San Francisco Frontiers - Women directors close Cannes, putting gender imbalance in spotlight

Only five out of 22 of the films in the main competition this year were directed by women, with premieres for "The Dreamed Adventure" by Germany's Valeska Grisebach and "The Birthday Party" by French filmmaker Lea Mysius taking place on the last day.

"I can't really explain it because I'm not the committee. I'm not the one who decides," Grisebach told AFP on Friday when asked about the imbalance. "I'm surrounded by many great female filmmakers."

Only three women have won the Palme d'Or for best film in the 79-year history of the world's most prestigious film festival.

In 1993, Jane Campion became the first woman to receive a Palme d'Or for "The Piano".

In 2021, French director Julia Ducournau won one for "Titane", followed by Justine Triet two years later for "Anatomy of a Fall".

French director Geraldine Nakache, who unveiled her latest film "Si Tu Penses Bien" ("If You Think So") in a parallel section of the festival, said she felt a "a bit powerless".

"I'm here with my film and I tell myself, 'I’m lucky to be here,' that things are moving forward and then someone shows me the statistics," she told AFP.

- 'Slow' -

Cannes Festival organisers drew criticism from some activists this year for using the movie "Thelma and Louise" on its official poster.

Feminist collective 50/50 accused organisers of "feminism washing" by using actors Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon for publicity purposes.

"Programming is a political act," Fanny De Casimacker from the collective told AFP. "If only 23 percent of directors (in competition) are women, we're going to miss out on some stories."

Festival supremo Thierry Fremaux stressed that all the juries and the Cannes governing body were gender equal, while the festival alone cannot correct the structural imbalances of the industry.

"If we are hesitating between two films... and that hesitation is between a film by a male director and a film by a female director, we will choose the film by the female director," he said at the start of the festival.

Although they only make up only 23 percent of the main competition, women directors account for 34 percent of all feature films picked for the official Cannes programme, which includes several parallel sections, according to festival figures.

"Today we're seeing more and more women directors in upcoming cinema, so they are gradually making their way into the competition," explained Fremaux, who has been running Cannes for two decades. "The figures show that things are moving forward, that it's slow, that it's not enough."

- 'Endemic' -

The picture is similar, or worse, in Hollywood.

A study earlier this year by the University of Southern California Annenberg Inclusion Initiative found that only nine of the 100 biggest US movies last year were directed by women.

Speaking last weekend in Cannes, "The Hours" star Julianne Moore bemoaned a drop in leading roles for women, with the number of women and girl in top-grossing movies down to 37 percent -- a 10 percent drop in one year.

"It's not endemic just to the film industry, it's global," Moore said after getting a Women In Motion award from the luxury group Kering.

"There's not representation in the media, there's not representation in higher education. There are lots of places where we don't have the representation we deserve," the actor added.

Also speaking in Cannes, two-time Oscar winner Cate Blanchett stressed how gender imbalances run throughout the industry and that progress since the #MeToo scandals about sexual abuse in 2017 has stalled.

"I'm still on film sets and I do the headcount every day, and it is still, you know… there’s 10 women and there’s 75 men every morning," she said.

E.Jones--SFF