Venice Jury President Maggie Gyllenhaal Decries ‘Systemic’ Lack of Female Directors in Competition

When faced with the burning question of what her own thoughts are of presiding over a competition jury in a year in which the Venice Film Festival only selected two films directed or co-directed by women out of its 21 competition titles, “The Bride” director Maggie Gyllenhaal joked, “I guess it’s just finally become clear that men make better movies than women do.” The two-time Oscar nominee, who premiered her directorial debut “The Lost Daughter” in competition at Venice five years ago — and went on to win its Golden Osella Award for Best Screenplay — was seated next to festival director Alberto Barbera during the 2026 Venice Film Festival jury press conference on Wednesday. Members of her competition jury, including fellow female filmmakers like Grand Jury Prize-winning “The Voice of Hind Rajab” director Kaouther Ben Hania and “No Good Men” director Shahrbanoo Sadat, watched on. Getting more serious, Gyllenhaal added, “There’s a systemic problem, obviously. I do think it’s much harder for women to get their films financed. Also, could it be possible that the things that women having had a different experience of being alive in the world want to make movies about are not always deemed high art? Who decides what’s good? Who decides what’s valuable?” When pressed on whether Gyllenhaal’s assertion is correct, and whether the festival itself is disinterested in the types of films women more commonly make, Barbera said, “There is no prejudice in the terms of shape or content. It’s very difficult to assess the quality of the film, the ability of a director to translate into images, into a story.” He added, “We try to assess without prejudice. There are no topics that we consider as being less important.” In response, Gyllenhaal again said, “I do think that there’s a systemic complication, confusion about what is valued. I think it’s been such a short time that women have had the opportunity to make films at all, and it will take some time to get used to the fact that I think many women make movies quite differently than men do.” She concluded, “I really am walking in with a question as to why there’s so few women in the main competition as filmmakers this year. But I think Alberto and Giulia [D’Agnolo Vallan] asking me to be the head of the main jury competition after the two films in particular that I have made is a very important thing to consider too.”