BFI Woman With A Movie Camera Summit returns at BFI Southbank

The BFI’s annual Woman With A Movie Camera Summit returns to BFI Southbank on 27 January 2024, with guest speakers including writers and actors Susan Wokoma, Joanna Scanlan and Alice Lowe, filmmakers Jeanie Finlay, Jane Giles and Simisolaoluwa Akande, composer Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch and film critic Ellen E. Jones.

In addition, several talks and panels will be made available internationally on the BFI YouTube channel, and Woman With A Movie Camera curated film collections will be accessible to UK-wide audiences on BFI Player.

For this edition of the summit, the programme reflects on some of the most talked about topics of the past year including romcoms, girl memes, Taylor Swift and Beyoncé. The Summit will also shine a light on film composers and forgotten Hollywood screenwriters, along with topics that include consent on screen, the Lolita trope, and our relationships with our mothers. A Summit Pass will grant access to a full day packed with talks, Q&As and panel discussions with filmmakers, curators and creatives, as well as workshops and drop-ins.

Tickets are on sale now, with the full programme line-up available online here.

Special guests will include actors Susan Wokoma, Joanna Scanlan and Alice Lowe, who will dive into the creative processes behind their comedic storytelling, detailing how they balance switching between acting, writing and directing; HMMA-winning composer Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch, who will discuss the art of composition, breaking into the industry and her wonderful body of work including ALL OF US STRANGERS (Andrew Haigh, 2023); the legendary Jane Giles, co-director of SCALA!!! (2023), who joins us to discuss her personal experiences of programming alternative cinema and her evolution into filmmaking; a panel of Muslim Women Filmmakers featuring Warda Mohamed, Shaheen Baig, Myriam Raja and Sara Harrak, who will discuss their experiences of navigating the industry, imposter syndrome and bringing subversive stories to screen; and critic Ellen E Jones who will discuss the immense potential of screen storytelling to defeat an evil both historic and urgently topical: racism.

Hot from its Short Film Award win at the BFI London Film Festival 2023, we also present a special screening of Simisolaoluwa Akande’s poetic documentary THE ARCHIVE: QUEER NIGERIANS (2023), which traces five queer Nigerians living in the UK through audio diaries. A testament to the power of the spoken word and the importance of being heard, the director and filmmaking team join us to discuss bringing this tapestry of stories to life. Elsewhere, Jeanie Finlay, the award-winning artist and filmmaker joins us to discuss her craft and career so far, as well as the journey to her latest work, YOUR FAT FRIEND (2023), a powerful and moving documentary exploring body image, diet culture and anti-fat bias. A special preview of YOUR FAT FRIEND will follow the Woman With a Movie Camera Summit at 17:50, ticketed separately.

Directed by Beyonce, an examination of Beyoncé’s complex and often controversial visual exploits including RENAISSAINCE, which will explore what’s missing from the conversation, while Taylor Swift: The Main Character of the World, will unpack Swift’s impact on the industry and her approach to her visual output including the record-breaking ERAS TOUR film. Following these two illustrated talks exploring their artistry, Beyoncé, Taylor Swift and the concert film will interrogate the two biggest concert films of 2023, their parallels, contrasts, and how both artists managed to conquer the box office.

Other sessions will include Lolitas in 2024, an exploration of the origins and damaging consequences of the archetype in pop culture; an Introduction to Dorothy Arzner from programmer Caroline Cassion which will investigate the trailblazing director ahead of BFI Southbank’s season in February; Unravelling Our Mothers which will trace the recent wave of generational storytelling that asks why so many filmmakers are compelled to know our parents better; Radicalising the Canon – Female rebels of the Avant-Garde, which will consider how the low-budget and expressive form of filmmaking conjured an authentic female voice; The Age of Consent: the evolution of sexual assault on screen, a look at how today’s filmmakers are depicting consent and what this means for audiences; 2024 going on 2004: the romcom renaissance and its evolution, an exploration of the ways in which the much-loved film genre has evolved; Girl Memes, a deep dive into the year’s obsession with the girlhood aesthetic and some of the best (and worst) memes of the year; and Forgotten Screenwriters of Early Hollywood, which will celebrate some of the colourful characters who contributed to the “tyranny of the woman writer.” Other screenings will include a programme of shorts curated by T A P E Collective’s online cinema platform Good Wickedry, where each selected film’s cinematography, story, performances and sound are calling out for a big screen encore; and Rianne Pictures presents: Women X Film Festival 2023 award winners, a selection of award-winning shorts that illustrate the bread of talent that Women X strives to showcase. The summit will wrap up with The Big Woman With A Movie Camera Quiz, celebrating women in film and television – with prizes!

The BFI Woman with a Movie Camera Summit will take place at BFI Southbank on 27 January 2024. A full day pass is available for £13, £10 for concessions (Non-Members pay £2 more), and £5 for ages 25 & Under. Tickets are on sale now. Purchasing a summit pass will give you access to the day of talks, Q&As and panel discussions, as well as drop-in workshops. Please note the YOUR FAT FRIEND preview (17:50, NFT1) is ticketed separately.