Women Filmmakers leading the Way at Sundance Film Festival: London

The program of the Sundance Film Festival 2018 is finally out and this year the organizers decided to honor the #MeToo and Time’s Up movement highlighting women filmmakers that often have been overlooked.

Desiree Akhavan, director of *The Miseducation of Cameron Post*, an official selection of the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Valentina Frugiuele. Courtesy of Sundance Institute.

Presented in this year’s festival are twelve feature films in which there will be a chance to discuss about all the courage that many women has shown in telling their stories. But the big question is #WhatNext? What will happen next with inequality in the film industry?

By: Elisa Durighello

In the meantime we can see female leads on screen, we can hear the voices of a selection of champions female and enjoy the work of amazing women from the Sundance in Utah. This year there will be a lot of special guests as Toni Collette, main character of the film Hereditary, also showed in the Time Out gala. The opening film of this festival will be “The Miseducation of Cameron Post”, a movie that won the US Grand Jury Prize followed by Skate Kitchen, Never Goin’ Back and other films that support the women’s work in the film industry and British talents. Beyond all the movies there will also be the chance to learn more about the directors and their films in Q&As and panel discussions.

Since the theme of this year’s festival is “What Next” the main focus will be on what can make the film industry become more diverse and inclusive; and with all the UK film founders , Amy Adrion will discuss what to actually expect from the film industry now. People from the UK’s major film funders, Film London, BBC Films and Sundance, will speak alongside Amy Adrion about what needs to be done to make the film industry more representative and accessible also by minorities.

As last year, in this film festival there will be a Surprise film and the inaugural Audience Favorite award giving the audience the possibility to vote for the favorite features.

The feature film program will include American independent narrative and documentaries as:

An Evening With Beverly Luff Linn, in where we will follow Lulu Danger in an adventure with a mysterious men from the past
Eighth Grad, the story of a Thirteen-year old girl dealing with her eighth grade year
Generation Wealth, film about the materialistic and image-obsessed culture
Half the Picture, in which we can listen the testimony of successful women directors who have faced discrimination.
Hereditary, an intense family escape from their dark fate
Leave No Trace, a daughter father adventure
The Miseducation of Cameron Post, based in 1993 a girl is forced into a gay conversion therapy center after caught while having sex with another girl
Never Goin’ Back, a story of two girls who have to escape from their troubles
Skate Kitchen, an amazing story about friendship
The Tale, in which a woman dives in her memory in order to survive
Yardie, based in a Victor Headley’s novel is the story of a boy that reunites with his girlfriend and their daughter
The “surprise film”