If your optician says you have “20/20 vision”, then you have perfect eyesight. Your eyes can see the world acutely and you can effectively discern details and nuances.

If the film industry were to visit the optician, it would be clear that it has a serious visual defect. Parts of the world are not seen, and perspectives remain blurry and unclear. This is because the film industry often only uses one eye.

Watch 50/50 Vision trailer

In Hollywood, 96% of film directors are men. In Europe 81% of films are directed by men. Only 20% of films shown in Swedish cinemas so far this year have female directors.

We think this leads to an imbalance that makes the film industry more one-eyed than it needs to be. A film industry with more gender equality would lead to more interesting films with more perspectives and much higher definition.

We want to see those films. We want to see the whole world. We do not just want to represent the film industry as it is, we want to inspire change. That is why half of the films at the 2020 Göteborg Film Festival will be directed by women. We call this initiative “50/50 Vision”.

Throughout the entire world there are filmmakers, film workers and activists fighting for a film industry with greater gender equality and 2020 has been dubbed the year of gender parity. One initiative that has inspired us is the #5050×2020 project. Film institutes, film festivals and other industry participants have joined up with the goal of achieving gender equality in their operations by 2020.

The Göteborg Film Festival would like to start the gender parity year of 2020 by implementing what everyone is talking about: an equal program at a major international film festival.

Working towards gender-equality goals is nothing new to us. For more than 40 years, the Göteborg Film Festival has worked towards achieving greater diversity in its film selection – based on aesthetics, geographic origin and sex for instance. In 2019, 42% of the festival’s films were directed by women and for the last five years all our competition sections have been gender equal.

But deciding in advance to create a gender-equal film program has given rise to numerous new dialogues about selection processes, quality and feminism. We want to continue with these dialogues. With audiences, filmmakers and the industry.

During the 2020 Göteborg Film Festival we will show 200 films by men. We will also show 200 films by women. We believe that allows us to see the most from the world.

Jonas Holmberg, Artistic Director
Mirja Wester, CEO

For 50/50 Vision First Findings, click here