The Venice Film Festival kicks off today, and the fest’s competition slate is yet again lacking when it comes to women-directed titles. Not all fests are struggling to program films made by women. The BFI London Film Festival just announced its 2019 lineup, and six of its 10 features, or 60 percent, are helmed or co-helmed by women. In 2018, their competition was 50 percent women-directed.
The lineup at the 63rd edition of the fest includes Haifaa Al Mansour’s “The Perfect Candidate,” a drama about a small-town Saudi doctor who runs for local council, and Małgorzata Szumowska’s “The Perfect Lamb,” the story of a girl born into a cult. Isabel Sandoval’s “Lingua Franca” marks the first film helmed by a transgender director in the program, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The pic centers on an undocumented Filipino trans woman who works as a caregiver.
“Our official competition showcases the best in global filmmaking,” said festival director Tricia Tuttle. “These filmmakers each have unique and distinctive voices and their films by turns reveal truths about human existence; explore stories we haven’t seen before or examine familiar ones in new ways; address pressing social and political issues, and make audiences feel and think. It’s striking that so many of the filmmakers here are telling strongly political stories, but never dogmatically so. We have selected 11 directors in these 10 films who invite viewers to probe and ponder, to be changed — either subconsciously or wildly and irrevocably — by their work.”
The BFI London Film Festival will take place October 2-13. All of the women-directed titles screening in competition can be found below. List adapted from The Hollywood Reporter.
Honey Boy — Alma Har’el (USA, dir. Alma Har’el)
Lingua Franca — (USA, dir. Isabel Sandoval)
The Other Lamb — (Ireland-Belgium-USA, dir. Małgorzata Szumowska)
The Perfect Candidate — (Germany-Saudi Arabia, dir. Haifaa Al Mansour)
Rose Plays Julie — (Ireland-United Kingdom, dir. Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor)
Saint Maud — (U.K., dir. Rose Glass)
