Widescreen Weekend, Bradford's festival of all things analogue and large-format, are celebrating female figures in film in their usual, inimitable style: with a bold selection of titles presented on a big, wide screen. The Women in Widescreen programme showcases women in front and behind the camera, focusing on three-dimensional characters with bags of agency and the filmmakers who bring them to life. The diverse group of films screening at the National Science and Media Museum on 11-14 October includes established feminist favourites like Thelma and Louise, cult martial arts cut Deaf Mute Heroine and classic Hollywood musicals It's Always Fair Weather and Funny Girl.

Women in Widescreen represents a continuation of the positive changes Widescreen Weekend have made to diversify the stories they tell and the audiences they reach whilst still retaining the essential character of their much-loved festival. Support from Film Hub North's Propeller Awards means that the festival is able to offer regular attendees the films and formats they've come to expect, and to take programming risks that will challenge their core audience and attract new groups of widescreen aficionados.

The festival's commitment to showcasing women in film is underscored by the roster of guest speakers they're bringing to Bradford with help from our Propeller Awards. Highlights include VFX Editor Carin Anne Strohmaier discussing her own work in Contact, Robert Zemeckis' existential sci-fi starring Jodie Foster, and writer and broadcaster Samira Ahmed introducing Forty Guns, Samuel Fuller's gothic western that sees Barbara Stanwyck saddle up as a ruthless rancher at the head of her own private army.