WOFFF26 at Depot: Your guide to this year's programme
On Saturday 5 September, the Women Over 50 Film Festival returns to Depot in Lewes for a full day of screenings, filmmaker Q&As, an industry panel and the annual WOFFF Awards. Tickets are available now through the Depot website.
This year, we received hundreds of submissions from filmmakers around the world. From these, we’ve selected 56 films for WOFFF26, with 23 screening at Depot as part of our in-person festival.
Below you’ll find the full Depot programme to browse before joining us for the day.
Session 1: Work in progress
Our opening session asks what work really means, whether it’s paid, unpaid, creative or something we simply feel called to do. These older women are making, serving, judging, listening to industrial machinery and, in one case, deciding exactly where to put their anger.
Now That’s What I Call Dock Pudding (dir. Sarah Mason, UK) takes us to the World Dock Pudding Championships in Yorkshire, where a local tradition is defended with fierce pride and a healthy dose of humour.
In She Makes a Moving Picture (dir. Deb Ethier, Canada), an aspiring filmmaker tackles the moviemaking process in the only way she knows how: with surreal imagination and a wonderfully unconventional rulebook.
Birgitte (dir. Maria Zaikina, Germany) introduces a Berlin woman whose flat is filled with children’s toys collected over a lifetime, while Isolated Silence (dir. Vicente Garibay Lijanova, Mexico) follows an older woman pushed to desperate choices as she struggles to care for her sister.
In Intermittent & Continuous (dir. Olivia Hird, UK), Rita finally fulfils her childhood ambition of working in a Peak District quarry, while Muddled Meals (dir. Christie Arnold, UK) follows a daughter balancing love, exhaustion and the difficult decision to seek help for her mother.
The session concludes with LINA (dir. Margarida Madeira, Portugal), set at a rural railway crossing, and ICare 9000 (dir. Robert Duncan, UK), where a cardboard-and-duct-tape robot raises surprisingly human questions about loneliness and care.
Session 2: Who cares?
A struggle in a photo booth, a comforting blanket on a beach and a bracelet that says it’s time to go. Caring for others, being cared for, caring for ourselves and caring for the planet all weave through our second programme.
The Booth (dir. Sofia Olins, UK) finds humour and vulnerability when two strangers meet in a photo booth, while The Owl and the Rainbow (dir. Jo Luping, Malaysia/New Zealand) tells the story of a mother trying to save her daughter from despair.
Reliefs (dir. Juan Manuel González, Mexico) examines the relationship between a son and his ageing mother, and Held In The Shadows (dir. Lily Palmer-Gray, UK) uses animation to explore identity and belonging.
In Please Do Not Resuscitate (dir. Leah Finegold, UK), a granddaughter discovers why her grandmother plans to die by choice at 86, while Hag-Stone (dir. Kate Clayton, UK) reflects on ageing, self-image and finding comfort by the sea.
The session closes with Spiders (dir. Benjamin Cook, Ukraine/UK), where older women in north-eastern Ukraine knit camouflage netting for soldiers on the front line, challenging assumptions about age and usefulness.
Industry Insights: Women Behind the Camera
After lunch, we’re delighted to welcome Gali Gold, former Head of Cinema at the Barbican Centre, to chair this year’s industry panel.
Gali will be joined by Emmy Award-winning composer Nainita Desai and BAFTA-winning producer Rebecca O’Brien for a conversation about working in film today, the opportunities opening up across the industry and the challenges that remain.
Session 3: Past to present
History, memory and the stories we inherit shape our final screening of the day. These films look backwards as often as they look forwards, asking how we carry the past with us and what we choose to pass on.
Aunt Harriet (dir. HAUI, Canada) makes its UK premiere here at WOFFF, and revisits the life of Harriet Miller through spoken word and music, while No age is just easy (dir. Sandrine Lambert, Belgium) offers an honest conversation about ageing through animation.
Dirt (dir. Lada Kopytova, Ukraine/UK) follows an older Ukrainian refugee whose jar of soil raises questions at Heathrow, while Mother’s Influence (dir. Meg Wriggles, UK) explores ageing through the relationship between a social media influencer and her mother.
Red Girl Rising (dirs. Kim Stadfeld and Faith Howe, Canada) introduces retired teacher and activist Joyce Jonathan Crone as she reconnects her community with Indigenous education. Gertie Hooper VS the Committee (dir. Melissa Herman, UK) brings history to life through animation, telling the story of a woman determined to defend her family’s farm during the Second World War.
Our final film before the awards is New Ground (dir. Louisa Rechenbach, UK), which follows 26 women over 50 creating a pioneering community where later life is shaped by mutual support, independence and friendship.
WOFFF Awards Ceremony
We’ll finish WOFFF26 by celebrating this year’s filmmakers and scriptwriters at our annual Awards Ceremony, before screening Old Ladies Against Underwater Garbage (dir. Liz McGregor, USA), where 85-year-old Susan Baur and her fellow divers remind us that adventure, activism and community have no age limit.
Take a look at the shortlisted films and scripts by reading our programme announcement.
The full WOFFF at Depot programme
Title | Director/s | Session | Notable |
Now That’s What I Call Dock Pudding | Sarah Mason | 1 |
|
She Makes a Moving Picture | Deb Ethier | 1 |
|
Birgitte | Maria Zaikina | 1 | Student film |
Isolated Silence | Vicente Garibay Lijanova | 1 | Student film |
Intermittent & Continuous | Olivia Hird | 1 |
|
Muddled Meals | Christie Arnold | 1 |
|
Lina | Margarida Madeira | 1 |
|
ICare 9000 | Robert Duncan | 1 |
|
|
|
|
|
The Booth | Sofia Olins | 2 |
|
The Owl and the Rainbow | Jo Luping | 2 |
|
Reliefs | Juan Manuel González | 2 |
|
Held In The Shadows | Lily Palmer-Gray | 2 | Student film |
Please Do Not Resuscitate | Leah Finegold | 2 |
|
Hag-Stone | Kate Clayton | 2 |
|
Spiders | Benjamin Cook | 2 |
|
|
|
|
|
Aunt Harriet | HAUI | 3 | UK Premiere |
No age is just easy | Sandrine Lambert | 3 |
|
Dirt | Lada Kopytova | 3 |
|
Mother’s Influence | Meg Wriggles | 3 |
|
Red Girl Rising | Kim Stadfeld, Faith Howe | 3 |
|
Gertie Hooper VS the Committee | Melissa Herman | 3 |
|
New Ground | Louisa Rechenbach | 3 |
|
|
|
|
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Old Ladies Against Underwater Garbage | Liz McGregor | During Awards Ceremony |
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Can't make it to Depot? Get a pass for WOFFF26 Online
Our online festival is hosted on Eventive, visit the WOFFF online festival page to buy your Festival Pass. For £28 you’ll get access to 56 films to watch on demand, wherever you are in the world.
The Online Festival Pass gives you access to all the films to watch for one month.
