As the Bird's Eye View festival was kicking off, Dazed Digital spoke to five of the female directors about why they are showing their films at the only all-female film festival in the UK. (Or click here for our 2008 coverage.)

The Sofia Coppolas and the Helen Mirrens, the certified successes, are good news for women's filmmaking, but the entrenched facts haven't shifted: only 7% of directors are female and there is still the traditional dearth of juicy parts for women. Bird's Eye View, who run the only women's film festival in the UK, admit they're part of an uphill struggle. As the third festival prepares to kick off, director Rachel Millward jokes: "It would have been a quick victory if it was all change already. But I think more people are aware of the imbalance since we've been drawing attention to it, and a few more gals have had the courage to get their films made."