Cannes Has Record Number of Female Filmmakers, But Lots of Ground to Make Up
variety.comCannes Film Festival is making efforts to diversify beyond the cavalcade of many of the same male auteurs. Instead, there will be a record number of women directors in competition.Now the bad news.
That record is a paltry five female filmmakers, out of 21 films overall, representing less than a quarter of all movies vying for Cannes’ top prize, the Palme d’Or.
The dearth of women in the lineup puts pressure on the handful of female directors who were tapped to premiere their films in the South of France.“Because there are so few women in competition, we feel a lot of pressure, as if we had to be symbols,” admits Léonor Serraille, the director of “Mother and Son.” “We ask ourselves a lot of questions.
But the issue is that I don’t want to be only described as a female director.” Moreover that kind of reductive analysis tends to overshadow the diverse range of projects being offered up by the five women in competition – a group that also includes Kelly Reichardt (“Showing Up”), Claire Denis (“The Stars at Noon”), Valeria Bruni Tedeschi (“The Almond Tree”), and Charlotte Vandermeersch, the co-director of “Le Otto Montagne.” And the universal themes that they explore.
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