The Cameraimage blowback keeps intensifying.
Coralie Fargeat has decided to pull her film “The Substance” from Camerimage Film Festival following recent controversial comments from festival director Marek Żydowicz about female cinematographers. Here’s her statement via X:
“After discovering the highly misogynistic and offensive words of the director of the Camerimage Film Festival, I have decided to pull ‘The Substance’ from the festival (and [director of photography] Benjamin Kračun has decided not to attend),” Fargeat wrote in a statement posted to her X account. “‘The Substance’ is about the impact of exactly these types of behaviors on our world. We shouldn’t tolerate them anymore. We send our support to all involved in the festival and hope this decision will help create a much needed change.”
Fargeat joins Steve McQueen who also bowed out of the event in protest of fest director Marek Żydowicz’s op-ed in which he stated that we should not sacrifice quality in order to adhere to inclusivity.
“Can we sacrifice works and artists with outstanding artistic achievements solely to make room for mediocre productions?” Żydowicz wrote.
I keep seeing people use the word “misogynist” in describing Żydowicz’s comments; McQueen, Fargeat, and the BFC all used it, but that isn’t really a fair assessment of the op-ed he wrote. Just throwing that word around is dangerous and does no favors for all of the parties involved.
What Żydowicz actually said was that, of course, it is important to progress and have inclusion in the industry, but it should never be done in forced-upon fashion. Progression happens in baby steps, not by painstakingly revving up the quotas, sacrificing quality in the process.
Cate Blanchett wisely decided to remain Jury President of this year’s edition of the fest, releasing a statement that included the line, “we welcome debate.” Blanchett’s fellow jurors, which include Anthony Dod Mantle, Rodrigo Prieto, and Lukasz Zal, have all decided to stick around for the fest as well.
In case you’re too curious to wait, here’s the leaked teaser for Jeremy Saulnier’s “Slayground” that’s currently being shown in theaters, and it plays hard.