Venice Film Festival continues to disappoint. Last year the fest signed the 5050×2020 Pledge, committing to greater transparency in its selection process and staff, with the goal of eventually bettering gender representation. This Italian fest just announced its 2019 lineup, and of 21 features screening in Competition, just two are women-directed, or about 10 percent of the slate. Also, the program includes a film by Roman Polanski, an admitted child rapist who remains a fugitive from U.S. justice. As Fionnuala Halligan writes at Screen Daily, “In a community exhausted by the constant stream of tired excuses as to why there are so few seats at the top table for exciting, by-now-well-established female film directors, this year’s Venice marks a new low.”
The only two women filmmakers competing for the fest’s most prestigious honor, the Golden Lion, are Haifaa Al-Mansour and Shannon Murphy. Al-Mansour’s “The Perfect Candidate” centers on young female physician who decides to run in the municipal council election, and Murphy’s “Baby Teeth” tells the story of a couple who discover their teenage daughter is dating a drug dealer.
Only one woman-directed film screened in Competition at Venice last year, Jennifer Kent’s “The Nightingale,” a revenge drama set in in 19th-century Tasmania.
It’s not just this year’s Competition lineup that’s lacking in women directors. The Out of Competition – Fiction section, for example, features exactly zero films helmed by women. The Venice Classics program includes 20 titles, and just two of of them are women-directed, Forough Farrokhzad’s “The House Is Black” and Merata Mita’s “Mauri.”
Women filmmakers fare better in the Horizons competition. Of 19 films screening, four are directed by women, or 21 percent of the lineup. Among the titles set to screen is Sahraa Karimi’s
“Hava, Maryam, Ayesha,” a drama about three Afghan women living in Kabul. The section closest to reaching parity is Out of Competition – Non-Fiction, where women-directed films account for four of the 10 films screening, or 40 percent of the slate. Titles include “The Kingmaker,” the latest from “The Queen of Versailles” filmmaker Lauren Greenfield, and “Woman,” an exploration of womanhood from around the world co-directed by Anastasia Mikova.
Venice Film Festival runs from August 28-September 7 this year. Check out some of the newly announced women-directed titles screening at the fest below. The Venice Critics’ Week lineup and Venice Days competition program were also recently unveiled.
VENEZIA 76 COMPETITION
The Perfect Candidate, Haifaa Al Mansour
Babyteeth, dir: Shannon Murphy
OUT OF COMPETITION – SPECIAL SCREENINGS
Electric Swan, dir: Konstantina Kotzamani
OUT OF COMPETITION – NON-FICTION
Woman, dirs.: Yann Arthus-Bertrand, Anastasia Mikova
I Diari Di Angela – Noi Due Cineaste. Capitolo Secondo, dirs: Yervant Gianikian, Angela Ricci Lucchi
Citizen Rosi, dirs: Didi Gnocchi, Carolina Rosi
The Kingmaker, dir: Lauren Greenfield
HORIZONS
Pelican Blood, dir: Katrin Gebbe
Nevia, dir: Nunzia De Stefano
Hava, Maryam, Ayesha, dir: Sahraa Karimi
Revenir, dir: Jessica Palud
SCONFINI
Chiara Ferragni – Unposted, dir: Elisa Amoruso
VENICE CLASSICS
The House Is Black, dir: Forough Farrokhzad
Mauri, dir: Merata Mita
