Six Italian film industry bodies have publicly criticised the Venice Film Festival for a lack of female representation in its 2026 main competition lineup, calling the selection "one-dimensional" and "male-dominated". The open letter, published in La Repubblica, comes after the festival announced its Official Selection with only one female-directed film, May-el Toukhy's "Woman Unknown", among the 21 titles in Competition. It renews long-standing tensions over gender balance at Venice, an issue that has flared before and drawn commitments from the festival that critics say have not been consistently honoured.

The letter, signed by 100autori, Anac, Air3, Doc/it and the Italian branches of the European Women's Audiovisual Network and Women in Film Television & Media, noted that Italy was represented by seven male directors across the Competition and Out of Competition sections, with no Italian women included. It pointed to Alina Marazzi's "The Girl with the Leica" and Anna Foglietta's "Un Storia", both premiering in the Orizzonti sidebar, as rare bright spots. Venice faced similar criticism in 2018, when just one woman featured in competition, prompting a "50/50 by 2020" pledge; more recent editions had shown improvement, with Golden Lions for female directors including Chloé Zhao and Laura Poitras. Festival director Alberto Barbera told Deadline that submissions from women fell to 24% this year from 30% last year, both in number and quality.