Following its Audience Award win at the BFI London Film Festival in October, Holloway is heading to the big screen…
The film will be released in cinemas across the UK on 20th June 2025, Holloway, also has been screened as part of the Hot Docs International Documentary Festival where it was nominated for Best International Feature.
Directed by Emmy-nominated Sophie Compton and BAFTA Breakthrough Daisy-May Hudson the movie is a profound, emotionally charged and visually striking film set entirely inside the now-demolished Holloway Prison in London, once the largest women’s prison in Europe.
Six women return to the abandoned building of Holloway Prison to take part in a women’s circle. Sharing some of the most intimate experiences of their lives, they unravel what led each of them to prison, building an eye-opening portrait of failing systems, childhood trauma and discovering their extraordinary capacity to heal through sisterhood.
Formally daring and collaboratively made, Holloway is the result of an innovative, trauma-informed production model developed with its contributors, who are recognised as lived experience experts. Their input shaped every stage of the film, from development through to editing, ensuring the women’s voices remain central throughout. This co-creative process has been recognised by academics from Middlesex University as a “blueprint” for ethical, trauma-informed storytelling.
Holloway Prison in Central London was once the largest women’s prison in Europe. Now it lies empty, as six women who were once imprisoned there walk back through its gates. They have different personalities, backgrounds, hopes and dreams, but they are all determined to reclaim their stories and give voice to the voiceless women still held behind bars.
As they explore the empty cells and corridors where they once lived, memories resurface. In the prison’s former chapel, the group gathers for a women’s circle, where initial tensions arise. Holloway means something very different to each of them; for some, it was a place of nightmares, for others, it was “home.” As they start to explore what led them to prison, some women feel mistrustful, while others mask their emotions with bravado. But as they build trust, supporting each other to share, deep emotions and revelations finally come out.
One after the other, their stories reveal strikingly similar experiences of growing up around domestic violence and facing punishment from a young age. Their experiences paint a harsh picture of broken systems and the societal pattern of criminalising young women for their trauma.
As they unpack layers of identity, the women grapple with accountability and shame: shame stemming from childhood, but compounded by a system that never puts their behaviour in a context. With the group’s support, they journey towards self-compassion, in a transformative process that stands testament to the power of collective healing and the brave and cathartic act of sharing your story.
“It has been one of our greatest joys bringing these women’s voices to audiences,” say directors Compton and Hudson. “They are phenomenal, courageous and most importantly wise and we know that audiences are going to fall in love with them as much as we have!”
The film was supported by the BFI Doc Society Fund, awarding National Lottery funding. Supported with funds awarded by the UK Global Screen Fund – financed by the UK Government’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport and administered by the BFI.
Holloway, releasing in UK cinemas 20th June.
