CASCADIA International Women's Film Festival is entering its fifth festival season dedicated to showcasing the exceptional work of women directors from around the world. Approximately 40 films will be screened over the course of the four-day festival.
We are located in beautiful Bellingham, WA, USA. Our area of the Pacific Northwest is an ideal location for both filmmaking and viewing. Bellingham is a city of approximately 90,000 on the shores of Puget Sound and lies halfway between Seattle, WA and Vancouver, BC.
CASCADIA presents separate programs for short subject films, feature narrative and documentary films. We showcase women filmmakers from throughout the world as well as local directors, considered to be those working in the region extending from Vancouver B.C., Canada to the Seattle, Wa. metropolitan area. CASCADIA also searches for films by Indigenous women filmmakers and emerging and student filmmakers. Please let us know if you qualify for consideration in this area.
Most festival film programs are followed by Q & A with the attending filmmakers and/or an industry or subject panel discussion. The festival also hosts networking and social opportunities specifically for our directors. Directors are also our guests at CASCADIA's Saturday night Directors' party. The festival also stages a reception and program with its Honored Guest. Past Honored Guests have been Cheryl Boone Isaacs, past president of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and Oscar-winning Documentary Director Freida Lee Mock. The 2020 festival was to honor the centennial of the 19th Amendment with a planned special screening of the HBO film, "Iron Jawed Angels" directed by Katja von Garnier.
In 2020, the festival successfully moved online due to COVID-19. Virtual attendance was as high as the 'live' festival with films viewed by audiences throughout the U.S. and internationally. 'Live' and pre-recorded Q&As, panel discussions and interviews were done with filmmakers and are now available on the festival website. CASCADIA will plan an online version of the festival in 2021 if the 'in person' becomes impossible due to the continuance of the pandemic.
All filmmakers selected for the festival receive a screening fee and laurels.