In 2025, female directors remained largely invisible in the Italian film industry. Despite growing attention to gender equality, data from Italian film festivals show that women remain significantly underrepresented compared to men.
At two of the world’s most prestigious film festivals, the Venice and Rome Film Festivals, a total of 90 films were shown in 2025 across the sections Grand Public and Competition Progressive Cinema at Rome, and Competition and Out of Competition sections (fiction and nonfiction) at the Venice Film Festival. Of these, only 29 were directed by women, accounting for approximately 32.2%.
Out of these 90 films, 26 were Italian productions and only six were directed by Italian women, representing just about 23.1%. These films included "Anna" by Monica Guerritore, "Breve storia d'amore" by Ludovica Rampoldi, "Illusione" by Francesca Archibugi, "Io sono Rosa Ricci" by Lyda Patitucci, "Più di una vita" by Ilaria de Laurentiis, Andrea Paolo Massara and Raffaele Brunetti, and "I Diari di Angela-Noi due cineasti Capitolo terzo" by Yervant Gianikian and Angela Ricci Lucchi.
In 2024, of the 70 films shown at Venice and Rome in the same categories, 19 were directed by women, including seven Italian productions (36.8%), while in 2025 that share of Italian female-directed films fell to 23.1%, highlighting a decline in visibility for women in an industry already dominated by men.
A study commissioned by Mastercard in May 2025, titled “Women in Film,” surveyed 6,000 women across Europe. It found that in Italy, nearly half (48%) of women are choosing an alternative career path instead of pursuing a career in cinema, despite their interest in the industry, and 53% of Italian women surveyed believe that progress for women in film is slowing down.
At the same time, 64% of Italian women believe that opportunities for women in leadership roles, such as directing and producing, have improved. This highlights both the persistent challenges and the gradual progress women are experiencing in the Italian film industry.
Executive vice president, Marketing and Communications at Mastercard, Beatrice Cornacchia, stated: “This research highlights the challenges that still exist, particularly for those at the beginning of their careers, and confirms that access, visibility, and support continue to represent significant obstacles. To overcome these barriers, concrete investments, mentoring programs, and structural changes are needed: this change is not optional, but a real urgency capable of unleashing the full creative potential of this new generation.”
Rather than serving only as a set of statistics, this research helps explain the wider challenges women face in the Italian film industry.
While today’s data shows how difficult it still is for women to build a career in the Italian film industry, these challenges are not new. Looking back at the origins of Italian cinema helps place current inequalities in a historical perspective. From its earliest years, women had to fight for space and recognition, a struggle that can be seen in the career of Italy’s first female film director, Elvira Notari.
Italy’s first female director was Elvira Notari (1875-1946). Alongside her husband, Nicola Notari, she founded La Dora Film, a production company in Naples at the beginning of the 1900s.
Elvira Notari began her career with short films and later moved on to making feature films. She not only directed these films but also wrote their scripts and produced them. It is estimated that she made around 60 feature films and approximately 100 short and documentary films. However, most of her films have been lost. Among her surviving films are: “E’ piccerella,” “A santanotte” and “Fantasia ‘e surdate.”
Notari’s films are seen as early examples of Neorealism, which gained prominence in the film industry in the 1940s. Her work focuses on the lives of ordinary people, capturing the everyday realities of Naples and its inhabitants.
Her films frequently ran into censorship under Mussolini’s regime, which viewed their realistic portrayals of Italian life as “unsuitable” for its propaganda purposes. In addition, she faced practical obstacles such as limited access to funding and distribution.
Many critics and historians overlooked Notari’s contributions for decades. The first comprehensive study of her work was made nearly half a century after her death, in 1993, when Giuliana Bruno released "Streetwalking on a Ruined Map: Cultural Theory and the City Films of Elvira Notari."
Notari’s pioneering work continues to inspire new generations of female filmmakers, standing as proof that women have always been part of Italian cinema, even when the industry failed to fully acknowledge them.
