Live in the last of our series of six episodes from HOME Manchester, Anna reviews a vintage year of stellar guests and compelling conversation for Girls On Film, and looks ahead at what 2020 has in store. With Sight & Sound’s 50 films of the year topped by Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir, and initiatives from the F-Rating to Bumble’s Female Film Force going from strength to strength, we’re here to help drive the vanguard of female filmmaking into the new year.

We sit down with BIFA-winning and BAFTA-nominated director Harry Wootliff to discuss her strikingly intimate debut feature Only You. Joined too by Doctor Who screenwriter and playwright Joy Wilkinson, the panel discusses the challenges writer-directors still face in bringing complex women to the screen.

Clarisse Loughrey, chief film critic at The Independent, also joins Anna to review new releases Charlie’s Angels, Judy & Punch, and Marriage Story as we approach awards season.

In a festive film twist, our three guests bring their picks of classic Christmas cinema to the table for scrutiny through a gendered lens ̶ from high-risers The Apartment and Die Hard, to the spiky Edward Scissorhands, via the yellow brick road of The Wizard Of Oz.

Aislinn Clarke and Bronagh Taggart join host Anna Smith in episode 24 of Girls On Film, recorded in front of a live audience at the 30th Cinemagic Festival in Belfast.

Actress and writer Bronagh Taggart talks about her short film Guard, her love of sports movies, and about her BBC TV series Millie Inbetween and Flatmates, now on BBC iPlayer. She also talks about her very first ever acting role – with Daniel Day-Lewis.

Writer-director Aislinn Clarke has just received the second Academy Gold Fellowship for Women for her horror film The Devil’s Doorway. She joins us fresh from Los Angeles to talk about her film and about her view of horror as a means of addressing social trauma. She gives encouragement to women who want to work in the industry by drawing on her own experience of starting out as a 17-year old single working class Belfast mum.

Aislinn talks about two of her upcoming horror projects, Cunning Folk which she directs, and Slow Burn which she pens and is produced by Marianne Maddalena, who also produced all of Wes Craven’s films including Scream and Nightmare on Elm Street.

We review current releases Maleficent: Mistress of Evil with Angelina Jolie and Michelle Pfeiffer, discussing its design, its gender stereotyping and what it says about motherhood. We also review Home, by Sarah Outen, who undertook the mammoth task of travelling the circumference of the world powered only by herself. We also discuss some favourite classic movies, including In The Name Of The Father, Bridesmaids, The Craft and All About Eve.

Episode 23 marks our first birthday, and Anna is joined by Linda Hamilton, Mackenzie Davis and Natalia Reyes for an exclusive interview about Terminator: Dark Fate, discussing everything from action women on film to race, nudity and time travel.  

On stage at HOME in Manchester, Anna is joined by Pamela Hutchinson and Anna Bogutskaya, who both contributed to soon to be published She Found It At The Movies: Women Writers on Sex, Desire and Cinema. The panel assess the new film Joker starring Joaquin Phoenix, plus female desire in films such as Magic Mike, The Last Seduction and Thelma & Louise. They also give their tips for awards season 2020, debating which movies meet the ‘three cry’ test and which film is ’near-perfect’.  

Finally the audience at HOME have pressing questions about Joker, awards categories and how best to champion female-focused cinema.  

Pamela Hutchinson is a freelance writer, critic and film historian who contributes regularly to Sight & Sound, The Guardian, Criterion, Indicator and the BBC, specialising in silent cinema and women in film. Anna Bogutskaya is a film programmer, writer, event producer and podcaster. She is Head of Arts and Culture at DICE, Festival Director of BAFTA-recognised Underwire Festival, co-host of The Bigger Picture podcast and co-founder of horror film collective The Final Girls.

The hills are alive in episode 22, which is dedicated to big screen musicals and recorded in front of an audience at Widescreen Weekend at the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford to mark the BFI’s nationwide musicals season. Anna is joined by actress, comedy performer and member of the all-female musical improv group Notflix Emma Read, and by Mia Bays, Oscar-winner producer and Director-at-Large of Birds Eye View, a pathfinder for films by women. They discuss the joys and gender politics of The Sound Of Music, Grease, Calamity Jane, Funny Girl, Seven Brides For Seven Brothers and more. Anna also reviews the best female-focused films of the BFI London Film Festival 2019 and the audience join in a heated debate about revisiting classics from a modern feminist perspective.  

All this – and a live improvised rap…  

In episode 20, live from HOME in Manchester, we are joined by Syrian director Waad Al-Kateab. The Channel 4 News journalist talks frankly about her time living and filming inside war-torn Aleppo and making her astonishing first feature film, For Sama.  

Anna is joined by BBC Asian Network’s Ashanti Omkar and the University of Salford’s Dr Kirsty Fairclough to review current releases, including Seahorse: The Dad Who Gave Birth and Phoenix, a Norwegian drama.  

Ashanti guides us through Indian Cinema while celebrating HOME’s Not Just Bollywood season, and we discuss the sexual politics of the black comedy Lipstick Under My Burkha, which was banned on its release. The panel pick their favourite Juliette Binoche movies to mark MUBI’s season of the great French actress, and come up with alternatives to The Bechdel Test.  All this plus great audience questions from our Manchester fans.  

In episode 18 three women who’ve forged their own path in the film industry join Anna for an inspiring chat about making waves in a man’s world. Holly F Tarquini founded F-Rated, a ground-breaking system for rating female-driven films. Hilary Oliver launched Cameo Productions, a female-run audio production house & broadcast PR consultancy. Chiara Marañón is Director of UK Programming at MUBI who stream films from fantastic filmmakers who are often overlooked by other services.  

Anna’s guests also share their reviews of influential movies in their lives, including Grace of My Heart, Point Break, and Booksmart.