Titles helmed and co-helmed by women account for 60% of the features screening in this year's South by Southwest Festival Competition categories. Seven of the 10 films in the Documentary Feature Competition are helmed or co-helmed by women, and of the 10 films in the Narrative Feature Competition, five are women-directed. All eight of the Global entries are directed by women. The least female-friendly categories are The Headliners (for the "big names"), where Olivia Wilde's directorial debut Booksmart is the sole woman-directed title, and the 24 Beats Per Second section, where the only feature with a woman at the helm is Julia Parnell's The Chills: The Triumph & Tragedy of Martin Phillipps.
A still from The Chills: The Triumph & Tragedy of Martin Phillipps
IMAGE/nzfilm.co.nz