Motherhood gets a starring role at the 2026 Reel Equals Film Festival

There’s a baby drought in the world’s industrialized nations that has sparked a lot of concern and debate. Those who want to see some thought-provoking films on motherhood may want to make their way to the 2026 Reel Equals Film Festival, which runs March 5-10 at Ringling College of Art and Design, the Sarasota Art Museum and online.

Now in its 27th year, the festival was previously known as Through Women’s Eyes. It traces its roots to 1994, when a group of women on Florida’s Gulf Coast formed a chapter of UN Women USA. For the next 28 years, the group hosted luncheons, book clubs, walks against violence and an annual film festival.

After UN Women USA disbanded its chapters in 2022, the Sarasota group regrouped and rebranded as Through Women’s Eyes. It continued to produce its annual film festival, which is now known as Reel Equals.

The new name reflects the festival’s broader mandate of focusing not only on women’s rights, but those of LBTQIA and non-binary people.

“We strongly felt that our films are for everyone,” says Scott Osborne, a lawyer and former Peace Corps volunteer who is president of Through Women’s Eyes, the producer of the Reel Equals Film Festival. “Our new name reflects that.” 

There are 12 countries represented at Reel Equals, which will screen 25 films, including 16 short films and nine features that are organized into 10 programming blocks. Filmmakers are coming to represent nine of the festival’s films, Osborne says.

Programming film festivals is not an either/or proposition, but films focusing on motherhood seem destined to steal the show at this year’s Reel Equals fest. “We’ve got several films this year about motherhood and parenting,” Osborne says.

Among them are:

•  “Hello, Mother,” Byambasuren Ganbat’s film about a young girl with a troubled father in the Gobi desert who is searching for her estranged mother
• “24 Days Without You,” Rebecca Rizzio’s documentary about a woman who spent nearly a month in a coma after giving birth, and
•  “Mother of Snow Cranes,” Iiris Harma’s film about Ellen Vuosalo,  who dedicated her life to protecting the endangered Siberian crane after traveling to Iran to seek custody of her children following a divorce.

As the last film description demonstrates, motherhood can be metaphorical. Maternal feelings can be bestowed on people and creatures even where there’s no biological bond, Osborne notes.

Mental health is another dominant theme running through the Reel Equals festival lineup. If you missed “Anxiety Club” at last year’s Sarasota Film Festival, you have another chance to see it on the big screen on the opening night of  Reel Equals.

“Anxiety Club” uses the stage fright experienced by standup comedians to explore how humor can be used as a coping mechanism for dealing with life’s challenges. Filmmaker Tiffany Jenkins, who is based in Sarasota, will be on hand for a Q&A with the audience following the film’s screening.

A former cheerleader at Sarasota High School, Jenkins has chronicled her journey from addiction to sobriety and standup comedy with books, performance and content creation, including her website, JugglingtheJenkins.com.

Although “Anxiety Club” has unspooled in Sarasota before, Osborne says Reel Equals aims to “put films in front of people that they might not otherwise see.”

The festival’s online programming grew out of the disruption of pandemic shutdowns, but has become a permanent feature. “It allows people who aren’t physically able to attend film screenings in person to participate in the festival,” Osborne notes.