35 and Single

They are clad in the religiously correct abaja, are not allowed to drive and yet still go their own way with confidence. In pioneering work, a new generation of women in Saudi Arabia are fighting for positions as politicians, lawyers, editors-in-chief and entrepreneurs for the first time. A documentary about courageous women who are developing ideas about what the strictly conservative kingdom needs for its future.

Argemira

Filmmaker Jonathan Caouette's documentary on growing up with his schizophrenic mother -- a mixture of snapshots, Super-8, answering machine messages, video diaries, early short films, and more -- culled from 19 years of his life.

A film about three teenagers - Klara, Mina and Tanutscha - from the Berlin district of Kreuzberg. The trio have known each other since Kindergarten and have plenty in common. The three 15-year-olds are the best of friends; they are spending the summer at Prinzenbad, a large open-air swimming pool at the heart of the district where they live. They're feeling pretty grown up, and are convinced they've now left their childhood behind.

Du Monde au Balcon

A short documentary examining the consequence of time within the fragility of memory, exposing a sense of self, trapped within materiality and fantasy. We observe Chrystalla in her safe place, her home, reflecting on her childhood, her successful beauty business in 70s Cyprus and her deeply troubled marriage. Loneliness, abandonment and regret are prevailing themes within cycles of reflection, jest and contradiction.

A Finnish documentary follows four young men who have one year to find new love in Helsinki.

As the first woman in Europe to found a private space company, Hélène Huby sets out to challenge the dominance of SpaceX. In doing so, she enters a global race in which Europe barely has a foothold. But this is about more than technology: whoever controls access to space also shapes the order of our world. Over the course of several years, the film follows Huby through negotiations, setbacks and the lead-up to a crucial first rocket launch in the United States. Between airports, conference rooms and ever fewer moments with her family, it becomes clear what this ambition demands. As she tries to change the system, she risks becoming part of it herself.

Matt Walsh's controversial doc challenges radical gender ideology through provocative interviews and humor.

Marina and Perla join thousands of women on an annual Catholic pilgrimage. Perla's coming of age accentuates a generational divide as she struggles to assert her independence as a woman.

Light Upon Light: A Documentary on Hijab is an intimate and deeply personal exploration of the diverse, raw, and untold stories of hijabi women. Through open and vulnerable conversations with 7 women, the film dismantles stereotypes, highlights the challenges imposed by society, and celebrates the profound beauty of the hijab beyond a mere clothing choice. It captures the individuality of each woman’s story—how they came to wear the hijab, the struggles they’ve faced, and the strength they’ve found in it. More than just fabric, the hijab is a journey, often misunderstood, and influenced by the way the world perceives it. By amplifying voices that are often unheard, the documentary creates a space for empathy, challenges misconceptions, and invites a deeper understanding of what it truly means to wear the hijab; inspiring everyone to see hijab in a new light.

"Monday's Girls" explores the conflict between modern individualism and traditional communities in today's Africa through the eyes of two young Waikiriki women from the Niger delta. Although both come from leading families in the same large island town, Florence looks at the iria women's initiation ceremony as an honor, while Azikiwe, who has lived in the city for ten years, sees it as an indignity.

Inspired by Ballet Mécanique, Ballet Biologic is an experimental triptych exploring the body through movement, physical painting and spoken testimony. Made alongside three physical paintings and exhibited at LJMU’s Umwelt exhibition at Bridewell Studios in Liverpool, the project turns vulnerability into rhythm, image and reclamation.

Filmmaker Sophie Dros enters into a dialogue with strong women in a powerfull document about being a woman in the Netherlands today. Inspired by Simone de Beauvoir's essay The second sex, filmmaker Sophie Dros (winner of the NFF Debut Competition 2017) talks to four women and a group of young girls. Together they go in search of universal stories; about dealing with expectations, empathy and connection, desires, fear, need for confirmation and losing control.

Midge Ure looks back at the story of the Band Aid famine relief single he co-wrote and produced, featuring contributions from the pop stars who took part.

A series of testimonies about formative encounters with sex and pornography.

Hello, My Name Is Lesbian shows modern lesbian lifestyle and culture in all it’s diversity as it is lived in one of the most sexually liberated countries in the world. Set against historic footage from the last five decades, women aging from 19 to 84, share their views on sex, family gatherings, parental roles, night life and careers: every facet of the lives we lead, viewed through the eyes of women who have chosen identities departing from the norm.

For Neema, being a woman has always meant a script: school, marriage, babies. When a doctor tells filmmaker Neema that having children might be hard, she doesn’t expect it to confuse her. Those expectations wound her. Raised in a multi-religious home, her identity was forged by questions of what is haram and what would please Jesus. All Neema cared about was which hell she’d end up in.

In the midst of the chaos of México City, a group of eight bachelor millennials who call themselves ´The Hermits´, open the doors to their tiny apartments in the historic Ermita Building, in the yet-to-be gentrified neighborhood of Tacubaya, and share their life experiences in a time when precarity changes the way in which we love, feel and relate to each other. As we explore the homes of these eight neighbors, we also witness their personalities intersect in a Whatsapp chat, a virtual space that functions as a supporting system that helps them face the adversities that living alone in this city brings.

A young woman drifts through fragments of images, memories and borrowed realities while questioning the future she has been taught to desire. Work, politics, womanhood, love and identity dissolve into a restless interior monologue about what it means to become someone in a world that has already decided who she should be.