About 70 women in the film industry are expected to gather at the London Film Festival (LFF) Friday in celebration of the contributions women have made in the field. According to The Guardian, figures such as Keira Knightley and Andrea Riseborough (“Black Mirror”) will come together for a group photo inspired by the women-led protest at Cannes earlier this year. Women and Hollywood Founder and Publisher Melissa Silverstein is also participating in the “special festival moment.”
Timed to coincide with the one-year anniversary of #MeToo’s resurgence, the photo call will take place at BFI Southbank on October 12.
As critic Kate Muir told The Guardian, a photo seeing women honoring women is consistent with LFF’s commitment to gender equality, which she attributes to its mostly-women leadership, including interim artistic director/deputy head of festivals Tricia Tuttle and BFI head of festivals Clare Stewart. “The male-run Cannes and Venice festivals have only paid lip service to the #MeToo movement, signing equality pledges but keeping their testosterone-packed programs, while the female-run LFF has made a conscious effort to find female and diverse voices,” Muir said.
However, she also acknowledges that the fest has a long way to go before full parity is attained: “The fact is that, while the competition strand is 50 percent female, the London Film Festival’s mainstream gala premieres are mostly directed by men. It’s up to festivals to open the doors to those new voices so they can rise up.”
One of the ways festivals can do so is by signing the Gender Parity Pledge. Unveiled at Cannes, the pledge is a way to hold fests accountable as they work towards full gender parity. By signing the document, festival signatories promise to gather stats according to the filmmakers’ gender, identify the fest members who select films to screen, and develop a schedule to achieve equality on the festival board. The Pledge was created by 5050×2020, an offshoot of Le Deuxième Regard, and seeks to improve representation and transparency by 2020. Venice and TIFF are among the signatories to date.
While full gender parity in film festivals won’t entirely eradicate sexism in the film industry, Tuttle believes it and events such as the photo call will help shine a light on up-and-coming talent. “In the UK, only 11 percent of [top-grossing] films are directed by women, and that figure declines sharply as the budgets rise,” she observed. “We’re all acutely aware of this long-term and frankly unacceptable gender imbalance. The industry has to work collectively to change that. We’re well-positioned to take risks, and it’s a key part of our job to find and champion new filmmakers.”
Plus, as more festivals becoming willing to prioritize gender equality among their films and ranks, the harder it will be for others to hold out. “I’m not sure LFF will have an impact on other festivals’ curatorial approach, but the sustained frustration of the press and industry will,” Tuttle observed. “When some festivals are programming great work by female film-makers and moving closing to gender parity, it becomes harder to defend the idea that the work just isn’t out there.”
LFF began today and will run through October 21.
