The number of female directors included in the line-up for the BFI Film Festival disproves claims that there are not enough quality movies made by women to qualify for prestigious competitions, the chief executive of the BFI has said.
Arriving at the opening night of the festival, Amanda Nevill said that the 149 titles in the programme, or 38% of its total, which have female directors or co-directors, goes to show the work is out there.
Five of the 11 directors in the festival’s main competition are women.
France’s Cannes film festival featured three out of 21, while the Venice film festival sparked controversy when Jennifer Kent was the only female director in the same size field.
Nevill told the Press Association: “It disproves the argument [there are not enough quality films made by women] it clearly disproves the argument.
“If you look at the BFI we are really female, and guess what, you get a much more female festival. And of course with the film fund and the work that my colleagues are doing there, we are hell bent in doing everything we can to reach that 50:50.”
She added: “We cannot be complacent, we need to remember the shocking fact is that since the beginning of British cinema only seven per cent of films have been directed by women and what the means is that 93% of the films that we have been enjoying have been seen through the male gaze so we have got to change that and it will take a few years but there are such brilliant filmmakers working out there.”
Tricia Tuttle, interim artistic director of the festival, said: “What we have found is that if you look, that great films from female directors are out there.
“It hasn’t been a challenge for us, we never set out with quotas but we do have targets of making sure we are tackling the gender disparity in the industry, it’s important to us to do that.
“We were super excited this year, particularly realising as we got closer to locking official competition, that 50:50 was a real possibility in the competition and it’s such a strong diverse line up, full stop.”
The official competition features films made by directors including Cristina Gallego, Karyn Kusama and Alice Rohrwacher.