Stranger With My Face 2017: Festival Announces Dates, Submissions Now Open

Tasmania's Stranger With My Face International Film Festival will return for its fifth edition from May 4-7 2017.

 

“Events like this are needed more than ever, with women’s rights under threat around the world,” says Festival Director Briony Kidd. “Women are angry, and they have a lot to say. Genre filmmaking is enriched by that sense of urgency and energy and we’re seeing more and more extraordinary films directed by women emerging from the indie scene. But they’re often not as visible as they deserve to be, and that’s where Stranger With My Face comes in. Our mission is to celebrate these films and bring them to a broader audience.”

 

Named after the dark YA novel by Lois Duncan, Stranger With My Face focuses on female perspectives in genre film, with an emphasis on showcasing the work of women directors. Held over four days in Hobart, Tasmania’s picturesque capital city, the festival hosts screenings, conferences, workshops and exhibitions, as well as satellite events year-round.

 

Stranger With My Face has become a key platforms for genre film in Australia, and it is proudly connected to the larger women-in-horror movement worldwide.

 

The call for submissions is now open, with both feature-length and short films made after January 1, 2016 eligible for consideration. The festival takes a broad approach to horror, with dark fantasy, Gothic melodrama, horror comedy, dystopian sci-fi, animation, documentary and experimental hybrids all qualifying for the selective festival lineup.

 

While submissions are open to filmmakers of all genders, only films by those who identify as women are eligible for awards.

 

A new addition to the festival in 2016 was the Attic Lab, a program to mentored and support women directors, giving them an opportunity to pitch new projects at the festival. The Lab will return in 2017, with details to be announced soon.