Women were present in the history of cinema from the very first minute: just look at the factory workers' exit filmed by Louis Lumière in 1895, where two shifts of men, women and children crossed paths at the factory gates. At that time, Alice Guy-Blaché was twenty-two years old and perhaps already knew that she was going to devote herself to cinema: in fact, she shot and produced more than 600 movies, even competing with the legendary Hollywood of silent films.

It was not until 1949 that Ida Lupino, known as an actress, took the reins of directing the film she had co-produced and co-written when her director, Elmer Clifton, suffered a heart attack, although she would not appear in the credits as director out of respect for Clifton. She would go on to direct 8 more, including the well-known Outrage, about a rape, and was the first woman to direct a film noir. She never gave up directing, achieving great success as a director of television series in the 1960s and 70s.

However, we will have to accept that she was an exception. Women are neither then nor now represented in a balanced way, neither in culture nor in cinema.

It is still difficult for sets and clapperboards to speak female, for scripts to tell how women see the world and for actresses to play characters conceived by women.

We had to wait until 2010 to see the Hollywood Academy award the first Oscar to a woman director, Californian Kathryn Bigelow, and until 2018 in Spain for two women directors to win the Goya Awards for Best Film, Best Director and Best New Director: Isabel Coixet and Carla Simon. Although the figures have improved since then, it is clear that women are fighting on a daily basis on The hurt locker, to paraphrase the title of the Oscar-winning film.

This inequality must be redressed. We need the multiple voices and perspectives of women and men in all artistic manifestations. We need to make room for women as creators, as interpreters of reality, to be recognised in the film industry and by the public.

Carlota Álvarez Basso and Diego Mas Trelles, co-directors
March 2018 I edition

From left to right and from top to bottom, some of the 2018 edition's directors: Laura Mora, Hanna Sköld, Pernilla August, Constanza Novick, Katja Wik, Sara Broos, Sophie Fiennes, Francesca Comencini, Nora Twomey and Marcela Said