Welcome to Midwinter SAGA WIFF!

We are a small, grassroots film festival that - has survived the worst of Covid and - creates a platform for women and girls to tell their own stories, to shape their own narratives and to define themselves before they are defined by others.

From 2023, SAGA will be held twice a year - once in February for the Gawler Fringe (arts festival) and once in August to bring great films to midwinter. Supported and judged by a panel of women from many walks of life, Midwinter SAGA Gawler is being held in recognition of the growing community participation at SAGA Gawler Fringe.

SAGA is a deliciously culturally diverse cacophony of ideas​ and world perspectives.

A celebration of the vision of women and girls behind the camera.

If you consider that 93% of directors are male, then the question must surely be :

’Where are the women’s stories? What’s happened to them?’

Well, some of them are here, at SAGA WIFF. Other than creating a great volunteering experience and building community around film, SAGA WIFF is about screening these films, telling these untold stories, in all their diversity and wonderfulness.

SAGA WIFF is a way for women to tell their own stories from their own world perspective. With women and girls behind the camera, SAGA WIFF will be a festival full of surprises - expect to see lots of unusual and interesting films!

In a nutshell, SAGA WIFF is a defiantly culturally inclusive women's film festival based on the notion that the stories of women and girls matter.

This year, we are proud to announce our continued cooperation with The Playford Women's Shed and to welcome MCCSA - The Multicultural Communities Council of South Australia - and to thank them for their generous support of Let's Eat! and Singing Away the Sorrow and Bringing Home the Joy.

We thank all our filmmakers in advance for their submissions. As always, we are honoured to receive your films and humbled by the range and quality of your storytelling.

This year, the submissions period is very short but we will happily judge all films that come in and we will be very pleased to share them with our beautiful Gawler audience at SAGA WIFF, part of the annual Gawler Fringe Festival.

NB Other than filmmakers, SAGA WIFF also showcases other female creatives - spoken word poets, musicians and visual artists.

Please note that this year, we are not offering any cash prizes. We hope to next year when we can stage a bigger festival, backed by more sponsors.

SAGA Gawler + Midwinter SAGA : Audience Pick
Any genre

SAGA Gawler + Midwinter SAGA : Runner-up

PLEASE NOTE THAT SUBMISSIONS WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED WITHOUT A SYNOPSIS, STILL SHOT AND SHORT BIOGRAPHY OF THE FILMMAKER. FILMS WITHOUT ENGLISH LANGUAGE CAPTIONING CANNOT BE CONSIDERED.

ALSO NOTE THAT FILMS MADE BY SOLO MALE DIRECTORS WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED AT ALL. While film crews can be mixed (male, female, non-binary, trans), there must at least be a girl or a woman directing, writing or producing the film as SAGA is a women-behind-the-camera film festival. It is not a man-behind-the-camera film festival.

Overall Rating
Quality
Value
Communication
Hospitality
Networking
  • It was a pleasure to be part of this great film festival as my film
    (THE LAST HUG) has been official selected to the festival. Thank you WIFF

    October 2023
  • thank you for everything
    Regards

    July 2023
  • josephine ehlert

    I was very happy, that SAGA broadcasted our short film. I so much like the idea of empowering Female Filmmakers. Thank you so much for having us.

    March 2020
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    Response from festival:

    Josephine, it's our pleasure.
    Thank you.
    Mona Khizam and the SAGA Team.

  • Thank you for selecting film Switch, it was a honor to take part on SAGA Adelaide FF!

    September 2019
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    Response from festival:

    It was our pleasure.
    Thank you for the great film.
    Mona Khizam and the SAGA Team

  • THANK YOU! WE ARE VERY HAPPY WITH THE AWARD AND THE REPLAY OF THIS FESTIVAL! THANK YOU TO ALL INVOLVED! LONG LIFE TO THE CINEMA!

    September 2019
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    Response from festival:

    Viva La Somaé Films!