F-Rated
Our programme of films featuring the work of female directors has coincided with the development of the F-rating, a new system designed to flag up the significant involvement of women in film, on either side of the camera.
The F-Rating Manifesto
The stories we see on screen influence our lives. We want to hear stories from everyone, not just from one section of society.
We want diversity in filmmaking, both on and off screen.
The F-rating was founded by Holly Tarquini at Bath Film Festival 2014 where we wanted to highlight films which feature prominent women both behind the camera and in front of it.
Every film which ticks yes to the one of the following questions receives the F-rating of approval:
- Does it have a female director?
- Is it written by a woman?
- Is/are there complex female characters on screen who exist in their own right (not simply there to support to the male lead)?
The F stands for feminist.
Feminism is: "The belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities." We believe that feminism benefits everyone.
Featuring
"As the first Indian feature invited to compete at Cannes in nearly three decades, Payal Kapadia's narrative début would be notable enough; that the movie is so delicately felt and sensuously textured is cause for outright celebration" – Justin Chang, New Yorker. Her film (which went on to win the Grand Prize at Cannes) tells the story of 3 women… and a big city.
The city is Mumbai, a bustling huge metropolis, never still, teeming with people and stories, where nothing seems permanent. The women all work at a hospital:Prabha is a senior nurse, Anu a trainee and Parvaty, a cook. Their stories are separate but interlocking.
Prabha's husband has moved to Germany and has not been heard from since. Anu is secretly in love with a Muslim boy. These two women share a flat that neither could afford alone. Parvaty is about to be evicted from her shanty house, a victim of the mass development in super-rich Mumbai. Their stories are told "in the most delicate, moving way possible. She's also about to mount a quiet, sneak attack on your soul" – David Fear, Rolling Stone. He goes on to say "It's possible to contrast those captured cityscape moments that opened the film and feel like the destination you have arrived at by the time the credits play over some local youngster dancing in the distance is a world away. But the journey to that sensation, courtesy of Kapadia's heavenly work, is far, far richer than you could have possibly imagined".
Marin is 70 years old and has lived alone for decades since her husband died and her children left home. Even her weekly meeting with her previously wild friends have slipped to monthly…and then yearly. Feeling isolated and lonely, she decides to take her future into her own hands and "sets out to revamp her love life. Before long, her eye is caught by taxi driver Faramaz. Throwing caution to the winds, she engineers a night to remember, filled with music, dance and brain-bruising quantities of wine. But plans have a way of going awry in this lovely, intimate, tragicomic tale of late-blooming love in the shadow of Iran's repressive regime" – Fatima Sheriff, Little White Lies.
"In its gentle way, this is a subversive piece of film-making. Its directors, Maryam Moghadam and Behtash Sanaeeha, were prevented from travelling to Berlin in February for the film's world premiere after the Iranian authorities confiscated their passports, having taken issue with scenes of hijab-free boozing, dancing and a terrific sequence in which Mahin faces down the 'morality police'. Perhaps more radical than the censor-bating, though, is the fact that 'My Favourite Cake' trains its lens on lonely, ordinary older people – a demographic all too frequently invisible to film-makers the world over. A rare delight" – Wendy Ide, Observer.
Set in Denmark in the post-world war one 1920s, this is based on a true story and was nominated for the Palme d'Or at Cannes. "It is about a world in which women's lives are disposable and in which the authorities are disapproving of and disgusted by their suffering – and set at a time in which the first world war had normalised the idea of mass murder" – Peter Bradshaw, Guardian.
We are following the life of poverty-stricken seamstress Karoline, whose husband is missing, presumed dead. She has a steamy affair with the factory manager and ends up pregnant. Although he says he will marry her, his mother will not allow it and Karoline has the choice of performing an abortion (with the needle of the title) or being an unmarried mother. At this point she meets Dagmar, a shopkeeper, who tells her she can get babies adopted, for a fee…
"At the heart of this lies von Horn's direction, his impeccable screenplay co-written with Line Langebek and, perhaps most of all, the casting of Sonne herself at the complex, troubled Karoline. Sonne had already proven herself particularly adept in bringing to life nuanced, complicated characters as the lead in in Isabella Eklöf's jaw-dropping 'Holiday' (2018), and 'The Girl with the Needle' only further consolidates her status as a performer with extraordinary courage and talent. 'The Girl with the Needle' is a great film to begin with, but with Sonne at the helm it becomes something truly special and wholly unique" – Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Alliance of Women Film Journalists.
Incredibly, this is Almodóvar's first ever winner at a major European Festival (Venice this year), and it comes with his first English language film. Taking on the very topical issue of assisted dying, he nails his 'colours' firmly to the 'yes' camp here, whilst also showing his anger at the lack of movement over climate change.
Tilda Swinton's Martha is dying of cancer. She asks her old friend Ingrid (Julianne Moore) to be in 'the room next door' when she stops the pain by self-euthanising - in the next room to prevent Ingrid from becoming a criminal.
Almodóvar also uses the separate room concept to take on several side issues, as his films always do, in the conversations and flashbacks the two women share.
"'The Room Next Door' is about many things, but I took away two powerfully interconnected messages, beautifully rendered through Almodovar's inimitable melodramatic voice. The first is that, sometimes, nothing is more important than being present for someone else. Two, there is beauty in every moment on this earth if you look for it" – Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com. Part of that beauty comes from films such as this: Almodóvar's colours flow through it all.
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