Maggie Gyllenhaal used a Venice Film Festival press conference to argue that women directors face a “systemic problem” getting films financed, just months after her own directorial effort, The Bride!, bombed at the box office.
Gyllenhaal, serving as jury president for the 83rd Venice Film Festival, was asked about the near-total absence of women directors from this year’s Golden Lion competition lineup. Only one film in the running, Woman Unknown, directed by Danish-Egyptian filmmaker May el-Toukhy, was solely helmed by a woman.
“There’s a systemic problem. It’s harder for women to get films financed,” Gyllenhaal said, according to Variety.
She went further, questioning who gets to define quality in film. “Could it be possible that women, having had a different experience of being alive in the world, want to make movies [that] are not always deemed high art? Who decides what’s good? Who decides what is valuable?” she asked.
Gyllenhaal then delivered a line with a straight face that undercut her own argument: “I guess it’s finally become clear that men make better movies than women do.”
Venice artistic director Alberto Barbera noted that Naza, a documentary co-directed by No Other Land filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, was added to the lineup shortly before the festival began.
A Press Conference Almost Cancelled
The jury press conference nearly didn’t happen. There was reportedly talk of scrapping it over “scheduling issues” before the festival reversed course following backlash from critics who suspected organizers wanted to shield jury members from political questions.
That suspicion wasn’t unfounded. Earlier this year at the Berlin Film Festival, Michelle Yeoh and Neil Patrick Harris avoided political statements despite pressure from left-wing journalists, and Berlin jury head Wim Wenders told reporters that filmmakers “have to stay out of politics.”
Political questions did surface at the Venice press conference. Gyllenhaal offered a philosophical response rather than a direct one.
“Look, we could say, how are we possibly here talking about movies right now when the world is in a state of emergency? To me, the answer has something to do with empathy. I think that film allows an opening into an opportunity to find empathy inside of ourselves. I think we can challenge ourselves to hear stories about the most corrupt, most perverse people because it opens up the opportunity to find empathy for those people.”
Gyllenhaal also said it was significant to her to be chosen to head the seven-member main competition jury this year.
