BFI London Film Festival has announced the Official Competition for its 2021 edition. Eight titles are slated to screen, and just one is directed by a woman, amounting to merely 12.5 percent of the slate. Harry Wootliff’s “True Things,” a psychological drama that sees Ruth Wilson playing a woman whose life is upended after she becomes fixated on a hookup, is the sole feature helmed by a woman in the program.
“With Official Competition our aim is to present a curated program that showcases the breadth and richness of international cinema for our audiences. Anyone new to the LFF should consider Official Competition a big neon sign that is blinking: ‘enter here.’ This eight film selection is full of individual cinematic diamonds – each one unique and beautiful in its own way. Together they are dazzling and demonstrate the endless potential of cinema in the hands of a great filmmaker. With a selection like this we have made the jury’s job very difficult indeed,” said LFF Director Tricia Tuttle.
That big neon sign isn’t looking very welcoming to audiences who want to support film fest with lineups that feature more than a solitary woman filmmaker.
BFI London Film Fest is slated to take place October 6-17. Jane Campion’s first pic in over a decade, Western “The Power of the Dog,” will be this year’s American Express Headline Gala.
Wootliff made her feature debut with 2018’s “Only You,” a romance about strangers who cross paths in a taxi on New Year’s Eve.
