My Year 2025: Anniversary Edition of the 25th Filmfest FrauenWelten
My year 2025 was entirely shaped by film and women. I had the honor of taking on the directorship of the 25th Filmfest FrauenWelten, which took place from October 29 to November 4, 2025, at the cinema in Berlin’s KulturBrauerei.
For more than two decades, this TERRE DES FEMMES project has brought culturally diverse women’s lives and women’s rights issues to the big screen. Designing this anniversary edition was especially meaningful to me in many ways: it led me back to film culture and allowed me to fully reconnect with my two greatest passions — film and women. At the same time, it was the first time I assumed overall responsibility for a film festival and oversaw the curatorial development of the program.
TERRE DES FEMMES placed great trust in me and gave me complete creative freedom.
Out of numerous ideas — films, thematic focuses, and collaborations — a coherent overall concept gradually emerged. The anniversary edition was celebrated with a warm-up event, two panel talks, a Sunday matinée, a retrospective, and a jubilee exhibition. The program featured 32 international feature films, short films, and documentaries from over 20 countries, grouped into three thematic strands: #CinemaAgainstForgetting, #WayOutOfViolence, and #StrongerTogether.
Particularly enriching was co-hosting the warm-up event with FEMEN activist Inna Shevchenko. She impressed me deeply, both as a person and as an activist: her uncompromising, powerful, and rhetorically brilliant advocacy for women’s rights resonated strongly with the audience and set a compelling tone for the entire festival.
Following a very well-attended opening with the powerful opening film THE BEST MOTHER IN THE WORLD — an Argentine-Brazilian production that celebrated its world premiere at this year’s Berlinale and poignantly addresses domestic violence — two panel talks took place, further exploring key aspects of the festival and contextualizing the film selection.
The Social Impact Filming panel, held after the screenings of the Kenyan productions NAWI – DEAR FUTURE ME and IMPURE, focused on how films can create social impact and the role accompanying campaigns play in making taboos visible and initiating processes of change.
The second panel, part of the thematic focus #CinemaAgainstForgetting – Afghanistan in Focus, was particularly emotional and deeply moving. Our guest of honor, Ambassador Manizha Bakhtari, protagonist of THE LAST AMBASSADOR, was welcomed with standing ovations. Together with journalist Shikiba Babori and director Najiba Noori (WRITING HAWA), they spoke about their work and their commitment from the diaspora to supporting women in Afghanistan. Jasmin Tabatabai, patron of the festival, moderated the discussion with great passion and confidence. The panel powerfully underscored how vital such spaces for dialogue are — and how essential it remains not to forget the women of Afghanistan.
The impact of this year continues to resonate. It gives me the confidence that I am ready for new challenges while marking the beginning of a new chapter. I cannot yet put into words where this journey will lead — but I feel it is closely connected to the realization of my own project.