HISTORY
2020 FILM FESTIVAL
Although the festival looked different this year in response to the global pandemic, the mission to celebrate female athletes through documentary film remained the same with 16 epic films from 16 amazing female directors featuring 14 different sports in 6 countries. 100% Online. 100% Awesome.
2019 FILM FESTIVAL
2019 EVENTS
2018 FILM FESTIVAL
Our third annual festival kicked off in Oakland on September 27 and then moved across the bridge for two days of films, panel discussions and workshops in San Francisco. The festival ended on September 28 with our first ever music performance by SHEL on Closing Night.
2018 EVENTS
2017 FILM FESTIVAL
Our second annual festival returned to Oakland, California in September 2017 and expanded to four days with a full slate of films and panel discussions. Over 800 people attended the festival as we screened 23 short and feature length documentaries about women and girls from around the world.
2017 EVENTS
Once a year simply wasn’t enough to enjoy the best in sports documentaries about female athletes. In 2017 we launched a monthly screening series that averaged 70+ attendees at each screening and included a special outdoor screening of A League of Their Own to celebrate the iconic film’s 25th anniversary.
2017 KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN
We bootstrapped the first Women Sports Film Festival with hard work and our own money. We used Kickstarter to fund our second festival by partnering with a community of people that love women’s sports and powerful storytelling. 389 Backers believed in the vision and pledged $27,080 to the 2nd Annual Women Sports Film Festival.
#EVERYDAYACTIVISM
Everyday Activism was our 2017 panel discussion, Q&A, and networking opportunity with three women who use their athleticism to make tidal waves of change in policy, women’s reproductive rights, mental health, and the future of sports. These women are Mental Health Advocate, Olympic Gold Medalist, WNBA veteran Chamique Holdsclaw; Mental Health Advocate, Founder @Run4AllWomen, @Harlem_Run, Under Armour Athlete, Podcaster Alison M. Désir; and Athletic Director at Pleasant View School, Motivational Speaker, Basketball Trainer Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir.
GIRLS DAY
Launched in 2017, our Girls Day program brings together local middle-school student-athletes for a day of films, panel discussions and hands-on workshops in sports and filmmaking. Our intention is to inspire girls to use their creativity and voices to be creators and storytellers rather than passive consumers of media.
2016 FILM FESTIVAL
We launched the first film festival in July 2016 in Oakland, California. It was intentionally scheduled for the weekend preceding the opening ceremonies of the Summer Olympics, capitalizing on one of the few times you can count on women’s sports being covered in major news.
Nearly 500 people attended the festival over three days as we screened 17 short and feature length documentaries about women and girls from four continents playing 11 sports––including the award-winning films T-Rex: Her Fight For Gold about two-time Olympic gold medal winning boxer, Claressa Shields, Keepers of the Game about an all-Native girls’ lacrosse team at Salmon River High School in upstate New York and The Will to Fly about legendary Australian aerial ski jumper Lydia Lassila.
