- Title: Venice Film Festival signs gender parity and inclusion pledge
- Date: 31st August 2018
- Summary: CANNES, FRANCE (FILE - MAY 12, 2018) (REUTERS) ***WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** WOMEN, INCLUDING 2018 CANNES FILM FESTIVAL COMPETITION JURY, WALKING UP RED CARPET AND STEPS WOMEN ON STEPS ACTRESS CATE BLANCHETT ON STEPS / WOMEN ON STEPS CLAPPING WOMEN ON STEPS HOLDING HANDS
- Embargoed: 14th September 2018 18:04
- Keywords: women in film Venice Film Festival #meToo Venice Film Festival signs gender equality pledge gender parity protocol charter for parity and inclusion
- Location: VENICE, ITALY AND CANNES, FRANCE
- City: VENICE, ITALY AND CANNES, FRANCE
- Country: Italy
- Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment,Film
- Reuters ID: LVA0038VIONRH
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: The organisers of the Venice Film Festival signed a pledge on Friday (August 31) to work towards gender equality, hoping to mollify critics who have accused them of sidelining female filmmakers.
Venice follows other European film festivals Cannes and Locarno in pledging to get an equal number of men and women in its top management by 2020 - but it has ruled out any quota system for selecting films to compete.
The festival's organisers said they had wanted to modify the document signed by Cannes slightly to "improve" it, to reflect that the efforts would be continuos.
"For us it's very important the introduction of the word 'continue to' so all the engagements are 'continue to' assuming that we are already ahead on that track and the engagement is not just to reach numbers or percentages but the engagement is in the last condition to work on these assumptions and to give what we have been doing up to now, as a starting point and not just considering it a success once reached to say 'well, we are ok, we have 70 percent women in the Biennale'," Venice Biennale President Paolo Baratta said.
Of the 21 films vying for the Golden Lion this year, only one was directed by a woman, "The Nightingale" by Australian Jennifer Kent.
The pledge does not go anywhere near what campaigners are demanding. In an open letter to Alberto Barbera, Venice's artistic director, the European Women's Audiovisual Network and Women in Film & TV International called for tough action to end a "rigged system which favours mainly white males".
"Alberto Barbera, will you pledge 50/50 gender equity for female directors? Will you have your team trained in Unconscious Bias?" the groups wrote. - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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