WOW Festival Will Feature Exclusive Screening of Suzie Miller's PRIMA FACIE

WOW - Women of the World has revealed the full line-up for its 2023 London Festival, which returns to the Southbank Centre from 10-12 March to mark International Women's Day. As part of the festival, an exclusive one-off screening of Prima Facie, starring Jodie Comer, on International Womens Day (8 March) will be shown at the BFI Southbank.

A blistering take on how our legal system fails survivors of sexual assault, Empire Street Productions' Prima Facie was captured live in London's West End as part of NT Live and became a sell-out cinema event of 2022, and returns for one-night only as part of the festival. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with Jude Kelly, Helena Kennedy KC and other guests to be announced.

Tickets for the 13th edition of the world's biggest and most comprehensive festival celebrating women, girls and non-binary people are now on sale here. Tickets for headline events start from £10, and there is a free programme of festival events on offer. WOW is also working with community groups and ticketing initiatives to make 400 free tickets available to the festival.

There will be three headline evening events across the festival. On Friday evening, Legendary broadcasters Jane Garvey and Fi Glover will unpack some of the big news of the day in an extended live edition of their new podcast from The Times Off Air... with Jane and Fi, live from the Royal Festival Hall alongside special guests to be announced.

On Saturday evening, WOW will reclaim sex and go big on org*sms in the Royal Festival Hall with sexpert, relationship advisor and author of The Big O, Oloni. In conversation with Tolani Shoneye, co-host of the award-winning The Receipts Podcast, Oloni will debunk taboos around pleasure for women and take a deep dive into sex positivity, kinks, pleasure and her mission to reclaim sex - with plenty of time for audience questions. They'll be joined by special guest, actor and musician Jordan Stephens (Rizzle Kicks) in this fun and freeing, no holds barred conversation.

On Sunday night, Roxane Gay, one of the leading feminist voices of our time, comes to London for one-night-only. From politics and patriarchy to Beyoncé and reality television, the author of Bad Feminist - universally considered the quintessential exploration of modern feminism - will join WOW for an unforgettable evening of conversation and celebration of her work that has garnered acclaim across the world for its honesty and ferocity. Tickets for this event will go on sale on 1 February.

WOW have also today announced new sessions and speakers as part of the Day Pass programme for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Each day features a different line-up, offering audiences the chance to choose from dozens of events in multiple spaces and venues.

Jude Kelly CBE, Julia Gillard, Laura Bates, Elif Shafak and activist Josephine Kamara will open the festival on Friday 10 March with a session on women, misogyny and power, followed by conversations throughout the day spanning the cost of living crisis, mental health, fat activism and what it takes to be a CEO.

Other new sessions include Courtney Boateng and Renee Kapuku, co-hosts of To My Sisters podcast, who will explore how to embrace the power of friendship and community as they look to reinvigorate sisterhood and redefine womanhood; Sharmadean Reid runs a workshop on leadership for the next 1000 years; Nike join us to present a Big Idea on confidence and sports bras, with leading mental health and body image expert Pr Phillippa Diedrichs; and there will be a special edition of WOW Big Ideas focusing on health with speakers Ione Gamble and Dr Annabel Sowemimo.

Juno Dawson and Megan Barton-Hason will ask if you can be Feminist with Fillers; Dr Finn MacKay and Dr Sofia Rehman join Shahed Ezaydi to discuss how we ensure the feminist movement remains led by and inclusive of those that experience marginalisation most keenly; Jennie Agg, Roslyn Springer and Miranda Ward will lead a supportive session on miscarriages and baby loss burnout; and in Women, Life, Freedom, Afghan disability rights advocate Benafsha Yaqoobi, award-winning Iranian Human Rights Lawyer Leila Akrami and WOW festival organisers from around the world share their struggles for justice and stories of resistance. Plus audience members will encounter WOW Pop Ups throughout the day including double dutch skipping from JUMP LDN and a self defence workshop with London Krav Maga.

Urgent political conversations on climate change and the case for free childcare will also take place at WOW on Saturday 11 March, alongside previously announced discussions about hair loss, the future of sex and a joyful in conversation with Kathy Burke.

Joining the Saturday programme is an interactive writing workshop on our Right to Rage with award-winning poet Kim Moore; an exploration and celebration of life as an eldest daughter with Yasin Bojang, co-founder of Home Girls Unite, Aisha Al-Abdallah and authors Ify Adenuga and Esther Oluga; there will be a game show hosted by Consent Collective; and Money and Mental Health's Helen Undy, Sarah Howard, Theatre Director and Access Manager of the Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, Nadia Baksh from Imkaan (an organisation dedicated to addressing violence against Black and Minoritised women and girls), and stripper, performance artist, writer, activist Stacey Clare lead an urgent conversation on the real cost of cuts for people with disabilities and those in vulnerable positions. Nike will be in the building to talk breaking barriers and belonging in sport with inspiring leaders from community organisations and more. And don't miss their workshop with dancer extraordinaire Trina Nicole.

They join sessions on the history of Bengali Activism with Raisa Hassan, Shabna Begum, Farzana Khan and Dr Fatima Rajina; Girls' Day School Trust will explore whether social conditioning has made women better leaders, following the publication of the Girls' Futures research report; and Emma Boynton and Simona Xu on the role of big tech in the Future of Sex. Change making organisation Beyond Equality will also present a conversation about masculinity and what it means to be a man in 2023, with speakers to be announced. As part of the free WOW Pop Ups line-up, Saturday audiences can catch D.M.S. (aka Dani Makes Songs) perform some of her latest tracks live and hear powerful spoken word, written and performed by young people as part of WOW's young people's programme.

The Sunday Day Pass at WOW will explore how kindness can change your life, the world of deep fakes and revenge porn, and present WOW Big Ideas from Alice Sherwood and Shobna Gulati. RAW in WAR will return to the festival to present Tetiana Sokolova and Svetlana Gannushkina with the Anna Politkovskaya Award. African based programme Girl Generation will also be bringing over five young people to discuss the importance of taking a girl centred approach to gendered violence.

Acclaimed writer Kit de Waal joins Jude Kelly to open the Sunday programme at WOW. Later that day award-winning author, poet and playwright Deborah Levy will be in conversation; journalist Harriet Hall, founder of Everyday Sexism Project Laura Bates, and Cut From the Same Cloth? author and WOW Senior Programmer Sabeena Akhtar will take a deep dive into the murky world of incel culture; Katy Hessel will be in conversation about her bestselling book The Story of Art Without Men, and award-winning comedian and host of The Breakup Monologues Rosie Wilby will be joined by writer, broadcaster and Sex Education script consultant Alix Fox to share funny, bizarre and poignant tales of heartbreak and recovery in a live version of Rosie's hit podcast.

In addition there will be previously announced sessions on addiction and recovery and the recognition of associated trauma with writers Octavia Bright and Sabrina Pace-Humphreys; and Sali Hughes will be in conversation with Lauren Laverne about Sali's new book Everything is Washable.

On Saturday evening, WOW in association with UK Jazz Plus Sessions will present a free gig featuring a powerhouse bill of artists - Miss Baby Sol, Emily Saunders, Martha D Lewis and Sacha T - from the growing genre of UK Jazz Singer Songwriters who are redefining what it means to be a jazz singer today, conveying their cultural influences and creating a new hybrid space between jazz, RnB, hip hop, avant-garde and indie. In addition WOW Sounds Artist in Residence for 2023, LayFullstop, a critically acclaimed Jazztronica/Christian artist from Manchester, will host and perform a special one-off gig at the festival. Her WOW Sounds residency is supported by PRS For Music Foundation. WOW Sounds is the charity's first ever dedicated music programme platforming revolutionary women and non-binary musicians and spoken word artists who are using music as a form of activism.

The festival will also feature the return of the much-loved WOW Marketplace, a programme of free WOW Pop Up performances, free WOW Speed Mentoring and Under 10's Feminist Corner for budding young feminists everywhere. There will also be events specifically for children - Joyful, Joyful: Stories Celebrating Black Voices with illustrator Dapo Adeola and writers Hannah Lee and Maame Blue; Tolá Okogwu will bring her story Onyeka and the Academy of the Sun to life; and Emma Carroll and Lauren Child come to WOW to present The Little Match Girl Strikes Back.

Jude Kelly CBE, CEO and Founder of The WOW Foundation said: "Women and girls are dealing with significant anxiety with the cost of living, health, childcare, and the ongoing epidemic of violence. WOW provides the space for everyone to come together to explore solutions and create community, as well as taking time to celebrate amazing achievements across the globe in the ongoing march towards a gender equal world. Everyone needs the annual WOW tonic, and we hope you'll join us."

WOW Festival runs from 10 -12 March at the Southbank Centre

Photo Credit: Helen Murray

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