Woman with a Movie Camera Summit 2026

The Woman with a Movie Camera Summit returns to BFI Southbank!

An annual event, the summit programme is formed by over 20 events exploring film and television, focused on lending female and non-binary voices a chance to speak about the issues facing them in today’s workplace and culture.

Purchasing a summit pass will give you access to a day packed with talks, Q&As and panel discussions with filmmakers, curators and creatives, as well as workshops and drop-in sessions.

Tickets £15, concessions £12 (Members pay £2.50 less), 25 and Under £5

Events schedule

An Introduction to Maven Screen Media

11:15–11:55, NFT2

Celine Rattray and Trudie Styler founded Maven Screen Media, a female-focused production company in 2011 to help redress the gender balance in the film industry through championing strong female storylines and talent. Join Celine in conversation as she delves into the learnings from 15 years of championing female narratives and discusses the company’s slate of female-driven films like Unicorns, Rose’s Baby and Eleanor the Great.

Speaker: Celine Rattray

Film Girls Galore on Tour: Visionary Women in Film Collage Craft Workshop

11:30–12:30 and 14:30–15:30, Foyer

Film Girls Galore is a female film club based at Showroom Cinema in Sheffield, aiming to combat loneliness by forging new connections in the community through the power of cinema. For this workshop, we will be crafting mood board collages celebrating our favourite female filmmakers.

A Conversation on Archive, World Building and Futurity in DIY Moving Image Practice

11:45–12:30, Blue Room

Join artists Joely Mae Greally, april forrest lin 林森 and Ebun Sodipo in a gentle conversation surrounding the significance of world-building in transgressive filmmaking practice and how DIY approaches to the medium can challenge dominant mainstream narratives. The discussion will investigate the capacity for the concept of elsewheres and queered utopic landscapes while celebrating the creative autonomy of refusal. Queer utopia is alive and in reach.

Host: Joely Mae Greally

Speakers: april forrest lin 林森, Ebun Sodipo

Transfems with Movie Cameras

12:05–12:50, NFT3

In 2010, Lana Wachowski made Hollywood history by becoming the first major director to publicly disclose a transgender identity. Over the past decade and a half, unprecedented numbers of trans women and transfeminine people have risen to prominence in Wachowski’s wake, on both sides of the camera – but how far have we really come? This panel of transfem film professionals will unpack this question and more, as well as share their unique perspectives on being trans in the film industry.

Host: Sarah Cleary

Speakers: Amy Coop, Jamie Morgan Lapsley

Celebrating Lotte Reiniger and 100 Years of Prince Achmed

12:10-12:45, NFT4

2026 marks the centenary of Lotte Reiniger’s The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926), the earliest surviving feature film in animation history, made in Germany by the pioneering silhouette animator. Despite Reiniger’s important contribution to cinema, 100 years after the film’s premiere she remains a marginalised figure, who has been largely eclipsed by male contemporaries. This talk will contextualise Reiniger’s exquisite film, and champion her work with the next generation of female filmmakers.

Speaker: Tashi Petter

Women Filmmakers’ Archives – Tina Gharavi and Gurinder Chadha

12:20–13:05, NFT2

Join BFI Screencraft archivists Grace Johnston and Wendy Russell talking about their respective projects, Our Screen Heritage and Women’s Screen Work in Archives Made Visible, working on the archives of filmmakers Gurinder Chadha and Tina Gharavi. The panel will explore how these projects and archival practice can support the visibility of women filmmakers, offering insights into parts of the filmmakers’ archives, such as Gharavi’s notebooks and a study on music in Chadha’s archive.

Speakers: Wendy Russell, Grace Johnston

Please Don’t Scroll: We Need to Talk About AI Slop

13:00–13:45, Blue Room

Has your social media feed been flooded with cat dramas soundtracked to a meowing Billie Eilish cover? Uncanny street interviews? Montages of logic-defying beds? You might have been wading through AI slop, the fastest growing genre of online content. This talk will unpack the rise of AI-generated videos, the various types of slop, and dig into the dark, misogynistic implications of the seemingly silly content.

Speaker: Kim Sheehan

Them Ones presents Good Grief: Women and Mourning in the Cinematic Experience

13:05–13:50, NFT3

Depictions of women and grief have soared across our cinema screens, from the dark comedy-surrealism of Rungano Nyoni’s award-winning On Becoming A Guinea Fowl, to the dislocated grief spurred by the loss of an unknown family member in the BIFA-nominated short film Muna. In this discussion with actor Susan Chardy (On Becoming A Guinea Fowl), writer-director Warda Mohamed (Muna), and psychiatrist Dr Zebib K Abraham, we explore the depth, nuances and vast characterisations of grief while asking: what can these expansive depictions of women mourning on screen reveal to us about one of life’s greatest and inevitable heartbreaks?

Host: Tobi Kyeremateng

Speakers: Susan Chardy, Warda Mohamed and Dr Zebib K Abraham

Mythmakers

13:20–14:45, NFT4

Spotlighting women filmmakers across the African continent and the African diaspora, ‘Mythmakers’ features a selection of films depicting alternate realities, speculative fictions, folklore and spirituality. The programme will examine how African filmic language alludes to realities that escape the grasp of colonial reason, encouraging audiences to make an ‘African sense’ of film by engaging with the medium in multi-sensory and speculative ways.

  • Afronauts, Dir. Nuotama Bodomo, 14min, 2014, Zambia-Ghana-USA
  • The River, Dir. Herrana Addisu, 18min, 2024, Ethiopia
  • Lost Wax, Dir. Omorose Osagie,14min, 2025, Nigeria-Canada
  • Tezen, Dir. Shirley Bruno, 26min, 2016, Haiti-France

Speaker: Mimi Koku

Show and Tell – Women Filmmakers’ Archives

13:30–15:00 (drop in), Atrium

As a complement to the panel on Gurinder Chadha’s and Tina Gharvai’s archives, attendees are invited to take a closer look at selected materials from their collections, held at the BFI National Archive, including several items never previously shown to the public. Wendy Russell and Grace Johnston, both archivists from BFI Screencraft, together with Jessica Boyall, Postdoctoral Research Associate, will be on hand to discuss the objects and answer any questions.

Leaning In, Standing Tall, Shooting Strong: Influential Women of 1980s Hollywood

13:30–14:20, NFT2

This panel discussion focuses on three trailblazing women: director Penny Marshall, producer Barbara Boyle and actress Geena Davis. All three rose to prominence in the 1980s – a decade where Hollywood finally opened doors to women filmmakers. The influence of these trailblazers extends well beyond their own careers, but they are rarely considered as key players in Hollywood. In this session three academic panellists will make the case for why Marshall, Boyle and Davis deserve a prominent place in Hollywood history.

Speakers: Melody Bridges, Laurel Parker, Dr. Claire Jenkins

The Shifting Image of Women in Iranian Cinema

14:15–14:45, NFT3

Across four decades of Iranian cinema, women’s on-screen appearance and attire have continually shifted under the influence of political forces and evolving cultural expectations. From highly-coded forms of dress shaped by strict regulations to more flexible and expressive visual strategies, filmmakers have repeatedly adapted how women appear through clothing, styling and cinematic framing. This trajectory shows a changing visual language in which women’s on-screen appearance gradually explores new possibilities within politically shaped boundaries.

Speaker: Shadi Karamroudi

Vampira: Hollywood’s Glamorous Goth

14:15–14:45, Blue Room

Maila Nurmi shocked 1950s audiences as Vampira, the first horror movie hostess. With a 17-inch waist and morbid wit, she reportedly romanced Marlon Brando and Orson Welles, and had a psychic (and posthumous) relationship with James Dean. Nurmi fought the TV network to own the rights to her character but was fired and replaced by copycats. By the 1980s she was penniless, living in her garage, but had a cult resurgence in the LA punk scene. This talk examines Vampira’s remarkable life and her resistance to Hollywood’s commodification.

Speaker: Charlie Evans-Flagg

Be the Cowboy: Women Directors and the Western

14:45–15:15, NFT2

The western was once the genre that defined masculinity, but what happens when a woman reframes the cowboy? In this talk discover how female directors like Kelly Reichardt, Chloé Zhao, Jennifer Kent and Jane Campion have used the western to unravel traditional representations of gender. From rebellious, gun-toting women to queer cowboys unashamedly in touch with their emotions, this hyper-masculine genre is becoming a more radical, relevant space.

Speaker: Laura Venning

“Is it Spicy?”: The Legacy of Romance Adaptations and BookTok

15:05–15:50, NFT3

Romance books are going through a renaissance. With growing influence from BookTok, Hollywood has shifted its focus back to romance, with fans’ opinions now taking precedence over industry interests. While many are excited about seeing their favourite love stories come to life, this raises questions. Why are studios relying on BookTok trends over scripts from emerging screenwriters? Is this boom sustainable or will it go the way of the 2010s YA? And how does this influence the mainstreaming of smut?

Hosts: Marina González Vásquez, Haaniyah Awale Angus

Speakers: Amy Baxter, Teni Ayo

The Monstrous Feminine, or the Ways in Which Women Shed Their Skin as an Act of Rebellion

15:15–15:45, Blue Room

In rural Montana, a young mother prowls through the grass like an animal. In France, a veterinary student develops an insatiable appetite for human flesh. And in Oslo, a shy teenage girl struggles with dark psychokinetic powers.

This talk on the Monstrous Feminine examines an emerging sub-genre of film where women’s bodies snap and strain under the weight of convention, and how these tales of transformation and hunger bite back at a culture that cages and controls us.

Speaker: Kimberley Ballard

Becoming in Borrowed Worlds: An Exploration of South Asian Female Identity on Screen

15:15–16:00, NFT4

Becoming in Borrowed Worlds explores South Asian female representation on UK television and screen media, and how these portrayals, or their absence, have shaped our sense of identity. This conversation will reflect on the shows we grew up with and consider contemporary examples that offer more empowering narratives. Together, we’ll examine how media visibility, stereotypes and storytelling influence self-perception, belonging and the ways we understand and claim our own identities in a world that often overlooks us.

Host: Moni Serneabat Ungar

Speakers: Jannat Suleman, Lamisa Khan

Making the Cut: The Hidden History of Women in Film Editing

16:00–16:30, NFT2

What do Jaws, Star Wars, Pulp Fiction, Goodfellas and Oppenheimer have in common? They were all edited by women! Since the dawn of the industry, women have pioneered film editing: a craft which is both invisible and crucial. Think of the curated chaos of Breathless, the perfection of Lawrence of Arabia’s match cut, and the tightly-paced POV that turned a faulty mechanical shark into the villain of Jaws. Let’s wade through the cutting-room floor and unearth the history of women in editing.

Speaker: Maha Al-Badrawi

Choose Your Character: Jennifer English and Aliona Baranova in Conversation

16:05–16:50, NFT3

Roll for insight (d20) into the art of acting for video games, from Baldur’s Gate 3 to Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. BAFTA Breakthrough Jennifer English and multiclassing actor and motion-capture director Aliona Baranova join us to discuss the intricacies of voicing the adventures and performance capture for the computer screen.

Host: Harriet Waller

Speakers: Jennifer English, Aliona Baranova

The Big Woman with a Movie Camera Quiz!

17:00–18:00, Blue Room

Know your Coppola from your Campion? Your Denis from your Dash? Well round up a team, because we are wrapping up the summit with a good old-fashioned quiz. The rounds will range from easy-peasy to a-little-knowledge-helps but will mainly be about having a good time and celebrating women in film and television. And of course, there will be prizes!

Hosts: Kim Sheehan, Ruby McGuigan

All-day activities

Graveyard Shift: Researching Women with Movie Cameras

11:00–17:00, BFI Reuben Library

Drop in to the BFI Reuben Library to take part in crowd-sourcing crucial data about women filmmakers. Contribute to the BFI’s understanding of film history and copyright and see your research update BFI data in real-time. With the support of the BFI Screen Heritage Fund, awarding National Lottery funding.

 

T A P E Collective craft workshops

11:00–17:00, Foyer

Stop by and create with T A P E Collective! The team will be back again to host some all-day craft sessions, so drop in and manifest your goals and aspirations for the year ahead with vision boarding or get artsy with a craft based on Lotte Reiniger’s fantastical puppetry! You’ll also have the chance to bag yourself some T A P E swag with their pop-up shop.

Access Information

We will be offering live captions for all events taking place in NFT3. Due to screen content, the live captions will be cropped to three lines and readability may be impaired. Captions will also be available to view on your smart device on the day via a QR code, which can be found on signage around NFT3 and on the screen between events.

There will be a designated quiet space available throughout the day, and staff on hand to support any needs or issues that arise. If you have specific access requirements you would like to flag, or want more information, please contact [email protected].

The BFI is a trans-inclusive organisation. This means that we will always welcome Trans staff, filmmakers, guests, and audience members into our spaces as they are a valued part of our community. We have zero tolerance for any behaviour that causes harm to individuals or communities whether in our venues or on digital platforms and are committed to everyone’s safety and inclusion.

Want more?

See the Woman with a Movie Camera preview of The Chronology of Water on Saturday 24 January 18:00 NFT1.