Venice film fest to sign gender parity protocol

Venice : The Venice Film Festival's parent organisation, the Venice Biennale, is set to sign a protocol on gender parity that the Cannes, Locarno and Sarajevo festivals have recently signed too.

Initiated at Cannes by French organisation 5050-2020, the protocol involves pledges to practices that Venice officials say are already in place at their event: issuing statistics on the number of films submitted, being transparent about the members of the selection and programming committees, and reaching an even gender ratio in the organisation's top management.

The pledge is to be signed at a news conference on Friday together with Italian organisations Dissenso Comune and Women in Film, TV and Media Italia, reported Variety.com.

The Venice pledge -- which, like those signed by Cannes, Locarno and Sarajevo, does not involve mandatory quotas -- is expected to have slightly different wording stating that the Biennale "will continue to" practice the policies contained in the protocol, in recognition that the organisation already has such policies in place.

Festival artistic director Alberto Barbera has come under fire for selecting just one film by a female director for the 21-title official competition line-up for the second consecutive year.

This year, Australian director Jennifer Kent's period thriller "The Nightingale". is the only competition film by a woman.