The annual film festival in Gothenburg has begun. The less-than-two-weeks film festival was inaugurated by Amanda Lind, Minister for Culture and Democracy, with a speech by mentioning that the gender parity is implemented by the organisers and by screening the film ‘Psykos i Stockholm’ directed by Maria Bäck at Draken the cinema hall by Järntorget.
“I want to say that we all, in this room, and everyone in Sweden, everyone in film business have to continue this fight until we reach real and permanent change,” said Amanda Lind pointing out to 50/50 Gender Parity in the film industry. The organisers of the film festival have highlighted in their 210-page book that it is also ‘FEMINISTISK FILMFEST! Vi utforskar den feministiska samtidsfilmen Hälften av filmerna på festivalen är regisserade av kvinnor.”
“So friends, now we are in twenty-twenty and the Göteborg Film Festival has reached their fifty-fifty mark. Very well done. Thank you, Göteborg Film Fesitval for leading the way in struggle for equality,” said Amanda Lind and the audience responded with an applause. She summed up saying that ‘so now we have to just wait for the rest of the world to catch on’.
Jonas Holmberg the artistic director of the Göteborg Film Festival highlighted about the facts on the gender inequality in the film industry in his inaugural speech of the film festival. He observed that the film industry is male-dominated in the world. He noted, “…it often feels like cinema has only one eye. In Hollywood ninety-six percent of the film directors are men, in Europe the figure is eighty-one percent and this imbalance makes the film industry more one-eyed.” He stressed that the gender imbalance is ‘bad for art and this is bad for quality’.
According to the information in the booklet of the film festival more than 400 films will be screened across the 14 cinema halls in Gothenburg.