Venice women directors row grows after one female filmmaker makes competition
Six Italian film groups criticized Venice’s 2026 lineup after only one woman-directed film landed in the 21-title main competition.
By Georgia Hale · Staff Writer
3 min read
The Venice women directors 2026 debate has burst into the open, with six Italian film organizations condemning the festival’s main lineup after just one female-directed movie made the 21-title Competition.
The criticism came in an open letter published by La Repubblica over the weekend, after the Venice Film Festival announced its 2026 Official Selection. May-el Toukhy’s Woman Unknown is the only film by a woman director in the main Competition, according to the lineup cited by Deadline.
The letter was signed by 100autori, Anac, Air3, Doc/it, the Italian branch of the European Women’s Audiovisual Network and Women in Film Television & Media’s Italian branch.
The groups zeroed in on Italy’s own presence at the festival, saying the country has seven male directors across the Competition and Out of Competition sections, while no Italian women directors were selected there.
In the letter, the organizations called the result “a one-dimensional, male dominated selection.”
How many women directors are in Venice competition in 2026?
One woman-directed film, May-el Toukhy’s Woman Unknown, is in the 21-title main Competition, according to the announced selection cited by Deadline. That means 20 of the Competition films are directed by men or not credited in the report as female-directed.
The signatories did point to two women-directed Italian titles elsewhere in the festival: Alina Marazzi’s The Girl with the Leica, about German-Jewish war photographer Gerda Taro, and Anna Foglietta’s Un Storia, described as a drama about an empty-nester couple. Both are set for the Orizzonti sidebar.
The letter said those films, along with other female directors placed across the festival, suggested the possibility of a wider view of humanity. It also referenced young women in film schools, saying many are present in strong numbers and with notable talent, energy and urgency.
The dispute revives a long-running argument around Venice and gender balance. In 2018, the festival faced backlash after only one woman was selected for Competition. That year’s jury president, Guillermo del Toro, urged Venice to aim for gender parity in the main Competition by 2020.
Venice also signed the “50/50 by 2020” pledge in 2018, a commitment tied to transparency and gender equality in festival selection.
Recent years had given campaigners reason to think the festival was changing course. Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland won the Golden Lion in 2020, Audrey Diwan’s Happening won in 2021 and Laura Poitras’ All the Beauty and the Bloodshed won in 2022. In 2025, six prominent women-directed films competed, including Kaouther Ben Hania’s The Voice of Hind Rajab and Mona Fastvold’s The Testament of Ann Lee.
Festival director Alberto Barbera told Deadline after the selection announcement that his team had searched widely for films directed by women. He said the share of fiction submissions by women fell to 24% this year from 30% last year, and said both the number and quality of submissions had decreased.
The open letter pushed back on treating quality as a neutral measurement. The signatories argued that artistic judgment is shaped by perspective, culture, taste, limits and editorial choices, and said selection standards should be questioned when results are repeatedly uneven.
The organizations called on Venice to recommit to the 2018 parity pledge, saying cultural change requires awareness and responsibility even after the 2020 target date has passed.
This story draws on original reporting from Deadline.