Ana Urushadze among 10 female filmmakers in Sydney festival programme

Award-winning director Ana Urushadze will be among 10 female filmmakers whose works will be screened at this year’s Sydney Film Festival.

The young Georgian creative’s Asia Pacific Screen Awards- and San Francisco International Film Festival award-winning feature Scary Mother will be part of the Europe! Voices of Women in Film section.

Around the globe, women are fighting for change by crafting fantastic features, 10 of which comprise this showcase [...] From Germany to Finland and Kosovo to Georgia, they represent the future of the industry”, said a preview for the sub-programme.

Scary Mother will be joined in the Australian festival’s section by Sinead O'Shea’s documentary A Mother Brings Her Son to Be Shot and Blerta Zeqiri’s debut film The Marriage, among others.

All of these selections will be screened within the festival running between June 6-17.

Urushadze’s drama centres around a woman working on a novel, with the writing contrasting with her role as a mother.

When she reads extracts of her novel to her incredulous family, they are hurt by the unflattering depictions and deem it pornography. But Manana is undeterred, and leaves the home to follow her artistic destiny”, says a summary from the festival.

Films picked for the women directors’ section were singled out from a shortlist of 37 selections.

Hosts run the festival, a charitable organisation, based on donations from individuals and partners. Over 200 films are screened at venues including the State Theatre and cinema theatres in Newtown, Cremorne and Western Sydney.