The Cannes Film Festival wrapped up yesterday and since there were no women in competition for the Palme d’Or, it’s not surprising that a man – 39-year-old Thai director- Apichatpong Weerasethakul – won for his film Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives.
I noticed another thing when writing this up. Looks like if you put a man in your title you can win an award. Two other winners included, Of God and Men (runner up award) and A Screaming Man (jury prize).
One positive thing is that at least people are noticing (and writing) that it’s not ok to have a full competition slate without a single female name on it.
The lack of women directors is a story everywhere, but because Cannes is so visible for 10 days, when women are left out it becomes even more pronounced. I hope this fuels other festivals to be more diligent in finding female directors to include in their programs.
Here are some of the people who noted the lack of women as the festival was going on:
From Thompson on Hollywood:
There are many strong women filmmakers in the world, from Bier to Julie Taymor (The Tempest). Why have Bier and Taymor never been selected for the competition in Cannes, which included no women directors this year?
And The Wrap did a wrap up story of the petition which now has about 1,000 signatures. Congrats to Ruth Torjussen who took on this task and got the issue notices.
Fabienne Berthaud
If they wanted to be smart and forward thinking, they would seek out and find some women directors with films from countries that we never get to hear about like they do for male directors. Seriously, had anyone heard of Apichatpong Weerasethakul before yesterday?
No. And that’s the whole point. But now this guy is in every paper around the world and he’s famous and will get more films made. A festival like this has the ability to launch someone into the stratosphere, but if you are not even in the game, you have no chance to win.
And I don’t know if you noticed how little play the closing film got in the press. The focus was on the awards ceremony and the winners and the one film by a woman, The Tree directed by Julie Bertucelli, that got a prime launching spot never got its due. I have seen one or two reviews but nothing like the press of earlier in the festival or of the opening film Robin Hood. I have seen about 50 articles about the winners of the festival (all men except for Juliette Binoche for best actress and Frida Kempff who won the Jury Prize for her short film Mickey Bader. To me this lack of women bodes well for not eliminating female acting categories because this would be the type of Festival that at the end of the day could leave women out completely.)
But in other good news, there was one woman director who won an award this year. Kudos to Fabienne Berthaud for winning the Art Cinema Award at the Director’s Fortnight for her film Lily Sometimes. It would be good if she got some press.
See you next year Cannes. We’ll be watching to see if you do better.
‘Lily,’ ‘Illegal’ top Directors’ Fortnight (Variety)
Cannes Film Festival 2010: ‘Uncle Boonmee’ wins the Palme d’Or (LA Times)
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Please check out my blog as I put have been counting and tracking women directors in all festivals since Toronto and am also counting them as owners of international sales companies and to some degree as producers. I put the ANKH sign next to all women to bring consciousness to the reader. I am one of the principal bloggers for IndieWire so you can find me there as well as on http://www.SydneysBuzz.com. Thanks!!
On the upside, the little press I did see about this year’s festival was actually pretty much all negative – it seems to have gone down as a lacklustre year. I wonder if the bad vibe they created themselves by cutting out women contributed towards that…
“Seriously, had anyone heard of Apichatpong Weerasethakul before yesterday?”
Actually, yes, and I own one of his films on DVD, Mysterious Object at Noon, which is fascinating. His Tropical Malady was a big, big deal on the festival circuit and in arthouse release. Don’t condemn Cannes by condemning an interesting and talented filmmaker.
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