French filmmaker Coralie Fargeat has pulled her new feature ‘The Substance‘ from Poland’s Camerimage Film Festival in protest of an op-ed written by the festival founder, Marek Żydowicz. Director and photographer on the film, Benjamin Kračun, and Fargeat withdrew after reading the comments made by Żydowicz, which have outraged many as misogyny.
In a brief statement that Fargeat posted to her X, formerly Twitter account, she did not shy away from addressing the comments, leading to a controversy. Here’s everything she has alleged.
Filmmaker Coralie Fargeat Slams Marek Żydowicz’s Misogynistic Op-Ed
Filmmaker Coralie Fargeat’s recently released film, ‘The Substance‘ starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley, has gained heavy acclaim after its initial release. However, the filmmaker is seemingly in controversy with Camerimage Film Festival founder Marek Żydowicz for his allegedly misogynistic comments, and she is not shying away from addressing them.
“After discovering the highly misogynistic and offensive words of the head of Camerimage Film Festival, I decided to withdraw The Substance from it, and Benjamin Kračun decided not to attend the event,“ Kračun wrote in the tweet. The post came shortly before she was set to appear in Q&A sessions that were to be staged at the festival, which concentrates mainly on cinematography.
However, Fargeat stated in her tweet that the themes of her film align against behavior like this. “The Substance is about the impact of precisely those kinds of behaviors in our world. We should no longer tolerate them. We send our support to all those involved in the festival and hope that this decision will be the starting point for the necessary change,” she wrote in the tweet.
What Did Marek Żydowicz Write In His Op-Ed?
The controversy was sparked after Cinematography World published festival founder, Marek Żydowicz’s op-ed titled ‘Time for Solidarity‘ where he talked about the changes that are happening in the film industry including the sudden rise of female directors and female cinematographers. However, it was what he had to say in some quotations that made lots of people angry. Żydowicz wrote, “Can we sacrifice works and artists with outstanding artistic achievements solely to make room for mediocre productions?”
Industry professionals quickly came out of the gate to condemn the tone as nothing less than scathing, including filmmaker Reed Morano and cinematographer Fabian Wagner. The British Society of Cinematographers came out quick to rebuke the article, saying it reflected “outdated notions of male superiority.”
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Joining that chorus were the American Society of Cinematographers, and the Women Cinematographers Network of Germany, Austria & Switzerland among others, in their rebuke of the article. Another director, Steve McQueen, was to come and represent his latest feature ‘Blitz‘, for which he was to receive an honorary award at Camerimage as well.
The festival is set to open this weekend in Torun, Poland, with Cate Blanchett chairing the competition jury and the festival concluding with a screening of ‘Wicked‘.
