Young Programmers Festival 2024: Wanda 15

Barbara Loden’s first and only feature Wanda follows an unhappy housewife who abandons her family and ends up on the run with a criminal. Wanda herself was dismissed as unintelligent and miserable by many critics on release but the film still stands as a devastatingly honest character study about a woman looking for more.

Wanda made Barbara Loden one of the first women to write, direct and star in her own film and though it is now seen as ground-breaking work of American independent cinema, many critics at the time including Pauline Kael disliked the film and its protagonist for her supposed stupidity and unsympathetic actions.

Part of our Young Programmer film season - Unlikeable Women

Unlikeable Women is a film season opening the BFI Film Academy Young Programmer’s Film Festival. Focussing on films directed by women about women who have been viewed as unsympathetic and unlikeable, the season aims to celebrate these complex characters and question whether their reputations were truly deserved.

By showing films directed by women, the season presents a unique perspective on the too often maligned unlikeable female character that embraces their flaws and celebrates authenticity.

Please note - there will be no trailers before this film! Instead there will be an introduction by our Young Programmers, so do please arrive on time.

Before this film, our young people will be screening two short films:

• Bend by Georgia Goggin
• Purple Lipstick by the BFI Film Academy Sheffield