Venice jury chair decries film industry's 'systemic problem' with sexism

Maggie Gyllenhaal, chair of the jury at the Venice Film Festival, said the film industry has a "systemic problem" with sexism, explaining why only two films directed by women are in competition for the Golden Lion, according to the Guardian.

Speaking at the festival's opening on Wednesday, the actor-director addressed the disparity head-on, attributing the low representation not to individual choices but to a structural failure that persists across the industry. Her comments came as the 83rd edition of the festival, which opened with Danny Boyle's 'Ink,' sets the tone for a programme that the world's press is scrutinising for its gender balance.

For Sicily, a region whose own cinematic heritage — from the neorealist classics to the contemporary works screened in Taormina and Palermo — has often mirrored the national industry's uneven record, Gyllenhaal's remarks resonate beyond the Lido. The festival's platform, watched across the Mediterranean, amplifies questions about who gets to tell stories and whose perspectives are deemed worthy of the highest honours.

The festival's opening night featured 'Ink,' Danny Boyle's portrayal of the rise of the British tabloid The Sun, a film that The New York Times described as showing "tabloid scandals sell and the public is buying." Gyllenhaal's intervention, however, shifted focus to the industry's internal mechanics, with the Guardian reporting her assertion that the scarcity of female-directed contenders is not an anomaly but a symptom of a wider malaise.

Her remarks arrive amid a broader reckoning in European cinema, where festivals have increasingly faced pressure to disclose and improve representation statistics. Venice, as the first major European festival of the season, often sets the agenda for Toronto and beyond, making Gyllenhaal's public stance a potential catalyst for further debate.

For the Sicilian film community, which has seen a modest but notable rise in female directors gaining international attention in recent years, the conversation touches on local realities: funding disparities, distribution challenges, and the difficulty of sustaining a career in a region where production infrastructure remains thinner than in Rome or Milan. The festival's spotlight, viewed from Palermo, serves as a reminder that the barriers Gyllenhaal described are not confined to Hollywood or the major European capitals but extend to the periphery.

As the festival continues through its ten-day run, observers will watch whether the jury's eventual choices — and the broader programme's reception — reflect any shift in the industry's approach. Gyllenhaal's framing of the issue as "systemic" suggests that individual awards, however symbolic, may do little to address the underlying structures she criticised.