S Viswanath

With inclusivity, and gender parity, the new normal at film festivals, it was fascinating to witness as many as 55 films out of 148 recent and contemporary cinemas, constituting 17 per cent, directed by women filmmakers, a couple co-directed, featured at 56th edition of International Film Festival of India 2025.

What emerged was diversity of delectable directorial delineations and multifarious thematic narratives these films by women, that caught, and wowed discerning cinephiles and critics’ eyes, in equal measure.

There was no genre or narrative themes absent. From predominantly on problems faced by their ilk in still prevalent patriarchal and traditional hegemonic society, some spotlighting on gamut of societal and commercial aspects, thrillers, relationship issues, single motherhood, immigration impact, marriage, experimental, the macabre, the whole hog, was witnessed and felicity and finesse with which these were tackled.

These divergent films, by debutant directors, few others by seasoned practitioners, also provided perspective peek into not only specific “female gaze” from feminine eyes, but also women filmmakers eclectic engagement with cinematic craft, their inventive ideas of cinema as aesthetic form and its attendant idiomatic aspects.

Drawn from as many as 36 of 80 plus different nations from wherein films were curated and culled, brought sharp focus on socio-political, traditional, and cultural mooring, societal dictates and dilemmas and discriminations, bespeaking of universality of issues faced by modern society. Themes brought on to international discourse at a forum such as international film festivals like IFFI.

The films, by women, which reflected and ruminated upon the issues and problems that today’s women, young adults or youths as also children, provide the sensitivity and sensibilities they bring to the cinematic table and emotive understanding only a ‘mother’ or ‘woman’ figure can intuitively and instinctively visualise and dwell upon.

The films coming from Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Colombia, Ecuador, Egypt, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, Mali, Mexico, Morocco, neighbouring Nepal, Norway, Peru, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Syria, Taiwan, Tunisia, Turkey, UK, USA and Vietnam, speak highly of the meticulous and mindful curation and programming the programmers and previewers have gone into bringing almost the entire cinema world to IFFI, Goa.

True to its stated philosophy and universality of vision IFFI it is to be said has curated spectacular films from all over the world. In the process, achieving its goal of providing a single, ubiquitous umbrella platform for ambitious filmmakers, cineastes, and industry professionals to have access to excellent cinemas from across the cinema coliseum.

Be it Cinema of the World Section, International Competition Section, Best Debut Feature Film of a Director, ICFT UNESCO Gandhi Medal, Rising Stars, From The Festivals, Mission Life and the like, the assortment of culturally and aesthetically remarkable films showcased by IFFI lived up to its stature committing to promote art by showcasing international films of the year that have won accolades, appreciations, awards around festival circuits and was avidly anticipated on Ground Goa.

Morocco’s Calle Malaga Spanish-language directorial debut by 2024 much feted bounteously awarded The Blue Caftan fame Maryam Touzani proved her metier and cinematic class, as it tracks the doughty determination of the plucky septuagenarian matriarch to defy all odds and stay put where she belongs whose daughter seeks to sell their ancestral home in Tangier, Morocco, and whisk her mama, enjoying her blissful solitude life, to bustling Madrid.

Equally much feted China’s Vivian Qu known for her Angels Wear White about two girls molested by a middle-aged man in motel, returns with another thriller with Girls On Wire around two cousin sisters who, drift apart, and return to join forces to fob off the mafia after them in this survival derring-do drama.

Hafsia Herzi’s French flick The Little Sister as the title suggests revolves round the youngest of three daughters who, on the cusp of adulthood, seeks to grow out of her strict disciplinarian French-Algerian family and discover her true self in this coming of age lesbian drama. The film fetching the Best Performance by an Actress – Queer Palm, Cannes Film Festival 2025.

The Taiwanese film Left Handed Girl by Shih-Ching Tsou operates on two tracks that of the left handed school going daughter and the mother trying to make ends and presents a pitch perfect winsome, witty and homily ridden tale of a family.

Based on a real life story Germany’s Karla by Christina Tournatzés, which picked by Best Director & Screenplay award at Munich Film Festival is an riveting, gritty and disturbing legal court room drama about a young girl who charges her father with incestuous abuse and seeks the State’s protection.

Likewise, Naomi Kawase’s Japanese fare Yakushima’s Illusion is another evocative and emotive fare about a paediatrician who battles against the Japanese taboo over heart transplants and fights to come to terms with the disappearance of her partner.

Another fascinating and marvellous Japanese film is Seaside Serendipity by Satoko Yokohama, a kind of coming of age tale, where young school going student artists discover their first flush of romance as a flurry of activities turns the seaside town into one cheery carnivalesque congregation of people of all ages and genders.

The Belgian We Believe You by the directors duo Charlotte Devillers-Arnaud Dufeys is a custody drama where a single mother is tested against her steely fight to keep the children with her against a father wanting to wean them away from her.

C’est Si Bon (Moi qui t’aimais /It’s so Good) French relationship drama by Diane Kurys is a rather dour and taxing fare bringing on to screen the real life saga of two cinema personalities – the husband and wife pair of Yves Montand and Simone Signoret and the turmoil their marriage goes through.

Winner of the FIPRESCI Prize at Berlin International Film Festival Little Trouble Girls by Slovenia’s Urška Djukic is another coming of age drama which spotlights on young girl teens, all on the cusp of adulthood, discovering this transition around them and within as they practice for the school choir for an upcoming performance.

Mosquitoes by the directing sisters duo – Valentina Bertani & Nicole Bertani from Italy is a rather rumbunctious and rowdy teen drama as a trio of girls go on a freewheeling frenzied romp as they savour their freedom from the adult world around them.

Mothers Baby is a mystery thriller saga by Austria’s Johanna Moder revolving around a 40ish conductor who is brainwashed into believing she has gotten into post-partum psychological trauma following the birth of her child which is whisked away soon after delivery and her sleuthing to ferret out the truth being hidden from her.

Renoir by Chie Hayakawa whose directorial debut Plan 75 won the Camera d’Or Special Mention at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival weaves yet again another wondrous and wispy touching tale of a young girl navigating the various events of her life as her mother cares for the terminally ill husband and has to grow up on her own navigating through the adult world around her.

The Vietnamese transgender romantic saga Skin Of Youth which bagged the Golden Peacock at IFFI by Ashleigh Mayfair is a typical, set piece film documenting the trials and travails of a person seeking to undergo sex change emerging as a surprise winner.

The Visual Feminist Manifesto by Syria’s Farida Baqi is more of a visual cinematic essay through the life of the protagonist as she transitions birth to adulthood in a stymieing and stifling patriarchal social system and makes for a rather difficult watch for the uninitiated.

Among others include Nani Sahra Walker’s Nepali film debut Shakti, about a single mother trying to save her young daughter from a dreaded illness, Swiss director Petra Volpe’s edgy Late Shift revolving round an overworked nurse, American debutant director Hailey Gates’ Atropia wherein an aspiring actress falls for a solider playing an insurgent, Slovakian Alexandra Makarova’s second feature Perla speaks about a single mother, a dissident artist, who strives hard to help her daughter a gifted young pianist and takes a dangerous decision to return to her native Czechoslovakia.

Or Sinai’s Israeli feature Mama, as the title suggests is probing and poignant account of a housemaid forced to return to her native Polish village for her daughter and house she funding only to contend with her wayward, debt ridden husband.

Where The Wind Comes From debut film by Tunisia’s Amel Guellaty tracks the tumultuous turbulence the friendship of two artists, best friends, goes through as they travel across Tunisia for a contest that could provide them with the freedom they seek.

The Mexican film It Would Be Night in Caracas by director-duo Mariana Rondón & Marité Ugás, Rains Over Babel the Colombia fare from Gala del Sol, the traumatic revenge debut Swiss drama Silent Rebellion by Marie-Elsa Sgualdo, The Ivy by Ecuador’s Ana Cristina Barragán, Irish flick Ready Or Not by Claire Frances Byrne, Furu by Mali’s Fatou Cisse, Girl by Taiwan’s Shu Qi, Amoeba by Singapore’s Siyou Tan, Calorie from Canada’s Eisha Marjara, Romania’s Catane by Ioana Mischie, Norway’s Solomamma by Janicke Askevold, Orenda by Estonia’s Pirjo Honkasalo, Pinch by India’s Uttera Singh, Germany’s Cotton Queen by Suzannah Mirghani, Pinar Yorgancioglu’s Turkish fare Those Who Whistle After Dark, Fury from Spain by Gemma Blasco, Shape of Momo by Nepal’s Tribeny Rai, Brides by UK’s Nadia Fall, Sweetheart from Italy’s Margherita Spampinato, Blue Heron by Hungary’s Sophy Romvari, Austrian White Snail by the director-duo Elsa Kremser & Levin Peter.

These and The Book of Sijiin & Illiyyin by Indonesia’s Hadrah Daeng Ratu, Gorgona by Greece’s Evi Kalogiropoulou, Alpha by France’s Julia Ducournau, The James Bond type crime action thriller Reflection In A Diamond by Belgium’s husband-wife duo Bruno Forzani & Helene Cattet, Happy Birthday by Egypt’s Sarah Goher, The Memory of Butterflies by Peru’s Tatiana Fuentes Sadowski, the FIPRESCI Award winner Silent Friend by Germany’s Ildiko Enyedi, China’s The Botanist by Jing Yi, Ruiqi Lu’s Contact Lens, Lebanon’s Dead Dog by Kalb Saken & She Boars by France’s Elsa Bres all make up women’s ensemble of exquisite, enterprising and engaging films.

S VISWANATH is a veteran film critic who officiates as JURY at several National & International Film Festivals. He deputises as CHIEF CINEMA CURATOR/PROGRAMMER & CREATIVE ADVISOR for Bengaluru International Film Festival (BIFFes). He also curates & advises on the selection of shorts & documentaries for Bengaluru International Short Film Festival (BISFF). Mr Viswanath is the author of “RANDOM REFLECTIONS: A Kaleidoscopic Musings on Kannada Cinema”.