Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Head of Venice Film Festival defends lack of female directors in competition

Alberto Barbera, second left, arrives for the official Robin Hood screening at the Cannes Film Festival (Ian West/PA)
Alberto Barbera, second left, arrives for the official Robin Hood screening at the Cannes Film Festival (Ian West/PA)

Venice Film Festival director Alberto Barbera has defended the line-up for this year’s competition after it was was criticised for including only one film with a female director.

Jennifer Kent’s The Nightingale is the only competition entry directed by a woman on the 21-strong list, which includes Damien Chazelle’s First Man, which will open the festival on August 29.

The festival’s line-up last year also only featured one film directed by a woman.

Out of 60 entries in the official selection for this year’s event, eight are helmed by a female filmmaker.

Australian director Briony Kidd said the list was “seriously depressing” and Melissa Silverstein, the founder of Women And Hollywood, which advocates for gender equality in the industry, wrote that she was “speechless”.

Responding to the reaction Barbera told The Hollywood Reporter: “Putting another film in the main competition just because it’s made by a woman, from my point of view, that would be really offensive for the director.

“I would prefer to change my job if I would be forced to select a film only because it’s made by a woman and not on the basis of the quality of the film itself.”

He added: “Of course I would be happy to have more females in the festival, but it doesn’t depend on me.”

Barbera said that the smaller ratio of female-directed films being shown at the festival was caused by “prejudice” within the film industry, which was not affording women directors enough opportunities.

He said: “Sooner or later everybody will realise that female directors are as good and as creative as their male colleagues.

“But this is something that needs to be changed at the beginning of the chain, not at the end, not to guarantee for example, a quarter of film festival slots to women.”