Sophie Mayer

In October, I interviewed Clare Stewart, the British Film Institute's Director of Festivals, for Sight & Sound, about the dramatic increase in the representation of female-identified directors across the festival – and subsequently read Nick James' editorial in S&S Nov 2014 proferring a "modest invitation" to women writers to correct the magazine's gender imbalance. Result? An open letter, penned by myself and Ania Ostrowska, with 80 signatories, and a comment piece calling for a more ambitious and cohesive plan to end the "chilly climate" for women in film criticism and reflect the plenitude of feminist and female-identified filmmaking. What happens next? Watch this space.