Women in Film – an informal Polish organization gathering over 3000 women working in the film industry – organized a conference entitled “50:50 by 2020” on Friday, 21 September 2018 during the Gdynia Film Festival.
Following the inspiring example of fellow women from all over the world and declarations signed in Venice, Toronto, and Locarno, Polish Women in Film have decided to propose a similar approach to Gdynia Film Festival management.
The Polish film industry is indisputably filled with remarkable female talent, such as: Agnieszka Holland, Małgośka Szumowska, and Jagoda Szelc. However, recent research conducted by dr Monika Talarczyk from Łódź Film School, which was commissioned by Krytyka Polityczna (Political Critique) on the basis of data analysed from the Polish Film Institute, leads to a damning conclusion: only 13% of the Polish Film Institute’s budget was allocated to female filmmakers in the last 12 years, which means that 87% of it was given to male directors. Women in Film has therefore decided to host a conference announcing these research findings as well as taking a comparative look at gender equality in film industry funding across Europe. Attendees include Iris Zappe Heller ( Deputy Director of the Austrian Film Institiute), Madelaine Ekman (Swedish Film Institute expert) and Peter Carpentier (Member Executive Committee of the Federation of European Audiovisual Directors).
Alongside international experts, dr Monika Talarczyk from Łódź Film School is going to present key findings from her analysis of data from the Polish Film Institute.
The general director of the festival Mr. Leszek Kopec alongside the writer/director Mr. Wojciech Marczewski Head of the Programming Board of the Festival signed the gender parity pledge announcing
- to present a schedule and plan of implementation of changes aiming to achieve parity in all decisive bodies of the festival: Programming Board, Selection Committee, Qualification Committee, Jury,
- to continue the transparency policy,
- to compile statistics of gender of the directors of all the films submitted to selection,
- to present, at the 44. Gdynia Film Festival, the results of actions taken by the Festival’s management in order to ensure gender parity.
The conference was supported by: Agnieszka Holland, Jagoda Szelc, Małgośka Szumowska, Klara-Kochańska-Bajon, Julia Kijowska, Anna Radwan, Sonia Bohosiewicz, Gabriela Muskała, Agnieszka Smoczyńska, Kasia Adamik, Olga Chajdas, Ewa Bukowska, Agnieszka Smoczyńska.
The opening speech was given by the leader of the movement Renata Czarnkowska-Listoś (producer) together with Małgorzata Szumowska. Absent Agnieszka Holland recorded her greatings to all guests and organizers. The closing speech was given by Ewa Puszczyńska, producer of “Cald War” who stated that’s important for women in the industry to stay united and the conference proved the strength of the women in the film industry.
Follow at: https://www.facebook.com/kobietyfilmu/
