[Sportschosun Reporter Minjung Cho] Actor-director Maggie Gyllenhaal responded with a pointed joke to claims of gender favoritism surrounding Woman Unknown’s Golden Lion win at the Venice International Film Festival.
At the 83rd Venice International Film Festival, which closed on the 12th local time, Woman Unknown, directed by Danish-Egyptian filmmaker May el-Toukhy, won the Golden Lion, the festival’s top prize. Mathilde Arcel, who played the title character Marie, also won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress, giving the film two awards.
A total of 21 films were selected for this year’s Venice International Film Festival competition. Woman Unknown was the only film directed solely by a woman. Even including Naja, a documentary co-directed by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Zohar, only two competition films involved women directors.
Moreover, Gyllenhaal, who served as jury president this year, had publicly pointed out the lack of women directors since the festival’s opening. She criticized the film industry for having “a structural problem,” saying that women directors have more difficulty securing production financing than male directors. Some South Korean film fans went further, speculating that Lee Chang-dong’s Possible Love, which won the Grand Jury Prize, may have been disadvantaged because the Golden Lion went to the only film directed solely by a woman.
Against this backdrop, after the only film directed solely by a woman won the top prize, a question was raised at the closing press conference about whether gender or a political message had influenced the Golden Lion selection.
As if she had anticipated the question, Gyllenhaal replied, “Actually, I didn’t even watch Woman Unknown. I just thought, ‘Golden Lion because it was made by a woman.’” Her ironic remark took aim at the perception that the film had received the top prize simply because its director was a woman. Gyllenhaal then made clear that she does not automatically like every film made by a woman director. She explained that, just as with films directed by men, there are films she likes and dislikes, and that she had cast only one vote, like the other jurors. She also emphasized that the decision involved intense and complex discussions.
Gyllenhaal said, “I’m tired of having the same conversation over and over,” but added that she would continue speaking out about the structural problems facing women in the film industry. She urged people to focus this time on the film’s quality and artistic achievement rather than the director’s gender. Describing Woman Unknown as “a beautifully made film,” she said it had struck her with the intensity of a laser beam.
She also explained why the film’s lead actress, Mathilde Arcel, received the Best Actress award. At the Venice International Film Festival, if another major award is given to the Golden Lion winner, the jury must reach a unanimous decision in that category. Gyllenhaal said every juror agreed on Arcel’s performance and praised her, saying, “Her performance will astonish everyone.”
Woman Unknown is set in Copenhagen in 1945, after Denmark was liberated from Nazi German occupation. Marie, a housekeeper and tutor who is about to marry a wealthy businessman, has a past connected to the German occupation that she wants to keep hidden. When a childhood friend who knows her secret appears, Marie desperately conceals her past to protect the life and status she has newly acquired. On the awards stage, director el-Toukhy said the film was for “women who are unseen and unable to raise their voices” and dedicated the Golden Lion to her teenage daughter.
Meanwhile, Woman Unknown is also scheduled to screen at the 31st Busan International Film Festival (BIFF), which will be held in October. At this year’s Venice International Film Festival, Lee Chang-dong’s Possible Love won the Grand Jury Prize, the award immediately below the Golden Lion.
Minjung Cho mj.cho@sportschosun.com
This article has been translated by GripLabs Mingo AI.
