F-rating

The F-Rating is a rating to highlight women on screen and behind the camera.[1] Developed at Bath Film Festival in 2014, the F-Rating was inspired by the Bechdel Test based on a 1985 cartoon strip[2] by Alison Bechdel, and popularised in the 2010s by Anita Sarkeesian's Feminist Frequency blog, and by Ellen Tejle's A-rating[3] in Swedish cinemas.[4] In response to criticisms of the A-rating, Swedish film theorists Ingrid Ryberg, Anu Koivunen and Laura Horak wrote, "The A rating has proved to be an activist provocation that works, and it is important to ask why... The A rating is not about classifying films as feminist or not feminist. It aims to alert viewers who find female sociality compelling to films they might like, and so challenge the industry to make more such films."[5]

The festival developed the F-Rating in October 2014 "to take it a step further and highlight films which either had a senior figure in production who was female—a director or a screenwriter—or had very strong female leads or women's issues," according to festival director and F-Rating founder Holly Tarquini.[6] Tarquini told the BBC that films had to meet at least one of three criteria to receive the rating: "If our films have a female director, a female lead who is not simply there to support the male lead, or are specifically about women then they will receive an F-rated stamp of approval."[7]

In 2016, the F-rated founder, Holly Tarquini was invited to deliver a TED talk at TEDxYouth@Bath.[8]

  1. ^ "About".
  2. ^ "dykestowatchoutfor.com » Blog Archive » The Rule". dykestowatchoutfor.com. Retrieved 2017-05-04.
  3. ^ A-rating
  4. ^ "We talk to: Ellen Tejle founder of A Rate!". The Bechdel Test Fest. Archived from the original on 2015-05-21.
  5. ^ Anu Koivunen (2013-11-27). "Swedish cinema's use of the Bechdel test is a provocation that works". The Guardian.
  6. ^ "Bath Film Festival 2014: Movies with strong female credentials to receive special F-rated certificate". The Independent. 2014-11-09.
  7. ^ "'F-rated' films shown at Bath Film Festival". BBC News. 2014-11-12.
  8. ^ TEDx Talks (2016-12-05), Stories Shape Us | Holly Tarquini | TEDxYouth@Bath, retrieved 2016-12-07