The 25th Festival de Femmes held in the Parisian suburb of Paris came to a close Saturday night March 29th with an award ceremony bestowing the Grand Jury Prize - Best Feature to The Best Day of My Life from Italian director Cristina Comencini, a prize worth 3,811 euros and subtitling services. This Italian family drama revolving around three generations living in the same house had previously garnered the Silver Ribbon for Best Screenplay from the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists and the Grand Prix des Amériques at the Montreal World Film Festival 2002. The Jury was composed of director Debra Zimmerman, actresses Serra Ylmaz, Firmine Richard and Laurence Côte, producer Jean-François Lepetit, film editor Françoise Bonnot et festival programmer Brigitte Rubio.

With 25 years of festivals of Films de Femmes, the best work of 2003 was screened alongside venerable classics. The stature of this year's guest of honor, narrative filmmaker Margarethe von Trotta and one of the voices of New German Cinema, was most apparent. The formation of von Trotta's characters is sublimely structured and realistic, the mise en scene - rich and complete. The narrative style is unconventional with duration, lighting, cinematography and editing used creatively. Although some of her classic films are clearly dated, their intensity still compels attention, with a clear connection to politics and to the advancement of women. The strength of female friendship is so strong, it still blows your socks off.

Marianne and Julie, (Die Bleierne Zeit) winner of the "Lion d'or" in Venice in 1981 set in the aftermath of WWII and the emergence of political violence in Germany is a complicated story of two sisters (Jutta Lampe and Barbara Sukowa). The sisters' upbringing is strict both religiously and educationally. The eldest, Marianne, seems more radical than her younger sister Julie. She talks back to her teacher and her father and smokes in school. She is the tougher one during her youth. Julie is more fragile and internalizes the images of the slaughter of the Jews at concentration camps. Later when she grows up, she finds it necessary to fight with terrorist groups in order to violently change the world while Marianne works for an activist magazine for women. Julie is eventually imprisoned and later supposedly commits suicide. Marianne becomes obsessed with finding out if the suicide actually happened.

The same theme of female friendship prevails in Sheer Madness (Heller Wahn, 1983) with Olga and Ruth (Hanna Schygulla and Angela Winkler). A fragile artist under the watchful eye of her husband meets a female professor who inspires her to move out into the world. Later the husband becomes so predatory that he tries to kill Olga. Ruth imagines herself dead, hung like Julie in Marianne and Julie. The noose symbolizes the snuffing out of female energy. Ruth imagines her death as well as the murder of her husband in black and white.

Films by women today have embarked on new directions in aesthetics. It is refreshing to see that a film like Frida by Julie Taymor (USA 2002) about the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo reveals the relationships of art and politics to audiences in 2003. A special soirée at Créteil complete with a strolling mariachi band was dedicated to a preview of the film to receive theatrical distribution in Paris on April 27. Taymor's work honors the legacy of this magnificently talented artist who lived in the shadow of her more famous husband Diego Rivera. The narrative shows their commitment to the connection of politics and artistic achievement. It may seem easier to describe an historical figure with this heritage than to create contemporary stories on this theme. Indeed, the style of von Trotta appears to have given way to more sociological approaches in women's cinema. If history is cyclical, this may change again in light of the current global situation.

Cristina Commencini's award for best film from the Créteil public and jury is not a film that addresses the role of women per se but of the social mores and deceptions, that prevent the emergence of truth. Religious rituals and societal traditions mark Commencini's characters like von Trotta's. Her style however differs in presenting a comic treatment of a sociological pathology. On the other hand the youth jury awarded best film to This Side of Heaven (China, 2002) to Chen Lie, a film about Qiaoqiao, a woman who is kidnapped in the Tibetan wilderness and sold as a wife to the poor highway worker Dahong. Though she manages to escape, her ordeal is far from over. Filmmaker Lie hopes the film will open up an understanding of the plight of contemporary women in China. As such the choice falls within the historical paradigm of rewarding work at Créteil which shows the plight of women within the international arena.

Barbara Hammer's compelling documentary Resisting Paradise (USA, 2002) deals with the history of French Resistance fighters in the fishing village of Callis. By focusing on a city which many famous painters have chosen for the light, Hammer literally paints on screen and uses a creative arrangement of documentary footage and interviews with Resistance fighters such Marie-Ange Allibert Rodriguez who fabricated identity cards of Jews in exile from Germany. Hammer was interested in the work of artists Bonnard, Matisse and Seurat who went to the south of France to work and she puts forth the question: how can art exist during a time of war?

Other documentaries that chronicle themes of today include the winner of the Public Prize for best documentary at Créteil: Georgie Girl by Annie Goldson and Peter Wells (New Zealand 2001) about a Maori transgender and former sex work who was elected into the parliament of the New Zealand government. The film shows how Georgina was able to transcend ethnic lines and challenge heteronormative practice in government and New Zealand culture. Documentary filmmaker Kim Longinotto who has won several awards at Créteil took home the "French Association of Women Journalists (AFJ)" for her chronicle of female circumcision in Kenya The Day I will Never Forget, (UK, 2002).

After an entire generation of women's filmmaking, the Créteil pageant has clearly succeeded in providing a high quality showcase of compelling themes and treatments of the lives of women by women. The 26th festival scheduled marks the beginning of a whole new generation.

Moira Sullivan

Grand Jury Prix
The Best Day of My Life (Il piu bel girono della mia vita), Cristina Comencini (Italy)

Special Mention to a First Feature
Karamuk, Sülbiye V. Günar (Germany)

AFJ Journalists Prize to Best Documentary
(worth 1,525 euros from Association des Femmes Journalistes)
The Day I Will Never Forget, Kim Longinotto (UK)

Audience Award to Best Feature
(worth 3,048 euros from the City of Créteil )
The Best Day of My Life (Il piu bel girono della mia vita), Cristina Comencini (Italy)

Audience Award to Best Documentary
( 3,048 euros from Conseil Général du Val-de-Marne)
Georgie Girl, Annie Goldson, Peter Wells (New Zealand)

Audience Award to Best French Short
(worth 1,525 euros from the newspaper l'Humanité
Alice, Sylvie Ballyot (France)

Audience Award to Best International Short
( worth 800 euros from the Festival)
Dancing in the Dust, Jenny Lowdon Kendal (Australia)

Canal + Prize to Best Short
Pending, Anna Tow (Australia)

Prix de l'Association Beaumarchais to Best Short
(1, 525 euros and screenwriting scholarship)
Ne m'appelle plus BB!, Olga Gambis (France)

Prix du jury Graine de Cinéphage to Best Feature (Young People's Jury)
( 3,048 euros from the Ministère de la Jeunesse, de l'Education et de la Recherche)
This Side of Heaven, Chen Jie (China)

University Prize to Best European Feature
( 1,525 euros from Université Paris XII)
Between the Wars, Emily Woof (Royaume-Uni)

Prix Vital to Best Digital Film
(1,525 euros from the magazine Vital)
Baboussia, Elsa Quinette (France)

Literary Prize
"Paris-Dakar", Caroline Jules (France)