Abi Morgan, the award-winning film and TV writer, has said that she plans to work only on projects that focus on women for the next few years, after her experiences on her latest movie, Suffragette.
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Around 240 feature films from 72 countries will play on screen over consecutive 12 days.
Cary, who recently gave birth to her first child with husband Marcus Mumford, also praised the demonstration, saying: “It’s so great, that’s so exciting”.
Of women she told the BBC “we have to be made equal”, noting that the top 10 buyers in the USA for films are men.
The UK’s Guardian newspaper reports that activists from Sisters Uncut, an anti-domestic violence group, wanted to use the occasion to protest recent government cuts to domestic violence services.
While it has not yet been confirmed whether the protest was in response to the film itself, it appears that it may have at least in a few part been inspired by its message.
According to The Independent, one sign waved by protestors read, “Dead women can’t vote”. “Certain things have changed in our industry to allow them to understand that women will be interested in this film, and so will men”.
Suffragette actress Romola Garai said: “I haven’t spoken to them or seen their demands but I’m happy to see the suffrage movement is alive and happening”.
Suffragette opened the London Film Festival which runs from 7 to 18 October.
“It does feel very fitting that on the opening night of Suffragette, people are protesting for their own cause”, Gavron said in on-camera comments posted by The Daily Mail.
Emmeline Pankhurst, who was born in Moss Side, said the phrase during a speech given in 1913 to support women’s rights. “However I think it would be a pity if the negative conversation, which is an important conversation, overshadows the true and honest intentions of the film, which was to empower all women, globally”.
Meryl Streep stars in the upcoming Suffragette as British women’s rights leader Emmeline Pankhurst, but in real life, she’s fought for gender equality in filmmaking, funding a screenwriting lab for women over 40 and calling for more female protagonists.
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The campaigners, organised by Sisters Uncut, led chants, shouting “Dead women can’t vote” and “we are suffragettes”.
