The BFI London Film Festival is the UK’s biggest
festival, attracting thousands of visitors with its diverse schedule of talks, screenings and more, illuminating everything from brand new filmmakers to classic auteurs. And this year, 40% of those directors will be women – the highest number yet.movement has worked to expose the often appalling and abusive work environments for many young women in the industry, and statistics around female representation are still shockingly low.
As for directing, just 8% were women – a figure that had actually decreased by 3% since 2017, and that was 1% lower than the 9% achieved ten years ago in 1998.
“The festival really underlines the soft power of the art of film and showcases the dynamism of global exchange and partnership,” she says. “All the BFI’s culture programmes have sought to be an active champion at the heart of the global cinema story and this year’s LFF does this so powerfully with its incredibly rich and diverse programme and the international filmmaking community who love being here.
“While there are many talking points emerging from this year’s programme, a few really leap out: the strong instinct from filmmakers to explore urgent social and political issues through narrative and often through the use of genre; the striking emergence of a a new generation of filmmakers exploding onto the international stage with startlingly bold, original and ambitious debuts; the continuing and welcome trend of increased gender balance in directing talent behind short film, first and...