An original idea from Women and Film in Europe Working Group of the European Coordination of Film Festivals, a project carried out by the Créteil International Women Film Festival.

In Europe, for every release in theatres, a woman directs less than one film out of five. It’s not really astonishing, if we observe that still today our institutions are reluctant to consider demands for equality. For more than thirty years, women's film festivals have been on the frontline in the fight for giving women directors a fair acknowledgement.

From then on, these festivals were given a protester image, hiding sometimes the large diversity of their programs. It is to put forward another aspect of their work that women film festivals from the European Coordination built this selection full of humour and sometimes impertinence. Cross-culturally speaking, humour has many faces and we feel this is one of the exciting elements of this edition of Europe in Shorts: to see how European female directors represent, experience and articulate humour filmically within their cultures.

 

 

Nicole Van Goethem

Belgium

animation, 1986, no dialogue, 6'30

 

In a lookalike Greek Temple, three caryatids support, against all odds a fronton that becomes more liquid day by day...

 

Christine Rabette

Belgium

fiction, 2002, no dialogue, 8'

 

An unbeatable recipe to lighten up life in public transportation.

 

Anna Erlandsson

Sweden

animation, 2004, no dialogue, 3'

 

Glenn is a great marathon man, but isn’t it his wife who should step on the podium? The moral of the story: When man wins, look at his wife!

 

Claudia Lorenz

Switzerland

fiction, 2004, 12'

 

After decades, two old ladies run into each other at the hairdresser.

 

Blanca Li

France

fiction, 1999, no dialogue, 6'

 

Sometime taking a plane can be an anguish…During the night preceding her travel, a woman has a funny and choreographical nightmare.

 

Biyik

Lala Nalpantoglu

Germany-Turkey

fiction, 2004, no dialogue, 15'

 

Kadir Mutlus' happy life gets turned upside down when he discovers his moustache is missing. A playful yet profound short film in its portrayal of exclusion and short-lived fame, which diversity can generate.

 

Toy Joy

Bénédicte Maria Orvung

Norway

animation, 2004, no dialogue, 5'30

 

A dildo is getting disappointed by a man’s competition. Or: what happens when sexual toys are brought to life.

 

Nathalie Percillier

Germany

fiction, 1999, 8'

 

The bakery is doing fine, the girls are in pretty good shape and production is at its top. That is, until Ute moves in…

 

Ellen A. Lundby

Norway

fiction, 2001, no dialogue, 1'15

 

A short film about something “improper”. But what and who is most out of place?

 

Happy Now

Frederikke Aspöck

Denmark

fiction, 2004, VO anglais, 17'

 

A typical American family goes to the beach but their seemingly perfect life will be turned upside-down…

 

Vera Neubauer

United Kingdom

animation, 2001, no dialogue, 4'

 

This time the Little Red Riding hood will not let herself be eaten by the wolf…

 

Ruth Meehan

United Kingdom

fiction, 2003, no dialogue, 3'

 

An old woman negotiates the hectic streets of London, fearful of being knocked over...