Several Italian film organizations, including Women in Film Television and Media Italia, ANAC, and 100autori, have criticized Alberto Barbera. His competition selection for Venice contains only one female director: May El-Toukhy with Woman Unknown. Last year, this extra was 29 percent. The organizations state that quality is not a neutral concept and that the selection criteria themselves should be open to debate. Barbera defends his choice by pointing to the lower number of films submitted by women and their generally lower quality this year. He emphasizes that selection based on gender would actually disadvantage women. The Venice Days sidebar, led by Gaia Furrer, features fourteen female directors in the main selection.