Nine Female stars in conversation at Miu Miu Women's Tales

The essence of Women's Tales is an investigation into the complexity and contradictions of the contemporary world, as seen by today's leading women artists who express themselves through the medium of film. The Miu Miu conversation lineup consists of nine women this year, variously Golden-Globe winners, musicians, influencers, choreographers, producers, actresses and writers.

From August 31 to September 2, the three-day program will show what these women are made of, in the form of two new short films, the latest additions to the Women's Tales collection, and the ever-surprising conversations, intimate, sincere exchanges between the leading ladies of international entertainment, experienced up close by festival audiences. They'll be treated to La La Land-like glimpses of the "city of stars", courtesy of the short by Rowlson-Hall, back at the Giornate after two years away, while Chloë Sevigny evokes shades of Heinrich Böll's The Clown in her contemporary portrait of a comedienne feeling the ache of loneliness. And audiences will get to know Tavi Gevinson and Hailey Gates, both magazine editors who double as actresses, and be introduced to the star of the new small-screen adaptation of Fahrenheit 451 for HBO.

On August 31, the fourteenth episode in the Miu Miu Women's Tales series will be unveiled, directed by the polymath Celia Rowlson-Hall, the American choreographer, dancer, and filmmaker who presented her first feature film, Ma, at the Giornate degli Autori in 2015. The short (The [End) of History Illusion] combines 1930s Hollywood musicals with the 1960s Cold War psychosis to produce a pastel-hued tale of fear and escapism. On the same day, the thirteenth Women's Tale will take its bow; its director is actress Chloë Sevigny, winner of a Golden Globe and nominated for an Oscar® for her unforgettable turn in Boys Don't Cry (1999). Carmen, starring comedian Carmen Lynch, is a frank look at the highs and lows of showbiz and a portrait of a woman intimately acquainted with them. It's an interesting take on the solitude of the performer on tour, city after city after city.

Just what are the challenges and contours of a career in film and other media today? The participants in our conversations will attempt to come up with an answer.

The talks get underway on the morning of Friday, September 1, spearheaded by the directors of the two shorts. Celia Rowlson-Hall's choreography has been seen by millions on the hit TV series Girls as well as in the wildly popular music videos featuring Alicia Keys and MGMT. The critically-acclaimed Chloë Sevigny has racked up two decades of acting credits in films such as Kids and the upcoming The Snowman and Lean on Pete.

On Friday afternoon, Kate Bosworth and Zosia Mamet face off for the delight of festival audiences. Bosworth made her debut in The Horse Whisperer and more recently had a prominent role in Still Alice. With her own label Make Pictures, she is fresh from producing the film Nona, which puts a face on Central America's sex trafficking industry. Mamet is an actress, musician and producer (known for her roles in Mad Men and The Kids Are All Right, but mainly for her unforgettable role as Shoshanna Shapiro in HBO's Golden-Globe- winning series Girls). In the next few months, we'll be seeing her in the thriller Under the Silver Lake.

September 2 sees Laura Harrier, Kiernan Shipka and Rowan Blanchard combine forces for the morning session. Model and actress Laura Harrier made her major film debut in this year's Spider-Man: Homecoming, and will lead in HBO's film adaptation of the classic dystopian novel, Fahrenheit 451. Kiernan Shipka arrived fully formed playing Sally Draper in Mad Men, and recently portrayed Bette Davis' daughter in the TV series Feud: Bette and Joan. Blanchard, known for her role as Riley in Disney's Girl Meets World, is also a talented writer and artist, with several projects in development and a book of curated art and poetry coming out in 2018. She is set to appear in this season of ABC's The Goldbergs and in the upcoming A Wrinkle in Time, out next year.

Rounding out the 2017 lineup for the conversation series, Hailey Gates and Tavi Gevinson take the stage on Saturday afternoon. Gevinson is the founder and editor-in-chief of Rookie, an online magazine and book series for teenage girls. Since its inception in 2011, when Gevinson was just 15, she and a whole new generation of women writers have cemented themselves as influential voices for a media-savvy teenage audience. Now 21, Gevinson is also an actress, having starred in three Broadway shows (including This Is Our Youth and The Crucible) and films like Enough Said. Hailey Gates is the ultimate polymath. She has been an editor at the legendary literary magazine Paris Review, a Miu Miu campaign model, and host of Viceland's fashion docu-series States of Undress, and currently stars in Twin Peaks, David Lynch seminal reboot.

Who else could moderate the Miu Miu Women's Tales Conversations but another remarkable female talent who is returning to host the event for the third year in a row: Penny Martin, Editor-in-Chief of The Gentlewoman Magazine?

This year's two shorts will be screened at 5 p.m. on Thursday, August 31, in the Sala Perla, while the conversations will be held at the Spazio Fondazione Ente dello Spettacolo in the Hotel Excelsior on the Lido.