EPA Photo
Wow, a silent protest against gender-based discrimination in the industry had hit the Cannes film festival on Saturday.
Cate Blanchett, Kristen Stewart, Jane Fonda, Salma Hayek, Ava DuVernay and Marion Cotillard were among the women taking part in the red-carpet demonstration.
The prestigious Cannes festival has come under criticism for failing to showcase more films by women directors.
This is the first Cannes festival since allegations of sexual abuse were first made against producer Harvey Weinstein last year. And he has always denied engaging in non-consensual sex.
Cate Blanchett (left) spoke of the film industry's gender inequalities.
"We are 82 women, representing the number of female directors who have climbed these stairs since the first edition of the Cannes film festival in 1946. In the same period, 1,688 male directors have climbed these very same stairs", the two-time Oscar winner said.
"The prestigious Palme d'Or has been bestowed upon 71 male directors, too numerous to mention by name, but only two female directors", Blanchett remarked.
At an event often more associated with the showy and superficial, this was a moment of real heft and resonance.
The sight of 82 women – they included all of the festival's female jury members and many women actors, directors and producers – walking slowly and purposefully up the red-carpeted stars of Cannes' Grand Theatre Lumiere brought home the shocking under-representation of female film-makers at an event meant to celebrate the totality of world cinema.
In fact, the timing was perfect. The evening showcased the French feminist war movie, “Les filles du soleil” (Girls of the Sun) – that not only has a female director but also tells of a commando unit of female peshmerga fighters.
Eva Husson’s strong-arm approach works well for this powerful, partisan drama based on real-life Kurdish women driven to fight the Islamic State in 2014.
As an aside note, I am reminding myself to watch this flick.
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