In the year of the triumphant #metoo hashtag, we have to come to terms with the effects of the most powerful feminist movement of the millennium. Once abuse has been placed under the spotlight, a new culture has to be rebuilt in order for the role of women to be acknowledged without discrimination. Featuring the image of a red-gloved female boxer looking straight at her adversary, without renouncing her femininity in doing so, the 2018 edition of the Giornate offer a selection which actually make femininity its strong point, with artists coming from very diverse contexts, countries and cultures that are poles apart, united in their goal: to have their equal opportunities recognised. This year, the female directors at the Giornate come from Saudi Arabia, China, Belgium, Brazil, France, Germany, as well as Iran, Israel, Italy and America.

Giorgio Gosetti, director of Giornate degli Autori had this to say: "There is real, genuine motivation in women's organizations to be cohesive and demand visibility so that the film industry can become increasingly important and more widespread; owing its art to women's creativity. There can be no accusations against the Venice Film Festival this year, thanks to Giornate degli Autori: for seven years we have been organizing 'Women's Tales' in collaboration with MiuMiu; there will be three days of screenings and talks with great personalities from the global audiovisual world, including art, industry, journalism and literature. There are now 16 short films directed by established or emerging directors making up the collection of 'Women's Tales' and two new ones (directed by Dakota Fanning and Haifaa Al-Mansour) will be presented on September 2nd as part of our official selection. But above all, 6 out of 12 feature films in competition at the 2018 Giornate have been directed by female directors and 9 are included in our selection. Female creativity, therefore, reigns supreme in Venice. This time, like many other times. That's why I subscribe to director Alberto Barbera's view: cinema is not a matter of women's quotas and films are not chosen on the basis of the gender of the directors. The strength and creativity of women is, however, unrivalled and this exhibition will confirm that."

The most important event will not be about the controversy over absenteeism, but all about the Venice Lido film screenings, where the rule of the game at the Festival will be recognising a film-maker's real worth - starting from Claire Burger's, whose film Real Love will open the Giornate.