Women's Voices at the Toronto Women Film Festival

Highlighting the challenges, triumphs, and everyday lives of women worldwide through independent films, the Toronto Women Film Festival is committed to supporting, recognizing, and empowering women's voices in cinema. It celebrates and honors films created by talented women filmmakers from around the world. In recent years, the festival has featured films by female directors at venues such as Carlton Cinema, Innis Town Hall at the University of Toronto, various art centers, and digitally through the annual women's catalogue of the Toronto Film magazine. The festival conducts a seasonal competition, and hosts live annual screening events each September in parallel to TIFF.

"Women's voices in cinema" is the seasonal program of the Toronto Women Film Festival designed to amplify female perspectives, stories, and creators. It challenges traditional narratives by highlighting women's experiences, often through the work of female directors, writers, and producers. The program utilizes film as a tool for social change and features a wide array of diverse voices.

Each season, the festival team nominates and selects films and artists for various sections of the seasonal competition, providing digital marketing, online promotions, and the opportunity to screen films in September through live events both in theaters and online. The festival emphasizes stories driven by women and independent female directors, producers, writers, actresses, cinematographers, editors, and all female artists contributing to the cinematic language as women in film. Its mission is to discover, promote, screen, and award female filmmakers and stories about women in societies around the globe. It is our pleasure to announce the latest seasonal winners of the festival.

Latest winners of the international seasonal competition:

Best Narrative Feature & Best Actress

ANNA

Director and Actress: Monica Guerritore

Best Narrative Short

Stiina

Director: Elisabeth Kužovnik

Best Feature Documentary

Patrícia

Director: Aude Chevalier Beaumel

Best Short Documentary

Margarita

Director: Kristin Zimney

Best Experimental

Klavierklang

Director: Nettie Wild

Best Comedy

Flora

Director: Susan Vinciotti Bonito

Best Animation

Flamingo in the Garden

Director: Xinhui Ma

Best Web/TV/Pilot

Bridal Party

Director: Mckenzie Salvatierra Custin

Best Student Film

The Tale of a Village

Lusha Li

Honorable Mention Best Student Film

Why Frogs Cry in the Rain

Marina Earle

Best Short Film Actress

Clara Egemark Stranghol

Cry out to heaven

Best Short Film Cinematographer

Our own game

Carol Tormey

Best Editor

Liyana Mansor & Grainne Creighton

Raksha Girls

Best Short Director

Enough

Director: Denise Borraz Trepat

Best Feature Director

BAAB

Director: Nayla Al Khaja

Best LGBTQ

Big Johnny

Director Jeanie Kane

Best Human Rights

The Coalition

Director: Sisters Strain

Best Film About Women

Marwin Gansauge, Kristen Hege

Women Go Wild – A Path to Leadership

Best Environmental

Horn Maker

Director: Juliette Marquis

Best First Time Filmmaker

Daughters of Revolution Eritrea - Peace in Times of War

Director: Christine Vogelsang

Best Biographical Film

More Than Santa Baby

Director Tamar Springer

Best Sport Film

This is Hogtown

Directors: Elsa Morena, John Hurej

Best Youth Artist

Jalie Faith Briseño-Garza

My Safe Place

Best Scriptwriter

Joy Sculnick

The Architecture of the Divine

Best Unproduced Script

Dear Mr. Hutton

Jennifer Susan Marsh