16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence, takes place annually from 25th November to 10th December, is an international campaign that aims to raise awareness of, and prevent violence against women and girls. UK SAYS NO MORE in partnership with Modern Films present…

16 Days 16 Films which is a short film initiative that empowers female filmmakers and campaigns to end all forms of violence against women. The initiative is presented by Modern Films and the Kering Foundation, with UK Says No More; alongside En avant toute(s), Chayn Italia, The National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV) and Fondo Semillas. It is inspired by the UN Women campaign ‘16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence’.

2020 is the third year of the competition for female filmmakers. 16 Films are selected from hundreds of submissions, and for every one of the 16 Days of the campaign (25 November – 10 December), one film will be screened and available to watch here: 16days16films.com/thefilms


Our 16 Days 16 Films 2020 Finalists and Jury have been announced! 

We are very excited that the Jury includes Ashley Judd, Anna Friel, Barbara Broccoli and Sarah D’Angelis representing UK SAYS NO MORE who are committed to changing the narrative around Violence Against Women and Girls, On and Off Screen.

More details on our exciting Jury for 2020 can be found here 

Our brilliant 16 Films of 2020 are listed in our press release, which you can read here

You can also read about our Finalists and Jury in Variety and Screen’s coverage of the initiative.

We look forward to announcing the winner on  our 16th December event.

More information on how to join this Online event to follow.


The films explore, emote, or educate on a form of violence against women. The films might be centred around difficult topics such as domestic abuse, sexual violence, physical assault, or FGM; but our theme also includes inequality and discrimination – which we consider to also be forms of violence against women globally.

The films must tackle or present these issues and topics with social and cultural sensitivity, and an intersectional feminist viewpoint. These may be any medium – fiction, documentary, animation or experimental – and under 20 minutes runtime. We accept submissions from female-identifying filmmakers in the UK & Ireland, France, Italy, Mexico and the USA.

Previous winners

Previous winners of 16 Days 16 Films include 2019’s The Third Sorrow by Myriam Raja and 2018’s Circle by Jayisha Patel.

In response to the rise of domestic abuse during COVID-19, Myriam Raja created and directed a ‘You Are Not Alone’ below, delivered in partnership between UK SAYS NO MORE and Modern Films.

About Myriam Raja

Myriam Raja began her filmmaking journey aged just 14. She studied Film Production at the Arts University Bournemouth and her graduation film Tehzeeb screened at numerous film festivals worldwide and was awarded the Royal Television Society Award for Best Undergraduate Film. This directly led to Myriam being headhunted by the National Film & Television School and she was awarded a full scholarship by Channel 4 to attend. Her graduation film Azaar was nominated for a BAFTA and has screened internationally.

In 2018 Myriam featured as one of Channel 4’s Spotlight on Directors. Myriam will be directing on an upcoming Netflix series and is writing her debut feature.

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