From Afghanistan to the Philippines through to Slovenia: the nominations for the International Feature Film Competition 2025

42nd IFFF Dortmund+Köln, 1  – 6 April 2025

Just ahead of International Women’s Day this Saturday, we present the line-up for our International Feature Film Competition for women directors. Black comedies, biting satires and surreal dramas covering topics ranging from family and gentrification to turbo-capitalism. Unexpected angles on unwanted, creativity-crushing motherhood. Looking back at feminist history to help us understand the present. The eight competition entries tell stories of resistance through their characters – against private capitalism’s excesses, against oppressive social mechanisms of self-empowerment and against the growing lack of empathy in the Western world.

Mar Coll, Rima Das, Antoinette Jadaone, Sudabeh Mortezai, Aslı Özge, Sonja Prosenc, Roya Sadat and Athina Rachel Tsangari all have films nominated for the €15,000 International Feature Film Award 2025.  

The winner is chosen by a three-strong top-class international jury made up of African-American director Julie Dash, producer and director of Seoul International Women’s Film Festival Hei-rim Hwang and German director Yasemin Şamdereli.

The full 2025 Festival line-up is online at www.frauenfilmfestival.com

Reminder: Journalists can still apply for accreditation online until 19 March.

The nominations

EUROPA

Sudabeh Mortezai, AT 2023, 97’

Ambitious executive Beate tours the Balkans on behalf of a multinational corporation, supposedly to promote philanthropy and investment in underdeveloped regions. In her black, and at times surreal, drama, director Mortezai turns this slim, white, German business executive into the embodiment of all the ills of capitalist exploitation. Her blonde upswept hairstyle may add a Hitchcock-like touch to the film, but it’s her cunning methods of manipulation in her attempt to buy land from Albanian farmers for a multinational corporation that make us shudder. For Beate, nothing is sacred: language, interactions and feelings are exploited with chilling ease. Europa is a sharp satire on the excesses of turbo-capitalism and the wholesale divestiture of a continent.

FAMILY THERAPY

Sonja Prosenc, SI / IT / HR / NO / RS 2024, 122’

Julien moves in with his father Aleksander, a foundering one-hit wonder writer. In the family’s glass villa complete with outdoor jacuzzi, Aleksander enjoys a break from the stressful day-to-day life of the upper middle classes with his wife and daughter. But the arrival of Julien and other outsiders sends the delicate balance of the perfect nuclear family into a tailspin. Preposterous events unfold, repressed desires and dreams breach the stinking rich conservative surface. With fascinating images and ingenious plot twists, this black comedy holds up a mirror to our society. A film about wanting to become someone else, but being prevented from doing so by money.  Guest: Sonja Prosenc

FARUK

Aslı Özge, DE / TK / FR 2024, Hybrid Feature, 97’

While his daughter is actually filming about the impending demolition of his apartment block in Istanbul, 90-year-old Faruk gradually turns into the main character of her film. Inspired by real people and events and filmed at original locations, Faruk creates an effortless narrative about gentrification and a complex father-daughter relationship. Guest: Aslı Özge

In collaboration with Dortmund Turkish Film Festival

HARVEST

Athina Rachel Tsangari, GB / DE / GR / FR / USA 2024, 131’

Seven hallucinatory days in a Scottish village, at the epochal moment when common land was being turned over to commercial use in the Anglo-Saxon 18th century. With her challenging and genre-defying film, Athina Tsangari focuses on one of the moments that define capitalism to this day. After a mysterious fire, the solidarity of the villagers is put to the test. In stunning images shot on grainy 16mm film stock, Tsangari interweaves this hypnotic portrait of decay and new beginnings with the major themes of our current times. Guest: Athina Rachel Tsangari

SALVE MARIA

Mar Coll, ES 2024, 112’

Maria, a brand-new mum and a writer, feels overwhelmed by the task of caring for her newborn and craves a return to her desk. She becomes almost obsessively fixated on a harrowing infanticide case, losing herself between the demands of motherhood and her desire to write in a perilous game of reality and hallucination. Combining elements of psychological thriller and surrealism, Mar Coll finds the ideal cinematic idiom to radically question motherhood: the very taboo question facing a new generation of artists. Guest: Mar Coll

In cooperation with the Equal Opportunities Office of the City of Dortmund.

SIMA’S SONG

Roya Sadat, NL / ES / FR / TW / AF 2024, 98’

The political upheavals in Afghanistan at the end of the 1970s tear two friends apart: Suraya, a communist activist from the upper class, and Sima, a highly talented traditional Muslim singer, the daughter of a caretaker. The film charts the journey of idealistic young women to become resistance fighters, evoking through their eyes a crucial period in Afghanistan's history, at the height of the Cold War. Roya Sadat, a trailblazer in Afghan cinema, skilfully links this time to the country's current plight and dispels the assumption that Afghan women’s struggles only began in 2001 with international support. Guest: Roya Sadat

In cooperation with LaDOC

SUNSHINE

Antoinette Jadaone, Philippines 2024, 92’

In the profoundly Catholic and patriarchal Philippines talented gymnast Sunshine faces a momentous decision when an unplanned pregnancy puts her Olympic dreams in jeopardy. With drive, vigour and unexpected assistance, Sunshine blazes a trail to self-determination. In doing so, she also overturns the dominant clichés of the submissive Asian sportswoman. Sunshine is an exciting, in-depth psychological account of autonomy, religion and resistance in a society that denies reproductive rights. Guest: Antoinette Jadaone  

VILLAGE ROCKSTARS 2

Rima Das, India, Singapore 2024, Spielfilm, 108’

In rural Assam, 17-year-old Dhunu fights resolutely for her dreams while shouldering responsibility for her family. Rima Das tells a personal story with documentary-like authenticity, her film capturing both the beauty of Assam’s landscapes and the harsh realities of its people – from the effects of climate change to entrenched patriarchy.

The International Jury

Julie Dash

Her 1991 feature film Daughters of the Dust made her the first African American woman to achieve a nationwide cinema release in the USA. The Library of Congress entered Daughters of the Dust and her short film Illusions into its National Film Registry. Directed numerous music videos for artists like Keb’ Mo’ and Tracy Chapman. She was nominated for the Directors Guild Award in 2002 for The Rosa Parks Story.

Hei-rim Hwang

Programmer and director of the Seoul International Women’s Film Festival and co-managing director and producer of film production and distribution company Metaplay. After studying film in London, she worked as a film editor and curator for a number of Korean film festivals. Since 2010 she has produced shorts and documentary films such as Reservoir Dogs, Sanda and Time of Seeds.

Yasemin Şamdereli

Born and bred in Dortmund, she was an assistant director to Jackie Chan while studying at the University of Television and Film Munich. She directed the TV films Alles getürkt! and Ich Chef, du nix and co-wrote the German TV series Türkisch für Anfänger. Her cinema debut Almanya attracted cinema audiences of almost 1.5 million, winning several awards including Silver and Gold at the German Film Awards. Recently shown in cinemas: Samia.

Lots achieved already: Making women directors visible

The competition was created in Dortmund in 2005, back in the days when programmes at many festivals were lagging way behind in terms of gender equality and only a handful of feature films made by women were shown in cinemas. Since then, IFFF Dortmund+Köln’s lucrative award has steadily contributed to raising the profile and visibility of female directors. The 50:50 target may still be some way off. But the lobbying for equal rights in the film industry is finally starting to see results – women have a greater presence at festivals and reach larger cinema, TV and streaming audiences. Many of our previous award winners are now established names in the film world, including Andrea Arnold, Maren Ade, Naomi Kawase, Małgorzata Szumowska and Jasmila Žbanić.

Big void after the second film

There is huge interest in discovering and promoting new talented filmmakers, which is why debut films are now usually quickly followed by a second feature film. The big void comes afterwards. This is clear from the submissions of the past few years, and from the long waits between the films. The big hurdle, especially for women, is continuing to make films once they get past the newcomer phase.

New competition rules: Entries accepted from directors’ third feature film

We are now reflecting this development going forward, and only take entries for the Dortmund competition from filmmakers with their third feature film. We present established directors who we see as the potential big names of the future. In line with this, women directors’ first and second feature films are eligible for the Cologne Debut Feature Film Competition from 2026. To support the distribution of films by women, the prize of €15,000 will be split between the director (€10,000) and the German distributor (€5,000).

Funders of the Festival

Ministry of Culture and Science of North Rhine-Westphalia; Stadt Dortmund; Kulturbüro; Stadt Köln Kulturamt; Film- und Medienstiftung NRW; Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth; Sparkasse Dortmund; Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media

Award sponsors

CineOne & sPOTTlight Filmlicht
Equal Opportunities Team of KHM Academy of Media Arts Cologne

Internationales Frauen Film Fest Dortmund+Köln

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