Nevada Women’s Film Festival goes virtual with screenings, filmmaker Q&As

Nikki Corda is making the best of a bad situation.

The Nevada Women’s Film Festival she founded in 2015 was scheduled to present its sixth installment starting March 19.

COVID-19 had other plans, though, causing Gov. Steve Sisolak to issue his stay-at-home order two days earlier.

After taking time to regroup, Corda is bringing the festival online, with all 68 films that had been scheduled for the in-person fest, as part of a four-day virtual event. Films can be streamed at any time starting Monday, with online question-and-answer sessions scheduled Thursday through June 28.

“The upside is, we’ll be able to have participation of nearly 95 percent of the filmmakers,” Corda says, since travel issues aren’t a concern. “That’s really unprecedented for us. We’ve never had that. We’ve had maybe 25 percent participation.”

She and her team are doing their best to replicate the interactions viewers could have had with filmmakers had they attended the festival in person. Virtual admission to the Q&As is included with each film’s streaming cost. (For a complete schedule, list of films and ticket information, see nwffest.com.)

“It’s a really great opportunity for our community to have this chance to ask questions of filmmakers from all over the world,” Corda says — even if those opportunities can lead to some unusual scheduling.

The session for “That’s the Way You Love,” a drama about a new mother’s sexual awakening, is scheduled for 10 a.m. June 28 to accommodate writer Sharon Eyal Azulay and director Limor Shmila, who’ll be Zoom-ing in from Israel with its 10-hour time difference.

“That might not be a typical time that we would think about participating in a film festival,” Corda acknowledges. But it was worth it, she says, to be able to include them.

They won’t be the only ones experiencing a time lag, as the festival will be joined by filmmakers from many of the 23 countries represented, including Iran, India and Spain.

Among the festival’s highlights are a conversation with its Vanguard Winner, Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre, who directed the acclaimed “The Mustang,” which she filmed at the Nevada State Prison in Carson City.

Writer-director Andrea A. Walter, a UNLV grad, has been named Nevada Woman Filmmaker of the Year for her debut feature, “Empty by Design.”

Director Carol Dysinger, who won an Oscar for best documentary short subject at this year’s ceremony for “Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl),” will join the festival virtually, as well.

All three films are part of the streaming presentation.

Contact Christopher Lawrence at clawrence @reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4567. Follow @life_onthecouch on Twitter.