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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.
In 2022, the Campaign is continuing its multi-year theme of Ending Femicide. To learn more, view the Femicide Advocacy Guide to learn more and sign the petition to declare December 6 the International Day to End Femicide. The campaign is also working closely with other CWGL initiatives to build on the previous multi-year theme on ending GBV in the world of work.
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
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.
