Our Mission

The Exceptional Women’s Film Festival curates programming that portrays inspiring stories about - or made by - empowered women. We strive to feature a diverse array of short films that share all aspects of the female and female-identifying life experience, celebrating a spirit of perseverance and a strength of character.

Our Vision

We envision a future where women and girls will be equally represented in film and media, and in all walks of life – from the sciences and trades, to politics and leadership, to athletics and the arts – and we believe in the power of storytelling to uplift and inspire our audience.

Our Films

Films in narrative or documentary genres portraying a positive story of empowered women or girls are eligible for submission, with special consideration given to films produced or directed by female, non-binary, BIPOC, and LGBTQIA filmmakers. Films in Spanish with English subtitles and/or films made by Latinx filmmakers are especially encouraged for submission. We accept films up to 40 minutes in length, but prefer films 20 minutes or shorter, and filmmakers of all experience levels, from professionals to students, are welcome to submit. Our final submission deadline is March 1, 2021, and we accept submissions exclusively through FilmFreeway.

A $100 cash prize will be awarded to each of our 2021 award categories: Women in Science, The Natural World, Arts and Expression, Empowerment at Home, Athletics and Adventure, Political Activism and Leadership, and Girl Power (awarded to a film or filmmaker featuring an exceptional young person, 18 years of age or under).

Our Festival

In our inaugural year, we’re starting with a 1-weekend festival scheduled for the last weekend in March. Given that we’re still in the throes of the Covid-19 pandemic, our festival will be hosted by our local Drive-In Theater with a mirrored virtual (password-protected and secure) option to view the films online that same weekend.

Our festival is a collaboration between filmmaker Sarah Koenigsberg of Tensegrity Productions and the Network of Exceptional Women, a 501(c)4 incorporated in Washington State that works to support women seeking leadership roles in their communities and training to run for public office. Proceeds from our 2021 Festival will be split between supporting our scholarship fund and reserving a modest upstart budget for expanding the 2022 Festival. We look forward to evolving our Festival into a wide-reaching, multi-faceted event, growing to include programming for school-aged youth and summer filmmaking workshops for girls, in additional to supporting the Network’s scholarship fund for women.