Fewer female feature directors were selected for this year’s Locarno programme compared to the 2022 edition according to figures presented by artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro at an event held by the Swiss Women’s Audiovisual Network (SWAN).
The event was held to mark the fifth anniversary of Locarno’s signing of the Programming Pledge for Parity and Inclusion in Cinema Festivals. In August 2018, Locarno became the first A-category festival after Cannes to make a commitment to ensure greater gender equality and inclusion in its programming.
Feature films by women directors constituted 26.3% of the submissions to this year’s programme - compared to 66.8% from male directors. The final selection saw women filmmakers making up 30.2% and their male counterparts 63.5% of the films screening over the 11 days.
However, the percentage of features by women filmmakers in this year’s line-up was down 6.5% from last year’s record figure of 36.7% which itself had been a significant increase on the 28% recorded for 2021.
“Locarno single handedly put more women on the map in the last year than more established festivals altogether,” Nazzaro said, pointing to the subsequent international festival and commercial success of films from 2022’s programme such as Brazilian director Julia Murat’s Golden Leopard winner Rule 34, the debut feature Tengo Suenos Eléctricos by Costa Rica’s Valentina Maurel, and Tereza Nvotová’s second feature Nightsiren which won the Golden Leopard for Best Film in the Filmmakers of the Present section.
“When we selected Rule 34, we knew that it wasn’t going to be easy because if you present a film like that, after six minutes you will have a massive walkout,” Nazarro said. “And if you present a film like W by Anna Eriksson [which screened ‘out of competition’ last year], you will have a massive walkout, but if we don’t support the artists that challenge our world perception, then we’re not doing our job.”
“Locarno can only survive if it makes a difference and we’re trying to do that by supporting uncompromising voices,” Nazzaro declared.
Nazzaro suggested: “Maybe we should shift the focus from this kind of accountant position of counting the numbers. There are different ways of winning battles: thinking out of the box is one, pushing for uncompromising quality is another one, and supporting different ideas as one more.”
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