Scandinavia’s biggest public film festival with a 50/50 gender distribution of film directors

Gothenburg film festival are pioneers in gender equality in film

In 2020, Gothenburg Film Festival (GFF) achieved its 5050×2020 goal by having a 50/50 gender distribution of the film directors on its line up. This is an important achievement as the film industry is largely male-dominated. In Europe, just 1 in 5 movies are directed by women. Additionally, femaledirected films are comparatively underfunded as only 16% of funding goes to films directed by women.

Women are severely underrepresented in key roles on set even though an almost equal number of men and women graduate film school. Employing female directors has a ‘trickle down’ effect on other roles in the production. Femaledirected films tend to include a higher proportion of females while the opposite is true for male-directed films.

GFF has set an important precedent for the event industry and serves as a clear example of Gothenburg’s place as a frontrunner in developing a sustainable creative economy and events industry.