Venice Film Festival is currently underway, and just one title screening in its Competition is directed by a woman. In contrast, the BFI London Film Festival just announced its 2018 Competition slate, and five of 10 films in the program are directed or co-directed by women. Clearly parity isn’t the pipe dream some skeptics frame it as.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, London’s Competition lineup includes Alice Rohrwacher’s Cannes standout “Happy as Lazzarro,” a story about an unlikely friendship between a peasant and a nobleman, and Dominga Sotomayor’s Locarno winner “Too Late to Die Young,” a 1990-set drama that follows a 16 year-old Chilean girl living off the grid in a remote community.
Also screening are Karyn Kusama’s “Destroyer,” a crime thriller starring Nicole Kidman, Sudabeh Mortezai’s “Joy,” a portrait of a Nigerian woman caught in sex trafficking, and Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra’s “Birds of Passage,” a drama about an indigenous family involved in drug trafficking in Colombia.
It seems likely that the forward-looking fest will sign the 5050×2020 Pledge. The movement strives for better gender representation and transparency at festivals by the year 2020.
London Film Fest will kick off October 10 with Viola Davis-led caper “Widows,” which is making its international premiere at the fest.
