Shahrbanoo Sadat and Jelena Maksimović Hit Back at Discrimination in Film Funding at Tokyo Festival Talk

A lack of funding, and ignorance in the institutions that control it, keeps women at an inherent disadvantage in the film industry, Afghan director Shahrbanoo Sadat said at a Tokyo International Film Festival talk on the future of women’s cinema.

“The discrimination did not start at the festival, but it started at the development level,” said Sadat, who sat on this year’s Venice competition jury, reflecting on the lackluster ratio of films by women selected for competition.

The talk, part of the festival’s Tokyo Talk sessions at the TIFF Lounge in Tokyo Midtown Hibiya, also featured Serbian director Jelena Maksimović, whose “Until the Day Ends” played in Venice’s Orizzonti section. Sadat, now based in Germany, saw her latest feature “No Good Men” open the 76th Berlinale before screening in Tokyo. Film scholar and presenter Takasaki Ikuko moderated.

The session followed other reflections on women’s careers in film at the festival, both in its Women’s Empowerment section and at an animation symposium held earlier the same day on the past, present and future of four women working as directors in the anime industry.

The panel set out to discuss how women and feminism are presented in Sadat’s and Maksimović’s films and…