Gyllenhaal Defends 'Woman Unknown' Golden Lion Pick — SkimNews
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- Maggie Gyllenhaal, serving as Venice jury president, awarded the Golden Lion to May el-Toukhy's "Woman Unknown" — the only film in competition directed solely by a woman — and called the movie "like a laser beam."
- Gyllenhaal rejected a journalist's suggestion that the choice was a "political statement," saying she anticipated the question, that there are many films by women she actively dislikes, and that she sighed: "I'm tired of talking about this same subject over and over."
- The jury also unanimously awarded "Woman Unknown" star Mathilde Arcel the Volpi Cup for best actress — permissible under Venice rules because the decision was unanimous, Gyllenhaal said.
- The only other woman-directed competition film, the Gaza documentary "NAZA" co-directed by Rachel Szor and Yuval Abraham, took the special jury prize, with Gyllenhaal praising its "immense bravery and intelligence."
- Gyllenhaal said juror Kaouther Ben Hania helped her see that "NAZA" was "about systems," drawing a comparison to Jonathan Glazer's "Zone of Interest," one of the film's producers.
- The seven-person jury also included Johnnie To, Shahrbanoo Sadat, Xavier Giannoli, Daniel Blumberg, and Francesco Casetti.
Why it matters: Gyllenhaal used her platform as the first woman to preside over a Venice jury in years to push back on reductive framing — acknowledging fatigue with the women-in-film debate while still highlighting it as a structural issue, and visibly elevating a Gaza documentary alongside the main prize to underscore its thematic seriousness.
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