From the MENA to the USA, there may not be so so many titles directed by women at the festival. But what is programmed is simply the best.
When the announcement was made earlier today, by Venice Film Festival artistic director Alberto Barbera, there were not many women directors on the list. In fact, in Competition, there are six women-helmed titles on a list of 21 total films selected. Not great but also not bad, considering in Cannes this year there were eight titles made by women directors, out of 23 total films in the Official Competition.
But for this writer, the idea of selecting a film based on someone’s gender feels utterly ridiculous. Actually, I have to share a screenshot of an email I received, no joke, from Film Industry Watch earlier this week. Again, this is not a joke, as it tried to cry foul at the discrimination against male filmmakers in Israel. As if…
I actually got this in my inbox, no joke there.
It seems that while Israel is doing so much wrong these days, at least the country’s national “Oscars,” the Ophir Awards are doing something right. Right?
Just to play fair, in this women-centric piece, I’m also going to draw your attention to a few male-directed films, titles like Paolo Sorrentino’s La Grazia, which opens the festival and I’ve written about here; Olivier Assayas’ The Wizard of the Kremlin, starring Jude Law as Putin — yes you read that right! Plus, Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, in which Jacob Elordi plays the Creature; Father Mother Sister Brother by Jim Jarmusch, starring an unrecognizable Cate Blanchett (that’s her on the right, below); Duse, by Pietro Marcello, starring the wondrous Valeria Bruni Tedeschi as the great Italian thespian; and Yorgos Lanthimos’ Bugonia, starring his muse Emma Stone.
And that’s just in the Competition, as Out of Competition will see Luca Guadagnino’s latest After the Hunt, starring Julia Roberts and Julian Schnabel’s highly anticipated, by yours truly, In the Hand of Dante, starring Oscar Isaac, Al Pacino, Jason Momoa, Martin Scorsese and a bevy of other stars.
But back to the women, here is my list of films from female directors that deserve a big up, even before watching them!
A House of Dynamite by Kathryn Bigelow
When a single, unattributed missile is launched at the United States, a race begins to determine who is responsible and how to respond. That is the basic, albeit high octane premise of the latest film by the history-making Oscar-winning American director. Starring Idris Elba, Dune’s and MI’s Rebecca Ferguson and Gabriel Basso, the film is written by Noah Oppenheimer, who penned Jackie. A House of Dynamite is a Netflix production and will hit select theaters this October, before landing on Netflix on Oct. 24.
The film is in the official Venice Competition.
The Voice of Hind Rajab by Kaouther Ben Hania
Also screening in the main Competition is Tunisian Oscar-nominated helmer Kaouther Ben Hania’s follow up to her award-nominated Four Daughters, which premiered in Cannes two years ago. This latest film once again blends reality with elements of fiction to tell a harrowing story of a real, once alive little girl. The synopsis, for those unfamiliar with Hind’s story, goes: “January 29, 2024. Red Crescent volunteers receive an emergency call. A 6-year old girl is trapped in a car under fire in Gaza, pleading for rescue. While trying to keep her on the line, they do everything they can to get an ambulance to her. Her name was Hind Rajab.”
“Cinema can preserve a memory, Cinema can resist amnesia.”
About her film, Ben Hania sent out a statement once the film was announced in the Venice line-up, saying: “At the heart of this film is something very simple, and very hard to live with. I cannot accept a world where a child calls for help and no one comes. That pain, that failure, belongs to all of us. This story is not just about Gaza. It speaks to a universal grief. And I believe that fiction (especially when it draws from verified, painful, real events) is cinema’s most powerful tool. More powerful than the noise of breaking news or the forgetfulness of scrolling. Cinema can preserve a memory. Cinema can resist amnesia.”
Marc by Sofia by Sofia Coppola
Marc Jacobs’ friendship with Sofia Coppola is the stuff of legends. So it was only a matter of time before the prolific fashionista filmmaker made a film about her favorite designer. Those who follow Jacobs on Instagram know all about his extravagant look these days, which often includes long, painted fingernails and high heels. He’s got the power and honestly, I’d like to know where I can me some of that. So watching this film in Venice will be the stuff of dreams and hopefully, an interview with both Coppola and Jacobs will become a reality.
Coppola’s film is screening in the Out Of Competition section, as non-fiction, obviously.
Nuestra Tierra by Lucrecia Martel
Another non-fiction, Out of Competition title is Argentinian helmer Lucrecia Martel’s latest, Nuestra Tierra, which literally means “Our Earth” but is being translated into English as Landmarks. Louverture Films is a producer on the project and the synopsis on their website reads: “Javier Chocobar was shot dead fighting the removal of his indigenous community from their ancestral land in Argentina. His death appeared in a video on YouTube. This feature documentary unravels the 500 years of “reason” that led to this shooting, both with a gun and a camera, and contextualizes it in the system of land tenure that emerged across Latin America.”
Anyone who has gotten to interview Martel knows her power, both as a filmmaker but most importantly as a woman. So watching this documentary by her will be a special treat, all around.
Hijra by Shahad Ameen
In the newly renamed Venice Spotlight, which takes the place of Orizzonti Extra and brings into it something cooler in the process, Saudi director and writer Shahad Ameen’s next, titled Hijra, will world premiere. Touted as a women’s empowerment road movie, the film explores the bond between different generations of Saudi women as they travel across the desert. Ameen’s previous film Scales also premiered in Venice, in the Critics’ Week sidebar in 2019 and was both haunting and cinematic.
As one of her granddaughters disappears, a grandmother’s journey from the city of Taif, in the Hijaz Mountains, to Mecca, the Saudi city that at the cradle of Islam, turns into a nightmare. With the remaining granddaughter in tow, the women must travel to the north of the country to find her. The film stars veteran Saudi actress Khairia Nazmi as Sitti, the grandmother, Nawaf Al-Dhufairi as a man named Ahmed and newcomer Lamar Feddan in the role of Janna.
Calle Malaga by Maryam Touzani
“An aged Spanish woman in Tangier resists her daughter's decision to sell her home,” reads the simple synopsis from the filmmaker who brought the world The Blue Caftan in 2022.
This time around, for her latest film, once again produced by her filmmaker husband Nabil Ayouch, Terzani has cast legendary Spanish star Carmen Maura and filmed Calle Malaga on location in Spain.
Back in May, I featured the title in my piece for Screen, where I talked about the most anticipated films from Morocco. The film will also screen in the new Venice Spotlight section.
Cotton Queen by Suzannah Mirghani
Last but not least, this title is one near and dear to my heart! I mentored Mirghani’s project at Qumra, back in April, for the Doha Film Institute’s annual industry incubator. But I’ve also followed her career and she’s on the verge of becoming one of those names that we hear over and over again at festivals around the world. And it couldn’t come to a cooler person, or a more beautifully poetic filmmaker. So there, nice girls do finish first in cinema and that’s another great aspect of this industry, that although at times feels dark and doomed, keeps drawing me back to its basic formula: tell great stories through an art medium that is miraculous in nature. And reaches the most amount of people around the globe, just through the simple art of projection.
The synopsis for Cotton Queen? Here you go: “In a cotton-farming village in Sudan, Nafisa — a fifteen-year-old girl from Sudan — learns about life and love under the watchful eye of her grandmother, the powerful village matriarch Al-Sit. When a young businessman from abroad arrives and threatens to disrupt their way of life with a new development plan, Nafisa finds herself at the center of a power struggle to determine the village’s future. As she discovers her own strength, Nafisa must balance modernity and tradition in her defiant pursuit of personal freedom. She and her community will never be the same again.”
For the complete line up, check out this article on Screen International.
The 82nd Venice International Film Festival will run from August 27th to September 9th, 2025. For more info, check out their website.