By Adam Egan
VENICE, Italy (AP) --Guillermo del Toro says a push for gender equality in Hollywood "is beyond a gesture, it's a need."
The Mexican director behind the Oscar-winning "The Shape of Water" was speaking Wednesday at the Venice International Film Festival, where he is head of this year's jury. In a passionate speech during the jury press conference, de Toro said: "The goal has to be clear and has to remain to be 50/50 by 2020."
"It's a real problem we have in the culture in general. Many of the voices that should be heard, need to be heard," he said. "It needs to be solved in every one of our pertinent departments with strength and resolve."
This year's jury consists of five women and four men in an effort to readdress the imbalance that has occurred in previous years.
Australian actress Naomi Watts is on the panel — an experience she hopes will be "life altering."
"To sit in a disciplined way and spend the next 10 days watching two to three films a day is extraordinary and I have just never had that opportunity. And to be amongst this group of people on this panel and with Guillermo leading it, I think it's going to be a really unique and really new experience."
Fellow jury member, New Zealand comedy director Taika Waititi, joked that while comedy was his field of expertise, he was the right man for the job. "I have a very sensitive meter for tragedy and I like to think of myself sort of like the Tchaikovsky of comedy," he said.
Also on this jury is Taiwanese actress Sylvia Chang, Danish actress Trine Dyrholm, Polish filmmaker Malgorzata Szumowska, French actress Nicole Garcia, Italian filmmaker Paolo Genovese and Austrian actor Christoph Waltz.
After 20 Years of Acting, Megan Park Finds Her Groove In The Director’s Chair On “My Old Ass”
Megan Park feels a little bad that her movie is making so many people cry. It's not just a single tear either — more like full body sobs.
She didn't set out to make a tearjerker with "My Old Ass," now streaming on Prime Video. She just wanted to tell a story about a young woman in conversation with her older self. The film is quite funny (the dialogue between 18-year-old and almost 40-year-old Elliott happens because of a mushroom trip that includes a Justin Bieber cover), but it packs an emotional punch, too.
Writing, Park said, is often her way of working through things. When she put pen to paper on "My Old Ass," she was a new mom and staying in her childhood bedroom during the pandemic. One night, she and her whole nuclear family slept under the same roof. She didn't know it then, but it would be the last time, and she started wondering what it would be like to have known that.
In the film, older Elliott ( Aubrey Plaza ) advises younger Elliott ( Maisy Stella ) to not be so eager to leave her provincial town, her younger brothers and her parents and to slow down and appreciate things as they are. She also tells her to stay away from a guy named Chad who she meets the next day and discovers that, unfortunately, he's quite cute.
At 38, Park is just getting started as a filmmaker. Her first, "The Fallout," in which Jenna Ortega plays a teen in the aftermath of a school shooting, had one of those pandemic releases that didn't even feel real. But it did get the attention of Margot Robbie 's production company LuckyChap Entertainment, who reached out to Park to see what other ideas she had brewing.
"They were very instrumental in encouraging me to go with it," Park said. "They're just really even-keeled, good people, which makes... Read More