Twenty-one films are in the running for the Palme d'Or this year, but only five are directed by women.
For statistics aficionados, the proportion is higher than last year, when the event selected four female directors among the 24 films selected.
But parity is still a long way off.
Questioned on the question by the American press during a press conference on April 14, the general delegate Thierry Frémaux repeated the same arguments:
“There are no quotas in Cannes.
Here, we select films exclusively on their artistic merits
.
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Only five women, therefore, compete this year against a jury chaired by Vincent Lindon.
According to
Le Parisien
, festival officials assured that they had sought a president.
In vain.
“The beauty of the thing is that they are all very busy”,
explained Pierre Lescure, president of the festival, by way of apology.
The Spanish actress Penélope Cruz, for example, would have declined the invitation, as would the American Meryl Streep.
“She absolutely wanted to be present with her daughter, who is due to give birth,”
the boss of the event told Le
Parisien
.
The #Metoo movement and the question of the representation of women in the profession will not be absent from the fortnight.
Meetings are scheduled around the themes of parity, sexist and sexual violence and to distinguish young female directors.
Jacques Attali's Positive planet foundation presents several round tables as part of Positive Cinema Week;
major luxury brands will award specific prizes, such as Lights on Women and Women in Motion.
A member of the
50/50 collective tried in September for sexual assault
Behind these appointments, an absence is remarkable.
That of the feminist collective 50/50, carrier of the #Metoo movement, which exploded due to a case of sexual assault within it.
Six administrators of the organization which fights for parity and diversity in the film and audiovisual industry resigned on April 23 "
because of this particular context which has caused very strong tension
".
In 2018, 50/50 organized a climb up the steps of the Cannes Film Festival by 82 women in the profession.
Symbolic figure, because only 82 female directors had competed for the Palme d'Or since its creation, against 1,688 men.
Led by the president of the jury Cate Blanchett, they had launched an appeal for
"equal pay"
in the cinema.
“We challenge our institutions to actively organize parity and transparency in decision-making bodies.
(…)
We demand fairness and real diversity in our professional environments
,” they proclaimed on the red carpet.
50/50 is also at the initiative of setting up bonuses for films whose team respects parity.
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These claims are all the more topical as the profession is changing rapidly.
According to a count by the High Council for Equality between Men and Women, 55% of film school students in 2016 were women and 44% of graduates are destined to direct.
Figures to be compared with the rate of films produced in France: barely a quarter are made by women.
Another manifestation of the discouragement that grips the defenders of women's rights, the last outburst of Adèle Haenel.
A figure in the #Metoo movement, the actress announced a career change in early May.
“In the cinema industry, as it is today, there is no hope,
slice the actress.
We see it with the way women are viewed.
They use one or two to hide the nakedness of an oppressive system.”
Sign of the times, the heroine of
Combatants
and
Portrait of the young girl on fire
had, to illustrate her point, relied on the selection of Cannes 2022
.
“
They say they are fighting sexism, but in reality, nothing
she lamented.
