LUND 2012: New Wave Of Titles Focus On Female Filmmakers In Genre Film

Another wave of titles to announce from the Lund International Fantastic Film Festival in Sweden. This time all the films announced have been directed by female directors. LIFFF made it part of their focus this year to bring in genre films made and produced by females.

Anna Serner, CEO of the Swedish Film Institute, will inaugurate the 18th edition of Lund International Fantastic Film Festival (LIFFF), which this year puts a special focus on female directors working within the fantastic film genre.

"We are very happy and proud that Anna Serner is inaugurating the festival and see it as a confirmation that LIFFF is an important part of the Swedish film culture and also as a starting point for fantastic film to have a greater impact on the overall agenda of the Swedish Film Institute", says LIFFF's Chairman of the Board Lars Diurlin.

The 2012 LIFFF Opening Ceremony will take place at Lunds Statsteater (City Theatre), on September 20^th and the opening film is Amy Heckerling's vampire comedy VAMPS starring Alicia Silverstone and Sigourney Weaver.

"Heckerling's VAMPS is a very appropriate Opening film for our 18th edition since one of our missions this year is to promote and focus on female directors within the fantastic film genre. We have always felt discouraged due to the lack of - or more or less non existence of female directors within genre film and made an effort this year to really seek out these films. Among other things we looked at the 776 feature films presented at this years Cannes film market and noticed that only 10% of these were directed by women and most of those films were dramas or documentaries. Only eight of them were fantastic films, which would account for only 1% of the total films presented!", says Diurlin.

"Just as society conforms us differently depending on our gender, stories are conformed and conceived differently as a result of this. As a film festival LIFFF has a responsibility to present as many different stories as possible", Diurlin explains. "We searched the world for genre films directed by women and are extremely proud to be able to present a festival program with 28% female directors. Besides IFEMA a festival which only screen films by women, only Göteborg Intl. Film Festival can present a higher number, but with that said this feat is much easier for festivals screening drama films", as pointed out by Diurlin.

As a part of this focus some of the guests who will be at LIFFF this year are; American actress Amy Seimetz (A Horrible Way to Die) who is debuting as a feature film director with the thriller SUN DON'T SHINE, which is presented in our International Competition line up. From India, Shalini Usha Nair, with her film AKAM a Mythological vampire thriller and from Germany actress Jennifer Ulrich (Die Welle) whom plays the leading character in the ghost film 205 - ROOM OF FEAR, which is in our Méliès d'Argent line up are also among the guests in Lund. Also in the Méliès d'Argent line up you'll find VANISHING WAVES a sensual science-fiction film directed by Kristina Buozyte who will also be coming to Lund.

LIFFF 2012 in numbers:

100 films will have their Swedish premiere at Lund Intl. Fantastic Film Festival.

28% of the films in the films in the program are directed by women.

66% of all the feature films in the program have a female producer.

39% of all the feature films in the program are made by a first time director

93% of all the feature films in the program does not have theatrical distribution in Sweden