The Academy Awards have existed since May 1929. In that time, only three women have won the Oscar for Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow for 2008’s The Hurt Locker, Chloe Zhao for 2020’s Nomadland and Jane Campion for 2021’s The Power of the Dog. That’s three out of 95 Best Director trophies awarded to women—and all of them given only within the past 15 years.
The Nevada Women’s Film Festival (NWFFest), now in its ninth year, projects a bright and defining light on the mainstream film industry’s slow walk to inclusivity and representation. But more than that, the four-day fest—running June 22-25 at UNLV’s Department of Film—illuminates the many creative possibilities for women to work both in front of and behind the camera.
“The wonderful thing about film festivals is that they give the community an opportunity to see independent films, smaller films that they might not otherwise see,” says Nikki Corda, NWFFest’s executive director and founder. “Our niche is films by, and about, women, because our mission is to celebrate and support the fair representation of women in film. But that does not mean that we exclude films that are not directed by women; we accept them. If they’re not directed by women, perhaps they might pass the Bechdel test.”
The “Bechdel test,” a three-part assessment created by cartoonist Alison Bechdel and her friend Liz Wallace in 1985, is as follows: 1. A movie must have at least two female characters, with names, 2. who talk to each other 3. about something other than a man. Even movies that pass the test often do so by the thinnest of margins.
Emily VanCamp and Abigail Breslin in Miranda’s Victim
NWFFest 2023 features 108 films—shorts and features, fiction and nonfiction—that should stand up to even the most rigorous application of Bechdel. On June 23, UNLV alum Berenice Chávez will be honored with the fest’s Nevada Woman of Achievement award and a screening of the acclaimed documentary she edited, 2023’s Pamela, A Love Story. “I’m really interested in hearing her take on editing this documentary, and how much she was involved in shaping it,” Corda says.
The following night brings the Nevada premiere of Miranda’s Victim, director Michelle Danner’s film about Trish Weir, whose 1963 assault by Ernesto Arturo Miranda spurred the creation of the Miranda warning. The screening will be followed by a moderated conversation with Danner and star Abigail Breslin.
“What’s really exciting [about Miranda’s Victim] is that this is the very first time that any filmmaker has actually tackled this subject,” Corda says. “It’s the story of what [Weir] went through fighting for justice. And Miranda rights are all about protecting the perpetrator, the alleged criminal. This really wasn’t a good experience for Trish Weir.”
Other NWFFest screenings include director Connie Cocchia’s coming-of-age film When Time Got Louder; June Beallor’s 2020 Chaos and Hope, a look back at one of the most challenging years in recent memory; Everybody Wants to Be Loved, a comedy-drama about relationships from director Katharina Woll; Las Abogadas: Attorneys on the Front Lines of the Migrant Crisis, from director Victoria Bruce; and Rogue Angel, a war/family drama from Las Vegas filmmaker Brenda Daly.
But as Corda noted, not all the films screening at NWFFest are directed by women. Some films, Corda says, just have a “strong female presence, either in their subject matter—something that’s of interest to women—or they showcase women who are doing important work in the world.”
As an example, she names Adam Gacka’s documentary Teacher, about “three amazing women in New York who are first-year teachers at underprivileged schools. … We like to showcase women in a positive light, [and] to get beyond the male gaze that is so prevalent in so many Hollywood movies still.”
Corda has much to do in the days before the festival, working with the NWFFest crew (“our team is amazing”) to coordinate its four packed days of screenings and the “Femmy Awards” ceremony that closes out the weekend with presentations for “Best Female Protagonist,” “Best Nevada Film,” “Outstanding LGBTQ+ Representation” and more. If the Academy can’t deliver deserved awards into the hands of women filmmakers, NWFFest will.
“Our awards are fun, but you should just come on down and enjoy the festival,” Corda says. “Each year we get a little bit bigger and better. … And with 108 films, there’s got to be something in there for people to like.
NEVADA WOMEN’S FILM FESTIVAL June 22-25, times vary, $12-$50. UNLV Department of Film, nwffest.com.
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