Venice jury head Maggie Gyllenhaal questions lack of women directors in competition

Director Maggie Gyllenhaal appears at the premiere of “The Bride!” in New York on March 3, 2026. Image: Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File

VENICE, Italy — The head of this year’s Venice Film Festival jury Maggie Gyllenhaal questioned Wednesday, Sept. 2, why only two women directors had been selected for the main competition at the Italian event this year.

“There’s a systemic problem,” the American actress-turned director told reporters at a press conference on the opening day of the festival, sitting next to festival director  Alberto Barbera.

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“I do think it’s much harder for women to get their films financed. Also, 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? Who decides what’s valuable?

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“That’s also a question I have, and it’s a legitimate one,” she added.

“Woman Unknown” by Danish-Egyptian director May El-Toukhy was the only woman-directed film in the initial 20-strong field of films competing for the prestigious Golden Lion in Venice’s top competition.

The late addition of “NAZA” about Israel’s targeting of civilians in Gaza improved the gender balance slightly — it is co-directed by a woman, Oscar-winning Israeli filmmaker Rachel Szor.

Barbera said this year’s selection had been made “without prejudice.”

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At a press conference to announce the selection in July, he said that the quality of submissions from women directors “was not enough to put them into the competition” — which led to a critical open letter from campaign and industry groups in Italy.

Although her remarks appeared to be an implicit criticism of Barbera’s choices, Gyllenhaal stressed that her role as head of the jury was also significant.

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“I really am walking in with a question as to why there’s so few women in the main competition as filmmakers this year. But I think … asking me to be the head of the main jury competition after the two films that I have made is a very important thing to consider too,” she added.

The question over the dearth of women directors was also broached during the press conference for the Italian/German film “La Ragazza con la Leica.”

READ: Women directors slam ‘toxic masculinity’ of Venice film festival

The film, part of the festival’s secondary “Horizons” competition, tells the story of accomplished war photographer Gerda Taro, the partner of the legendary photojournalist Robert Capa, whose fame and legacy has eclipsed her own.

A reporter with Italian news agency ANSA asked the film’s director, Alina Marazzi, whether she found it “paradoxical” that she was competing in the secondary lineup “with a film about a female artist who was forgotten for so long”.

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“I could say that perhaps paradoxically it is consistent that this film is in the ‘other’ competition,” answered Marazzi, adding that she and the producers “believed in the importance of telling the story of a woman who had been forgotten.” /ra