Happy International Women's Day 2022!

Ttitle illustration: International Women's Day

The United Nations first celebrated International Women's Day in 1975, even though its beginnings go back much further. Driven by various women's movements in the 20th century, fighting for equal rights, women's suffrage and the emancipation of women workers, the day has become a global event that commemorates the cultural, political and socio-economic achievements of women worldwide.

Each year, International Women’s Day is celebrated on March 8 under a specific motto that focuses on certain issues, campaigns, or themes within the women's movement. For 2022, the UN has defined the slogan "Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow," focusing on the contribution of women and girls around the world in the fight against climate change and for a more sustainable future for us all.

What women can achieve when they believe in themselves, when others believe in them and their ideas, when they receive the same support as men do and are given the same opportunities as men, how women shape society and how important the empowerment of women is for companies and the society as a whole — this is shown in our selection of winning films from recent years that are dedicated to strong women and the topic of gender equality. See for yourself!

1 Founders’ Valley – Women Breaking Bounds

As part of Deutsche Welle’s TV documentary series “Founders Valley”, our 2019 shortlist candidate “Women Breaking Bounds” in the category Ethnology & Sociology features Muslim female founders in Indonesia from a variety of fields and their success stories – how they managed to overcome traditional role expectations and what challenges they had to face on their way into entrepreneurship in a society between Hijab and executive chairs.

Founders’ Valley – Women Breaking Bounds

2 Mums for Safety

Who is more concerned about your safety than your mother? And whose advice are you more likely to heed than your mother's? That’s what the Australian construction company Lendlease thought too, when it came to creating their workplace safety campaign “Mums for Safety.” In a charming and authentic way, this film produced by In The Thicket, now Canopy, features real life mothers of real life Lendlease workers spreading safety and health information and, thus, bringing back to our minds how important our mothers are and what we all owe them.

Mums For Safety

3 Taylor Wessing Gender Equality Film

The fact that it is not only socially but also from an entrepreneurial point of view crucial to stand up for gender equality and to empower women is shown by this film of Rocking Horse Pictures on behalf of Taylor Wessing. The opener for the international law firm’s London Gender and Inclusion event starts off with attention-grabbing questions targeting the viewers’ preconceptions about the need for gender equality. Followed by a range of relevant statistics and underlined with explosive imagery and powerful music, the film highlights the positive business impacts of gender inclusivity in a captivating way.

Taylor Wessing Gender Equality Film

4 Girls like me

Another great film telling the story of a strong woman who had to overcome role expectations and fight prejudices in order to live her dream. Not only with heart and soul but also with sweat, pain and tears, the protagonist of "Girls like me", racing driver Sophia Floersch, has made it to the top and shows us that even a dramatic accident can't keep her from her path. A powerful film by STEREOSCREEN on behalf of Schaeffler that speaks to a generation of young women and empowers them to stand up and show their skills.

GIRLS LIKE ME

5 The Alliance: #sheroes

Aiming to give women and girls the strength to believe in themselves and to fight for equality, this encouraging film by Das Rund celebrates prominent female pioneers and role models (Michelle Obama, Jane Goodall, Annie Leibovitz, Lady Gaga, and Misty Copeland) in a fictional retrospect story from their school days. The story shows us, that believing in our own strengths and abilities and to stand our ground against attempts to bring us down pays off. Just as it did for these five sheroes.
What is unfortunately still a rarity nowadays in the film industry and therefore especially worth mentioning is that during the production special consideration was given to the parity of the crew: there were over 50% women on the set.

The Alliance: #sheroes

Even in 2022, there is still a lot to be done in terms of women’s representation in the film industry – structural inequalities, discrimination, unconscious bias, and gender power relations are still major topics of discussion. Putting strong women into focus, our ongoing blog series “Inspirational women in the film industry” is going to continue soon. We hope you stay tuned!