In a year full of marvelous cinematic revelations in the theater and at home, we can always look toward film festivals for a glimpse of future gems to behold. While some festivals have taken efforts to increase the diversity in their programming, others seem to be lagging behind and this year’s Venice Film Festival showed some troubling signs of inflexibility. According to ScreenDaily, of the 23 films selected for competition, just five have been directed by a woman. That is the same amount of female-identifying filmmakers as the previous iteration and the same amount of female-identifying filmmakers that Cannes had earlier this year.
Film Festivals are meant to celebrate and honor cinema, but it is difficult to engage in those festivities when they only seem to include the same majority groups year after year. With this in mind, here’s FREE THE WORK’s guide to the must-see films at the 79th edition of the Venice International Film Festival.
