A recent dip in female-led theatrical releases in the UK - back to 2018 levels of 26% reminds us that our work is far from over; that we cannot be complacent.
Below you can read about the research we conduct into gender representation in film and the wider industry, tracking the release landscape to present an accurate picture of investment in films by filmmakers of marginalised genders.
Here you can also find out about news and opportunities at Reclaim The Frame, along with curated film recommendations, filmmaker interviews, and creative responses.
Written by Tom Symmons
It has been an exciting year for British women filmmakers who once again dominate the nominations for the 2023 British Independent Film Awards. This year is all the more remarkable for the explosion in new female film talent with no less than twelve feature film debuts - two more than 2022 - which are up for a total of seventy-two BIFAs across all awards categories. What is more, over half of the debut features are directed by women of colour - over three times the number from last year - and one debut, which, unfortunately, is still extremely rare, was directed by a woman with disability.
How To Have Sex (Molly Manning Walker), Rye Lane (Raine Allen-Miller) and Scrapper (Charlotte Regan) - three narrative features displaying stylistic flair and a refreshing attitude towards under- and mis-represented young female experiences - claim forty-three noms between them. All three films have been nominated in five of the main categories: Best British Independent Film, Best Screenplay, Best Director, Best Debut Director and Best Debut Screenwriter.
Documentary features by women also feature strongly at this year’s awards with four out of five noms in the Best Debut Director - Feature Documentary category for If The Streets Were On Fire (Alice Russell), Is Anybody Out There? (Ella Glendining), Another Body (co-dir.Sophie Compton) and The Taste of Mango (Chloe Abrahams), four engaging films grappling with difficult issues from a female perspective. If The Streets Were On Fire and Another Body are also up for the Best Feature Documentary award.
Five other feature debuts from female directors are in the running for awards: Mahalia Belo’s powerful post-apocalyptic drama, The End We Start From, received nine nominations, most significantly Best Lead Performance for Jodie Comer. Adura Onashile’s gritty and intimate family drama, Girl, has two noms including Breakthrough Performance nominee. Perhaps surprisingly, Pretty Red Dress - Dionne Edwards’ playful unpicking of Black queer masculinity - received nominations for only Best Supporting Performance and Breakthrough Producer. The poetic yet unflinching portrait of black motherhood on the margins in Earth Mama (Savanah Leaf) is up for Best Debut Director and Best Lead Performance. And, finally, original and arresting Brit-Asian action comedy, Polite Society (Nida Manzoor) is up for five awards, including Best Debut Screenwriter.
We hope this year’s BIFA nominations herald greater gender equality in the director’s chair in the coming years. After three years without any increase - women directors accounted for just 20% of UK films released in 2020, 2021 and 2022 - this figure rose to 23% in the first half of 2023. Although still unacceptably low, this figure is moving in the right direction; boosted by the new wave of female filmmaking talent recognised by this year’s awards nominations, it may continue to do so.
We’re wishing all the nominees the best of luck for this Sunday. Follow all the action over on BIFA’s instagram page at @bifa_film, where they’ll be announcing all the winners.
You can also catch the BIFA nominated Earth Mama at our special preview on Monday 4 December, 6.20pm at Curzon Hoxton, where director Savanah Leaf will be joining us for a post-screening conversation - find out more here.
Director Ella Glendining describes her film - Is There Anybody Out There? - as a love letter to the disabled community, and I think this truly encompasses what it is. A love letter to the disabled community and an eye-opening, raw and honest awareness session for non-disabled people.
After watching the film, I caught up with Ella to find out more about the key themes and to discuss my own views as a disabled viewer.
While I don’t have the same condition as Ella, I could relate to her need to find others like her. I have cerebral palsy, which is a physical disability where no two people are affected the same.Regardless of disability, it’s human nature to want to find people like ourselves. To relate to other people is what makes us human. I believe this is why finding the disabled community was so crucial in my own journey of self-acceptance. I’m a proud disabled person, yet this wasn’t always the case.
Part of this is down to internalised ableism, which. This is when a disabled person internalises the negative and ableist views of disability that society holds. Ella described this as, “Wishing that you were non-disabled, wishing away your disability, which is very understandable and human. It's hard to be disabled, there are many difficulties that come with physical differences. But it can also be very subtle, which it was for me. It was all about proving myself as a human.”
I believe all disabled people will experience some level of internalised ableism, whether they’re aware of it or not. It was refreshing to see Ella reflect on her own internalised prejudices throughout the film. Especially when pregnant with her son. Alongside the disabled community, it was finding the social model of disability that really solidified my own self-confidence. Ella discusses this, and the medical model of disability, during the film. It’s rare that the medical model is explored for what it is – the need to fix people. Yet it’s more than that, as Ella explored, it’s the obsession to eradicate disability in a way that sells disabled lives as less than, as a burden to society.
While I appreciate that medical advancements can significantly improve quality of life, hiding disability and making changes for people to appear more ‘normal’ does no one a favour. Ella says,
“If the goal is to look more normal, you're never actually going to achieve that. Maybe you’ll look a bit more normal, but you're still going to be disabled. You're still going to look disabled and look different.”
In her words and documentary, Ella illustrates clearly that we don't need fixing, we need the right support in place. And with that, we can go on to achieve and enjoy life.
“We're capable of having wonderful lives. There's so much that's wonderful about being disabled. It's like such a rich perspective on life when you're disabled. It's so frustrating that we can't be valued in the way that we should.”
In the words of Stella Young, you’ve been sold the lie that disability is a Bad Thing. Not only that, it shapes our lives and who we are. If we were to remove disability, we remove and invalidate our perspectives.
“There are many blessings in disguise when you're disabled.” Ella continues “I think you have to be resilient as a disabled person, and I definitely see that as one of my biggest strengths. I don't know who I'd be if I wasn't disabled. That person does not exist. But I very much doubt that I'd be so passionate about something, you know, so passionate about my work and so dedicated and driven.”
Disability is part of society and I’d like to keep it that way. As Ella made the point, we’re not born with prejudice, it’s learnt behaviour. By showing the film in schools, it could empower disabled students and educate non-disabled classmates. It l could enable the next generation to be more aware of the pressures that disabled people face and hopefully eliminate the negative societal view of disability. Anyone can become disabled or have a disabled child. Surely, we owe it to them to dispel the myths and share truth.
‘Is There Anybody Out There?’ shows Ella’s journey to find someone like herself. By her own admission, she was unable to achieve this. However, she said “I had all the realisations that I needed to. I've been on the journey, I've completed it. [...] I was very fixated on finding someone exactly like me, so the revelation that there is no one exactly like me was a turning point.It was very important to me at the end to bring it back to Naomi and the power of the disabled community and make clear that it's a film about not just about the body, but about the soul. It's a film about the power of community and the power of when people who have been othered come together.”
Part of the realisation was that she already had the support from the disabled community and that she could be unapologetically herself without finding someone else who was a mirror-like reflection. Despite these conclusions, I’d add that this film is a beacon for other disabled people to find her. Ella wanted to find belonging amongst the disabled community, this is exactly what she’s given us. A place for disabled people to see themselves.
Ella Glendining’s next venture is a historical drama feature for the BFI. It’ll feature disabled characters on their own journey of self-discovery. I’m confident Ella will make it a true portrayal of disability and I really look forward to seeing it.
If you’ve not already, go and see ‘Is There Anybody Out There?’. It’s in cinemas and on demand.
Chloe Tear is an award-winning disability writer, speaker and activist. She has mild cerebral palsy and is registered blind after starting to lose her sight at the age of 18. Chloe is passionate about public attitudes towards disabled people, accessible employment and disability hate crime. She previously has been named one of the most influential disabled people in Britain through the Shaw Trust Power 100 list. You can find Chloe’s work at www.chloetear.co.uk.
X: @/chloeltear
IG: @/chloe_tear
Updated: Nov 13, 2023
Criminal Barrister - and Reclaim The Frame Trustee - Stephanie Hayward reflects on Justine Triet’s courtroom drama ANATOMY OF A FALL
When Samuel Maleski (Samuel Theis) is found dead in the snow by his blind son, Daniel, (Milo Machado-Graner), his cause of death is a mystery: did he jump, fall, or was he pushed? Post-mortem results prove inconclusive and his writer wife, Sandra Voyter, (Sandra Hüller) is suspected of murder.
“Stop. I did not do it”, she tells Vincent Renzi (Swann Arlaud), long-time friend and now lawyer. Regardless, Renzi replies “…that’s not the point”.
Indeed, director Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall feels less concerned with whether Sandra actually kills Samuel and more with challenging assumptions that shroud a successful writer, wife, and mother accused of her husband’s murder.
The trial takes place in Grenoble in an old-fashioned courtroom. Sandra is suspected of castrating her husband’s creativity. Her literary success is weaponised - as if murder was conceived by her books. A violent, marital row (recorded covertly by Samuel) is interpreted as evidence of events that precede his death. Not insignificantly, all these theories are advanced by men. That they are too reductive to capture the truth, Sandra tells the court “…what you say…is just a little part of the whole situation…sometimes a couple is kind of a chaos, and everybody is lost”.
As a criminal barrister, I found the ‘cross-questioning’ of Sandra while other witnesses stood in the box, striking. In England and Wales trials follow a more linear process with clearer delineation between the prosecution and defence cases. In Anatomy of a Fall witnesses opine on the evidence and advocates comment on - even mock, live testimony. Perhaps it’s artistic licence to drive the plot, but here, as a general rule, only experts can give opinions; non-experts stick to the facts (what they see and hear); and comments are saved for speeches.
The inquisitorial system means the President of the court (a judge) assumes a more active role, directing proceedings*, calling witnesses, and asking questions. This includes 11-year-old Daniel. Surprisingly, there are few, if any, practical adjustments to accommodate his age. Daniel is asked complex questions and is recalled to give further evidence later in the trial. There’s a suggestion that his evidence most reliably informs how Samuel dies, not least because - as the child of the deceased and accused - his loyalty is conflicted. Torn between grief for his father, and believing his mother, Machado-Graner’s performance is mature, deeply thoughtful, lost and innocent.
Ambiguity surrounding the cause of Samuel’s death sees Triet make her strongest point. In an interview with Triet in the New Yorker published on 15 October 2023, the question is asked “can a woman be honest about her marriage – and her ambition – without being punished”. It should not need confirming that the answer to that question is ‘yes’.
ANATOMY OF A FALL is in UK cinemas from 10 November
*French Legal System, Second Edition. Elliot, C; Jeanpierre, E; Vernon, C. Pearson Education Limited, 2006, page 219.
Stephanie Hayward (she/her) is a Trustee of Reclaim The Frame and a criminal barrister. Stephanie leads ‘Behind the Gown’ - an organisation founded in 2017 by a group of barristers committed to tackling harassment and abuse of power at the Bar. Her film ‘Retaining Women at the Bar’, created to mark 100 years of women at the Bar, was released in 2019.
