Steve McQueen Pulls Out of Film Festival in Protest of Its Leader’s Comments on Female Cinematographers

Steve McQueen, a Turner Prize–winning artist and filmmaker, said he would not appear at a Polish film festival after the event’s leader published a controversial comments on female cinematographers.

The Camerimage Film Festival, an event held in Toruń that is focused specifically on cinematography, is still slated to screen McQueen’s latest feature, Blitz, starring Saoirse Ronan as a woman looking for her lost child in war-torn London. McQueen was to be present at the screening, but that will no longer be the case.

“Having read Marek Zydowicz’s op-ed concerning female cinematographers, I have decided not to attend the opening night presentation of my film Blitz this weekend,” McQueen told the Hollywood Reporter, which first reported the news on Tuesday. “Although he has issued an apology, I cannot get past what I consider deeply offensive words. I have enormous respect for cinematographers of all genders including women, and believe we have to do and demand better to make room for everyone at the table.”

In a Cinematography World op-ed, Żydowicz appeared to suggest that female cinematographers were being hired to remedy a gender gap, not on the basis of their work.

“One of the most significant changes is the growing recognition of female cinematographers and directors,” Żydowicz wrote. “This evolution is crucial as it rectifies the obvious injustice present in societal development. However, it also raises a question: Can the pursuit of change exclude what is good? Can we sacrifice works and artists with outstanding artistic achievements solely to make room for mediocre film production?”

Amid a swift outcry from cinematographers’ guilds, Żydowicz apologized. He apologized once more in a statement to the Hollywood Reporter, writing, “Let’s have a meaningful discourse together as a community so that we can begin to rebuild in a more equitable manner. Let us have a conversation and determine the steps that will make the festival, our industry, more open, unified, and representative of all voices.”

McQueen regularly shows his work in both galleries and movie theaters. He is currently the subject of two Dia Art Foundation exhibitions, one of which showcases a sprawling new sound installation specifically commissioned for the foundation’s Beacon museum.