A yearly appointment at the Venice Film Festival, fashion brand Miu Miu, also a Creative Partner of Giornate degli Autori, has once again sponsored two women filmmakers in the creation of a short film each, about women and their world. And the shorts will screened during the upcoming festival, with their directors and casts in attendance.
The Miu Miu Women’s Tales film series was launched in 2012 and is an inspired example of an artistic partnership between two different industries — fashion and film, both near and dear to my own heart. United by a common goal, to showcase women’s talent and creativity, Miu Miu and Giornate degli Autori, the respected sidebar running concurrently to the festival, will present the 27th and 28th installment of the series.
Every year, Miu Miu, Creative Partner of Giornate degli Autori, sponsors two women filmmakers in the creation of a short film each, about women and their world; the shorts are screened during the Venice Film Festival, with their directors and casts in attendance. This year’s filmmakers are the Malaysian Taiwanese Tan Chui Mui, director and star of the 2021 film Barbarian Invasion and the premier woman filmmaker in Malaysian cinema; and Laura Citarella, the acclaimed Argentine director and producer, whose Trenque Lauquen bowed at Venice in 2022. Citarella was dubbed by Cahiers du Cinéma the most powerful female voice of the New Argentine Cinema.
Over the two days that follow the shorts’ screenings, there will also be four engaging conversations held in the Veneto Region’s Space at the Hotel Excelsior, during which an all-female roster of international film personalities dialogue with audiences about working in film from a woman’s perspective. Over 90 filmmakers, actors and personalities from the film world have taken part, to date. They include Liliana Cavani, Mira Nair, Alice Rohrwacher, Kate Mara, Sia, Hailee Steinfeld, Agnes Varda, Dakota Fanning, Juno Temple, Kate Bosworth, Zosia Mamet, Chloë Sevigny, Tessa Thompson, Brigitte Lacombe, Vanessa Kirby, Nathalie Emmanuel, Carla Simón, and Maggie Gyllenhaal.
Last year, I wrote about the 26th short by Croatian filmmaker Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović, titled Stane.
The two films for this year, joining a collection that has come to epitomize artistic excellence, are:
Photo by © Brigitte Lacombe, used with permission of the Prada Group
I Am the Beauty of Your Beauty, I Am the Fear of Your Fear, by Chui Mui Tan, from Malaysia, Italy, 2024, 21 minutes in length. Starring Jo Kukathas, Sdanny Lee, Zhiny Ooi and Jean Seizure. Produced by HiProduction and Da Huang Pictures. The film is already available on the Miu Miu Women’s Tales website, for an advance peek, and the synopsis reads like this:
“Gita quits her job in China and moves to Malaysia. She wants to take a break to rethink her direction in life. Thanks to friendship and the martial arts, she finally lets herself go and frees her inner powers.”
Photo by © Sebastian Arpesella, courtesy of the Prada Group
World premiering in Venice is short #28, El Affair Miu Miu by Laura Citarella, from Argentina, 2024. Starring Elisa Carricajo, Verónica Llinás, Juliana Muras, Laura Paredes, Ezequiel Pierri, Cecilia Rainero, Rafael Spregelburd and Guillermina Villa Simon, the film is produced by HiProduction and El Pampero Cine.
El Affaire Miu Miu is about a story, a woman, and a mystery, in a fusion between a character, an outfit, and a location. Sounds intriguing!
The Venice International Film Festival will be on the Lido di Venezia from August 28th to September 7th, 2024. For more info on Giornate degli Autori, check out their website.
All images courtesy of the Prada Group, used with permission.