If cinema opens its doors more and more to female directors, there is still a long way to go. Eva Longoria knows this all too well. She goes behind the camera for the first time with Flamin' Hot, the true story of Richard Montañez who upset the food industry by creating the "Flamin' Hot Cheetos" chips, which over time became a phenomenon of world pop culture.
In video, Cannes: climbing the steps of May 24, 2023
As a Latin American director, the singer of Gabrielle Solis in Desperate Housewives confessed to having "felt the weight of [her [Hispanic] community" and that of "all the directors" when the production of Flamin' Hot was launched. Since the Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday, May 23, she has pointed out that Hollywood does not treat female directors in the same way. Understand: directors have more room for error. "A white man can make a $200 million movie, crash and make another. That is the problem. Me, I have a right, a chance, by working twice as hard, twice as fast, with half as much money," she denounced at her Kering Women in Motion conference.
For a better representation of Latinos in cinema
The challenge is even greater when you come from minorities or communities, like Eva Longoria. "My film was by no means low-budget. It was not $100 million, but it was not $2 million either. When was the last studio film directed by a Latina? It was like 20 years ago. We can not have a film every 20 years, "castigated the one who has been working for a long time for a better representation of the Latino community in the cinema, as reported by Variety. "We are still underrepresented in front of and behind the camera, we still do not appeal to women from the Latino community. We were 7% on television and in cinema, we are now only 5%. When we focus on the statistics of the films that are financed there, we understand that the idea that Hollywood is progressive is a myth. There is still a lot of work to be done."
Nevertheless, despite persistent obstacles, film after film, women directors are digging their furrow and imposing themselves better and better in the cinema. They move cursors, enrich narratives, refuse assignments... And at the time of the 76th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, seven women are now in the running for the Palme d'Or, a third of the number in competition. Proof that things are changing... A little.
