Women in Film and Television UK (WFTV) has set the lineup of screenings, discussions and networking opportunities for this year’s festival, which includes an exclusive screening and Q&A with BBC documentarian Stacey Dooley ahead of her latest films.
The inaugural WFTV Festival 2025 will launch on Friday, March 7, at the Garden Cinema in London, in celebration of International Women’s Day. The festival will then travel across the U.K., screening work by members in Cardiff, Belfast, Manchester and Edinburgh.
As part of the Q&As, The Festival Circuit: A Film’s Journey will feature a panel discussion hosted by Wendy Mitchell (journalist and film festival consultant) with Katie Bignell (film festival strategist and founder of Festival Formula).
Screenings include Motherboard, a film by 2024 WFTV Award Winner and BAFTA Award-winning director Victoria Mapplebeck, with an introduction by the filmmaker; Zurawski vs. Texas, produced by WFTV member Amy Flanagan, with an introduction hosted by Mitchell; and Pauline Black: A 2 Tone Story, with an introduction from producer Nikki Parrott and director Jane Mingay.
Motherboard sees Victoria turning the camera on herself after she finds herself single, pregnant and broke at 38. Shot over two decades, the film is a celebration of messy lives, solo motherhood and proof that epic journeys can begin and end at home.
Zurawski vs. Texas follows a group of women denied abortions, even at the brink of death, who band together with a fearless attorney to sue the state of Texas in an extraordinary effort to regain their rights and reproductive futures—not only for themselves but millions of others.
In Pauline Black: A 2 Tone Story, the lead singer of 2-Tone hit band The Selecter tells her life story in the same frank manner that helped shape her as an iconic, era-defining female musician.
The short-film program includes Sister Wives, written, directed by and starring WFTV member Louisa Connolly-Burnham, and Sign 2 Win, an episode of the BSL Zone Deaf game show created by BSLBT operations coordinator and WFTV member Jennifer Clarke.
In Sister Wives, Mia McKenna-Bruce stars as Galilee, one of two sister wives married to the same man who start to develop feelings for each other.
Sign 2 Win sees three teams’ BSL language and deaf cultural knowledge put to the test to see who will win £1,000.
The WFTV Festival is exclusively open to WFTV members.
