FFStival 2024 at Showroom Cinema
Tom Grieve, Cinema Editor
FFStival (Female Film Screens) arrives at Showroom for an inaugural edition dedicated to showcasing the creativity of women and non-binary filmmakers from across the world. From family-friendly short films, to a showing of The Substance-director Coralie Fargeat’s brutal debut feature, this day-long film fest brings an eclectic mix of events to the Sheffield cinema on Saturday 23 November.
The fest starts bright and early at 10am with Family Time x FFstival 2024, a curated programme of heartwarming stories and exciting animation aimed at (and even produced by) younger viewers — the youngest filmmaker included in the line-up is just 16 years old. Throughout the day there will be the opportunity to see more short and feature films, with Q&As from filmmakers in attendance too.
In the evening, there is a panel discussion scheduled to delve into the unique challenges and triumphs of women in film, with filmmaker Toby Poser (Wonder Wheel Productions), writer Nora Murphy, and artist and filmmaker Professor Esther Johnson set to provide insight into the collaborative nature of filmmaking, and the significance of female storytelling.
Finally, there’s a screening of Coralie Fargeat’s 2017 Revenge. Billed as a “hallucinatory ride through one woman’s journey from victim to vengeful badass”, the film screens in the wake of the success of Fargeat’s audacious body-horror, The Substance which has been making waves in recent months. The showing of Revenge will be accompanied by a programme of shorts, and filmmaker Molly Brown (Five Remakes of Ringu) will deliver a brief introduction.
