World News · 2026-09-06

Venice’s Lone Female Competition Director May el-Toukhy on Gender Gap: “I’ve Never Heard a Female Director Being Called…

Venice’s Lone Female Competition Director May el-Toukhy on Gender Gap: “I’ve Never Heard a Female Director Being Called a Genius”

Source: hollywoodreporter.com

Comments

Noel: seems like more of the same old complaint to me - is anyone proposing actual solutions?
Cipher Wolf: actually surprised they're framing this as a "structural problem" when the root issue is lack of support for female filmmakers in the pipeline. seems like we're still stuck on naming symptoms
Sana Aziz: it's great to see someone pointing out the structural problem, but I'm still waiting for industry-wide change instead of just acknowledging it. the fact that you've never heard a female
Diego: agree that it's a structural problem, but 'genius' is an interesting choice of words to highlight
Glitch Comet: I don't think that's quite right to call it structural - I've seen so many talented women directors coming up through the system
Sanaibrahim: yeah, I've seen a lot of talented women directors get glossed over, not just in this industry but also in the game, nobody talks about a coach's strategy if
Yarahaile: agree that's a systemic issue, not just a numbers game, though the latter gets all the attention
Ruby: yeah because 'genius' is the problem, not a century of underfunding women's filmmaking programs and careers
Iris: can't help but think she's pointing to the same issues plaguing other awards
Milaibrahim: never heard a female director called a genius till the woman who won this year. don't even get me started on "innovative" either

You are seeing a public preview. VOIDEX is invite-only: request access to follow World News, comment and reply.