The 2018 Venice Film Fest is criticized by the European Women’s Audiovisual Network (EWAN) and other groups for shutting out female directors from its competition section. In an open letter, the EWA has also demanded that Venice join the Cannes and Locarno fests in signing gender-parity pledge.
“We have seen this film before,” the letter said, referring to the fact that, for the second year in a row, only one out of the 21 competition titles at Venice is directed by a woman: Jennifer Kent’s “The Nightingale.” “Angels Wear White,” by Chinese director Vivian Qu, was last year’s lone competition title directed by a woman.
The EWAN took issue with Venice artistic chief Alberto Barbera, who said that he would quit “if we impose quotas or gender-equality needs.”
