Women in Film: BBC Introducing Arts

A drama set in the American South, where a precocious, troubled girl finds a safe haven in the music and movement of Elvis Presley.

In a suburban landscape, the lives of several families interlace with loss, despair and personal crisis. Esther Gold has lost focus on all but caring for her comatose son, Paul, and neglects her daughter and husband. Lawyer Jim Train is devoted to his career, not his family. Helen Christianson wants to find a new spark in life, while Annette Jennings tries to rebuild hers.

A psychotherapist helps a law student cope with schizophrenia in one of five interconnected tales dealing with mental illness.

More interested in partying and flirting with young musicians than work, veteran rock journalist Ellie Klug has one last chance to prove her value to her magazine’s editor: a no-stone-unturned search to discover what really happened to long lost rock god, Matt Smith, who also happens to be her ex-boyfriend. Teaming up with an eccentric amateur documentary filmmaker, Ellie hits the road in search of answers.

Defiant young activists take the women's suffrage movement by storm, putting their lives at risk to help American women win the right to vote.

Feeling awkward and isolated, an imaginative and strong-willed teenage girl runs away from home with an older punk rock drifter.

The story of a young writer's transformation when her past invades her present.

Years after her son's suicide, a woman longs to confront both the past and a friend of his who took his business idea.

In order to be reinstated to the bar and recover custody of her daughter, a hotshot lawyer, now in recovery and on probation, must take on the appeal of a woman wrongfully convicted of murder.

During the 1976 Soweto uprising, a white school teacher's life and values are threatened when he asks questions about the death of a young black boy who died in police custody.

A poor, struggling South Carolinian mother and daughter face painful choices with their resolve and pride. Bone, the eldest daughter, and Anney her tired mother, grow both closer and farther apart: Anney sees Glen as her last chance.

A woman embarks on a journey alone across the United States after fleeing from her violent husband.

An acclaimed stage performer, Dorothy still struggled with the challenge of her color, in a time that wouldn't let some stars in by the front door. Yet against the odds she beat out many more famous rivals for the role of "Carmen Jones", becoming the first black woman ever nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award. Marriages and affairs would break her heart, but her heart was strong. Seductive and easily seduced, she was born to be a star - with all the glory and all the pain of being loved, abused, cheated, glorified, undermined and undefeated. Here was a woman who wouldn't wait in the wings. Halle Berry stars as Dorothy Dandrige.

Fourteen-year-old Mo is a lonely, sensitive boy whose hunger for the rant and banter of buddies makes him prone to tread dangerous territories. He idolizes his handsome older brother, Rashid, a charismatic, well-respected member of a local gang, whose drug dealing enables “Rash” to provide for his family. Aching to be seen as a tough guy himself, Mo takes a job that unlocks a fateful turn of events and forces the brothers to confront their inner demons. It turns out that hate is easy. It is love and understanding that take real courage.

Zoë is a single mother who lives with her four children in Dartford. She is poor and can't afford to buy food. One day her old flame drives by and asks her to go on a date with him. Scared that he doesn't want to go out with her, she lies and tells him that she is just babysitting the kids. This will be her first date in years.

A troubled young woman becomes obsessed with her mysterious new neighbor, who bears a striking resemblance to the girl's dead mother.

In New York City, the lives of a lawyer, an actuary, a house-cleaner, a professor, and the people around them intersect as they ponder order and happiness in the face of life's cold unpredictability.

When lapsed Jew and former cardiologist Harry suddenly decides to spend his retirement as a pig farmer in Nazareth, Israel, the move deeply shocks his family and his new neighbours. Back in New York, Harry’s ex-wife Monica is trying to manage the lives of their adult children, Annabelle and David, as well as her own.

A mother and her teenage daughter must confront Death when it arrives in the form of an astonishing talking bird.

Diana Guzman, a troubled Brooklyn teenager, decides to channel her aggression by training to become a boxer, all while keeping it a secret from her father.

Graduation just happened, and now it's time for adventures in Berlin with the childhood friends Sophie and Alice. But Sophie hesitates, and after an altercation, the impulsive Alice goes by herself - and mysteriously disappears. Sophie goes after her in desperation to find out what happened to Alice, which is the beginning of a painful journey from teenager to a young adult. It also is a journey into her friend's darker side, which she has hid from the rest for so long.

When implanted in a person's wrist, a TiMER counts down to the day the wearer finds true love. But Oona O'Leary faces the rare dilemma of a blank TiMER. Her soul mate - whoever and wherever he is - has yet to have a TiMER implanted. Staring down the barrel of thirty and tired of waiting for her would-be life partner to get off the dime, Oona breaks her own rules and falls for Mikey, a charming and inappropriately young supermarket clerk with a countdown of four months.

About a working class woman climbing her way up the corporate ladder and scoring a hot, rich boyfriend along the way, this romantic comedy is based on the same-name popular novel.

"Forward" is a touching short film that delves into the intricate nature of love, vulnerability and the difficulties of expressing one's true emotions. Nora and Adam, two individuals with vastly different communication styles, navigate the initial phases of their relationship. Nora is candid and straightforward about her emotions and future plans. At the same time, Adam, who has been hurt in the past, struggles to articulate his feelings and fears, feeling overwhelmed by Nora's intensity.

Under the harsh rays of the sun, Carlos is laying down. There is sunburn on his back. The wind is still. The air is warm. There’s a dryness in the air. He can barely breathe, until he sees Mateus.

At the age of twenty-four, Nicole appears as an independent woman and a responsive listener of her colleagues. One day, she eclipses her way to earn quick money for her MBA degree.

Financial TV host Lee Gates and his producer Patty are put in an extreme situation when an irate investor takes over their studio.

A young French man and an older English woman spend one night together on a ship.

The film is based on the popular Dutch childrens book by Chris van Abkoude. In a Dutch port in 1921 lives a 10-year-old orphan boy known to everyone simply as Little Crumb. His poverty-stricken mother Lize van Dien filled with shame was forced to turn him over to Mrs. Koster soon after he was born. Foster mother Mrs. Koster, who has cared for him since he was a baby, is very poor too, unable to support him by herself and proves to be a cruel taskmaster who insists Crumb bring her money before shell feed him. Somehow he must earn his keep out on the streets and can only go home after he has earned enough money. Crumb becomes an urchin stealing from the streets barrows and the shops to stay alive, sleeping in churches or huddled in doorways. Sometimes he has to run off from the police and he has earned the enmity of the most grownups around him.

In New York City, a husband and wife butt heads with the granddaughters of the elderly woman who lives in the apartment the couple owns.

The seven short films making up GENIUS PARTY couldn’t be more diverse, linked only by a high standard of quality and inspiration. Atsuko Fukushima’s intro piece is a fantastic abstraction to soak up with the eyes. Masaaki Yuasa, of MIND GAME and CAT SOUP fame, brings his distinctive and deceptively simple graphic style and dream-state logic to the table with “Happy Machine,” his spin on a child’s earliest year. Shinji Kimura’s spookier “Deathtic 4,” meanwhile, seems to tap into the creepier corners of a child’s imagination and open up a toybox full of dark delights. Hideki Futamura’s “Limit Cycle” conjures up a vision of virtual reality, while Yuji Fukuyama’s "Doorbell" and "Baby Blue" by Shinichiro Watanabe use understated realism for very surreal purposes. And Shoji Kawamori, with “Shanghai Dragon,” takes the tropes and conventions of traditional anime out for very fun joyride.

Ana is a 6-year-old girl who goes to therapy. Through games and drawings, she tells the psychologist about her family, specially about her older brother, Juan. She describes what he is like, how he feels about her, how they play together. But soon, it will be revealed that things are not always exactly what they seem.

A journalist is sent to the home of former district governor, but his routine obituary fact check reveals an extraordinary secret.

When Alex, a precious nine-year-old boy, develops a crush on Jared, the moody twenty-five-year-old handyman who works in the mansion where he lives, he will stop at nothing to get his attention.

Mr. Sugar Daddy depicts the story of a man looking for a fresh start. Hans falls for young Andrej and is thrown into a game that does not allow any winner.

When a priest's wife brings home an orphan boy, her husband is against it. Over time, he develops a connection with him, but is shocked when he finds out the boy's religion.

'Olmo and the Seagull' is a poetic and existential dive into an actress's mind during the nine months of her pregnancy as she must confront her most fiery inner demons while trying to rewrite a new philosophy of life, identity and love. Underlying this hybrid film is mounting tension over what is real and what is enacted when one is performing one's own life.

José, a street performer who dreams about becoming a telenovela star, is recruited by a talent manager who promises him great success, but soon realizes the job is actually dancing in a gay strip club. Away from his home and enjoying the newfound fame he has acquired with his new job in the city, José starts wondering if turning his back on his family and himself is worth it now that he's the club's biggest star, nicknamed "El Pistolero."