Marek Żydowicz, founder and head of Poland's prestigious Camerimage Film Festival wrote an op-ed titled, Time for Solidarity, published in the craft magazine Cinematography World, in which he writes, "Can we sacrifice works and artists with outstanding artistic achievements solely to make room for mediocre productions?”
“While EnergaCamerimage strives to acknowledge the contributions of women in cinematography, it also aims to maintain artistic integrity. Change? Yes, but let’s remain decent and honest. It’s about rapid evolution, not a fanatical revolution that destroys the cathedrals of art and throws out its sculptures and paintings.”
Consequently, French Filmmaker, Coralie Fargeat, has taken her feature The Substance, starring Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley and Dennis Quaid, out of the festival. She stated, “After discovering the highly misogynistic and offensive words of the director of the Camerimage Film Festival, I have decided to pull ‘The Substance’ from the festival (and [director of photography] Benjamin Kračun has decided not to attend). The Substance’ is about the impact of exactly these types of behaviors on our world. We shouldn’t tolerate them anymore. We send our support to all involved in the festival and hope this decision will help create a much needed change.”
She's not the only filmmaker speaking out. Steve McQueen, director of Blitz, shared, “Having read Marek Zydowicz’s op-ed concerning female cinematographers, I have decided not to attend the opening night presentation of my film Blitz this weekend.”
We are pleased to observe this kind of behaviour being rallied against by folks with skin in the game.
You can read more about this in an article shared on Deadline.