarships.[1] The organization was founded in 2010 by lawyer Catinca Tabacaru and philanthropist Leslie Sacks.[6] [7]
The organization was founded in 2010, and its first film festival was held in 2011. Every festival has a theme; the first festival's theme was Women's Voices from the Muslim World: A Short Film Festival.[8] [9] The festival had over 200 films submitted from over 40 countries showcasing what life is like for women in the Muslim world. The 2014 festival's theme was Women Bought and Sold: Voices United Against Violence.[10] The third, fourth and fifth festivals were held in 2016, 2017 and 2018 respectively, with both the fifth and sixth occurring in 2019. Each film festival had winners for six main categories. The categories are the Leslie Sacks Grand Prize for best overall film; Best Documentary Feature; Best Documentary Short; Best Narrative Short; Best Experimental Film; and Audience Choice for the last four categories.[11] The prizes for some of the categories include: $3,000 for the Leslie Sacks Grand Prize, $2,000 for the winner in the Best Documentary Feature category, and $1,000 each for the winners in the Best Documentary Short and Best Experimental Film categories. The winners receive their prize once they deliver their acceptance speech to Women's Voice Now.
The festival participants agree to participate in the online festival, and submit the final cut without any advertisements (with subtitles if required, since the Festival's official language is English). The upload and submission must include a high-resolution digital copy of the film, along with three stills, a poster, and a trailer if the film has one. If the participant wins, they must allow their film to be screened at the festival's closing event, and allow it to be available on the website. The films must be about women (including trans women) and the issues they face in society today. To be eligible, the filmmakers must guarantee the film is entirely their content, and those in the film must all have consented to be filmed. The films vary in length as there is no time constraint.
In addition to the yearly film festival, Women's Voice Now also hosts an online archive of the festivals' films,[12] as well as an online publication called The WVoice.[13] Like the film festival, The WVoice focuses on international women's rights and voices.[14] It publishes written, audio, and visual bodies of work that document women's stories and issues that educate and foster cultural difference and connections, and promotes and advocates for women's rights. The generally brief entries include essays, interviews, prose, short fiction, poetry, photo essays, and video essays under five minutes in length.[15] Women's Voice Now also runs workshops and training programs on what they do with their film festivals and how they support women's rights advocacy.[16]
Women's Voices Now also runs a youth development program, Girls' Voices Now.
| Category | Title | Director | Country of Origin | Year Made | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Documentary | Half Value Life | Alka Sadat | Afghanistan | 2009 | |
| Breaking the Silence | Ammar Basha | Yemen | 2009 | ||
| Thorns and Silk | Paulina Tervo | West Bank | 2009 | ||
| Narrative | Again Life | Hassan Fazeli | Afghanistan | 2009 | |
| Francais Langue Etrangere | Kartik Singh | France | 2009 | ||
| Sunglasses | Mustafa Kia | Afghanistan | 2009 | ||
| Experimental | Basita | Laila Hotait | Lebanon | 2010 | |
| It is Written | Mostafa Heravi | Netherlands | 2006 | ||
| 1700% Project: Mistaken for Muslim | Anida Yoeu Ali | USA | 2010 | ||
| Student Film | Jazbaa: A Strong Will | Rama Barhat | India | 2010 | |
| Male and Female | Ahmed Adel | Egypt | 2010 | ||
| The Unveiled | Ola Diab and Shereena Qazi | Qatar | 2009[17] |
| Category | Title | Director | Country of Origin | Year Made | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Documentary | Breaking the Silence: Moroccans Speak Out! | GlobalGirl Media | Morocco | 2013 | |
| Mohtarama | N/A | N/A | N/A | ||
| In the Name of Tradition | May El Hossamy | Egypt | 2013 | ||
| Narrative | Swap | Sayed Masoud Islami | Afghanistan | 2013 | |
| Aabida | Maaria Syed | India | 2013 | ||
| The Virginity Minarets | Farhad Rezaee | Afghanistan | 2013 | ||
| Experimental | Take Care | Afrooz Nasersharif | Iran | 2013 | |
| Get Along | Parya Vatankhah | Iran | 2013 | ||
| The Reflex | Ali Mousavi and Hussein Mousavi | Afghanistan | 2013 | ||
| Student Film | Behind the Wheel | Elise Laker | Tajikistan | 2013 | |
| Blobfish | Ugur Ferhat Kormaz | Turkey | 2013 | ||
| A Chronicle of Tahrir Square | Nour Zaki | Egypt | 2014[18] |
| Category | Title | Director | Country of Origin | Year Made | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leslie Sacks Grand Prize | Masoumeh | Sona Moghadam | Iran | 2015 | |
| Best Documentary Feature | Profession: Documentarist | Shirin Barghnavard, Firouzeh Khosrovani, Farahnaz Sharifi, Mina Keshavarz, Sepideh Abtahi, Sahar Salahshour, Nahid Rezaei | Iran | 2015 | |
| Best Documentary Short | Women of Fukushima | Paul Johannessen and Jeffrey Jousan | Japan | 2012 | |
| Best Narrative Short | Leeches | Payal Sethi | India | 2016 | |
| Best Experimental Film | Borders | Elizabeth Mizon | United Kingdom | 2015 | |
| Audience Choice | Save Gangamaya | Gopal Shivakoti | Nepal | 2016 | |
| Auto Driver | Meena Longjam | India | 2015 | ||
| Best Audience Choice | I Don't Like Her[19] | Javad Daraei | Iran | 2016 | |
| Memory of a Heart | Tribeny Rai | India | 2016[20] |
| Category | Title | Director | Country of Origin | Year Made | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leslie Sacks Grand Prize | Qandeel | Saad Khan and Tazeen Bari | Pakistan | N/A | |
| Best Documentary Feature | Hauntings in the Archive! | Nina Hoechtl and Julia Wieger | N/A | N/A | |
| Best Documentary Short | Kayayo, the Living Shopping Baskets | Mari Bakke Riise | Ghana | N/A | |
| Best Narrative Short | Sea Child | Minha Kim | N/A | 2015 | |
| Best Experimental Film | The First of the Free Girls | Alexandra Velasco | N/A | N/A | |
| Audience Choice | Ballad for Syria | Eda Elif Tibet | N/A | N/A | |
| Kayan: Beyond the Rings | Marko Randelovic | N/A | N/A | ||
| Aver | Felicia Villarreal | N/A | N/A | ||
| Beauty Fear Violence | Anouk Phéline | N/A | N/A[21] |