# Maggie Gyllenhaal Takes on Venice Film Festival’s Lack of Women in Competition: “There’s a Systemic Problem”

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/maggie-gyllenhaal-takes-on-venice-film-festivals-lack-of-women-in-competition-theres-a-systemic-problem/
- Published: 2026-09-02T14:42:10+00:00
- Updated: 2026-09-02T21:08:00+00:00
- Original publisher: The Hollywood Reporter
- Original article: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/maggie-gyllenhaal-venice-jury-press-conference-women-1236687884/
- Topics: Film

## Key points

- Gyllenhaal criticises "systemic" lack of women directors at Venice
- Only two of the main competition's films are female-directed this year
- Festival chief Barbera calls 2026 lineup its "most political" in years

## Summary

Maggie Gyllenhaal, president of this year's Venice Film Festival competition jury, publicly criticised the "systemic problem" behind the low number of women directors in the main competition, expanding on remarks made at the jury's press conference. Only May el-Toukhy's "Woman Unknown" was initially selected from an original field of 20 Golden Lion contenders, with the Gaza documentary "NAZA", co-directed by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, later added to bring the total to two — down from six last year. Gyllenhaal argued financing is harder to secure for women and questioned whether films addressing women's experiences are consistently regarded as "high art", while also acknowledging the significance of her own appointment as jury president, given her history at the festival as director of the acclaimed "The Lost Daughter".

Festival artistic director Alberto Barbera called the imbalance a recent low point and described this year's programme as the "most political" in recent years, with conflicts including the war in Gaza, Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the US-Iran war forming a backdrop to the 83rd edition. The press conference itself was briefly thrown into doubt over a "scheduling conflict" involving a jury member before organisers confirmed it would go ahead as planned. Gyllenhaal's jury includes Kaouther Ben Hania, Daniel Blumberg, Francesco Casetti, Xavier Giannoli, Shahrbanoo Sadat and Johnnie To, who will select the Golden Lion from a field including films by Danny Boyle, Robert Pattinson-starring "Primetime" and Martin McDonagh, among others.

## Coverage

- [The Hollywood Reporter: Maggie Gyllenhaal Takes on Venice Film Festival’s Lack of Women in Competition: “There’s a Systemic Problem”](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/maggie-gyllenhaal-venice-jury-press-conference-women-1236687884/)
- [The Guardian: Maggie Gyllenhaal says film industry has a ‘systemic problem’ with sexism](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/sep/02/maggie-gyllenhaal-says-film-industry-has-a-systemic-problem-with-sexism)

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.