Venice Film Festival - Report 1 2018
By Moira Sullivan "The Nightingale" by Jennifer Kent I want to first draw attention to the severely gender unbalanced lineup of the official competition at the Venice Film Festival which runs from August 29 – Sep 6. Whether or not Venice film festival director Alberto Barbera will be affected by a letter written to Paolo Baratta, President of the Venice Biennale, remains to be seen - written by a consortium of very active feminist film organizers in Europe: the European Women’s Audiovisual Network, Women in Film & TV International, WIFT Nordic. WIFT Sweden, and the Swiss Women’s Audiovisual Network. The Venice Film Festival is part of the Biennale. The letter includes a reference to the competition for female musicians for the Boston Symphonic Orchestra in 1952 with blind gender auditions. Can this not happen with film? Again the ancient argument for festivals like Venice is that there will be no quota for women and that all selections are based on quality not