Mexican femicide short drama
The Road Is A Red Thread has won the top prize at 16 Days 16 Films, the short film competition aimed at raising awareness of gender-based violence.
The short, directed by
Mexico’s Melissa Elizondo Moreno, centres on femicide – the murder of women because they are women – and draws attention to the thousands who ‘disappear’ each year in Mexico.
The award, announced on Wednesday in London via a streamed online event, includes a cash prize of £2,000 ($2,700) and the opportunity for Moreno to create a new public service announcement for UK Says No More, a national campaign focused on raising awareness and preventing domestic abuse and sexual violence in the UK.
The Secret Garden and Noël Coward adaptation
Blithe Spirit to Sky Cinema for a UK release.
“There is definitely uncertainty,” says producer Elizabeth Karlsen of Number 9 Films, producers of
Their Finest and
Mothering Sunday. “No-one really knows exactly what the landscape is going to be like out there for theatrical distribution when we come out of it. You have the double whammy of Covid-19 with the [impact of] streamers.”
However, there is plenty of evidence the sector is well positioned to thrive in a post-pandemic, SVoD-driven market.
Altitude, Vertigo, Curzon and Modern Films have all successfully released UK films on multiple platforms and there is no sign they will be stopping now. With US studios retrenching and becoming less internationally minded and more focused on streaming services, there may be opportunities for local distributors in the theatrical marketplace.