Venice's Gyllenhaal says women directors face 'systemic' barriers

VENICE: Venice Film Festival jury president Maggie Gyllenhaal said on Wednesday that cinema was inherently political and that women continue to face systemic obstacles in the film industry, questioning who gets to decide which stories matter.

Speaking on the festival’s opening day, Gyllenhaal said films foster empathy at a time of global turmoil and argued that female filmmakers often struggle to secure financing because the stories they want to tell are not considered important.

“Could it be possible that the things that women, having had a different experience of being alive in the world want to make movies about are not always deemed high art? … Who decides what’s good?” she said when asked about the scarcity of women directors in Venice.

“There’s a systemic problem,” she added.

Only two of the 21 films in the main programme at this year’s festival, which runs from September 2-12, are directed or co-directed by women.

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Festival President Alberto Barbera has deflected criticism over the line-up, saying just 24% of submissions for the event came from female directors against 30% last year, and saying he also had a responsibility to ensure the programme’s quality.

Gyllenhaal began her career as an actor before making her directing debut with “The Lost Daughter” in 2021, which premiered in Venice. She told reporters she felt more comfortable behind the camera but lacked female role models when she was younger.

“I was probably always a director. But I didn’t see anyone around me that was a woman doing it,” she said.

She also weighed in on debate over cinema’s role during periods of war and upheaval, following controversy at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year when jury president Wim Wenders faced criticism for saying filmmakers “have to stay out of politics”.

Gyllenhaal rejected the idea that films could be separated from politics, saying movies that honestly depict people’s lives are “fundamentally, unavoidably political”.

“Personally, I don’t believe that there is any subject or any filmmaker that shouldn’t be heard,” she said, even those concerning the “most corrupt, the most perverse people.”

Such films could help audiences find empathy and reflect on darker aspects of human nature, she added.