Blog: Film festivals

Sevil International Women's Documentary Film Festival is the independent documentary film festival in Azerbaijan, focusing on women's issues, operating since 2020.

The particular difference of the festival is the venue (place) and target audience of the project.

Unlike other big artistic projects, Sevil Film Festival intends to organize the festival outside of the capital.

Two main concerns such as lack of documentary film festival culture in the country, and increasing gender-based crimes and issues brought us to put them together under the Women's Film Festival Project, in 2020. This upcoming year we want to present this project at The Sevil Film Festival.

Our festival is named by the play of Jafar Jabbarli called Sevil which focused on the theme of the role of women, their oppression, struggle, and ultimately, victory over dated patriarchal tradition in 1928. After watching the play many women discarded their veils in Azerbaijan back in the time. Therefore, our name symbolically refuses the patriarchal traditions and encourages society to be open to different perspectives.

Sevil Film Festival will create an opportunity for local and international filmmakers to be a part of the regional events, where they raise awareness on the documentary film industry and the gender problems among the local population.

Exchange of experiences, cultural penetration in a unique way, and many other opportunities are anticipated from the program of the event.

The project includes regional development and raising activity.