Cannes wrapped up this weekend with Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke winning the Palme d’Or for Amour. He also won the Palme d’Or in 2009 for the last film he had in the festival, White Ribbon.

There were a couple of women directors who were acknowledged for their work at Cannes. French director Noemi Lvovsky won the SACD PRIZE 2012 as part of Director’s Fortnight for her film Camille Rewinds and Aida Begic was awarded Un Certain Regard Special Distinction for her film Dject.

There were clearly a variety of narratives out of Cannes, one was clearly the rain, and one was clearly the issue of women directors. I cannot tell you how many press stories I read mentioned the lack of women directors in competition. I give it up again to the women of La Barbe for starting the conversation with their manifesto, and I take great pleasure in acknowledging the over 2,600 signers and 170 initial signatories to the petition Where Are the Women Directors? that Women and Hollywood put together to raise our collective voices in protest of women directors being overlooked for the main competition.

I know there are some who disagree with the approach we took here asking for transparency in the selection process and diversity in the selection committee. Speaking out in support of women directors does not mean we believe the selectors will have to lower themselves to include a woman. Please. Those comments are even more demeaning to women directors.

Again, no one who signed the petition thinks that a woman directed film should be included just because it was directed by a woman — what we want is for women to reach the top tier so they can be fairly considered.

Shockingly, it seems that the powers that be at Cannes, namely festival Preseident Gilles Jacob, heard the protests and said to the Guardian: “I am sure that next year the chief selector, Thierry Frémaux, will look more carefully to find films by women.” He also said it was a “shame” that only one woman — Jane Campion — had won (or shared) the Palme d’Or, and he also admitted that film is dominated by men and that Cannes is a reflection of that. Yeah, we kind of figured that one out.

But he also said:

The job of feminists and of people like me who like the work of female film-makers is to say to him: ‘Are you sure there isn’t somewhere a film by a woman that deserves to be competing?’ That is always the conversation we have here.”

I find that statement very confusing. Did this conversation actually happen? Because if it did then that means several female directed films were considered and rejected. It would be great to know what was considered.

He also admitted that by having four films by women last year in 2011 — after having no women directed films in 2010 — probably set a bad precedent because then this year people would again expect four women — or more — to be in competition.

Now everyone this year was expecting five films, then six, then seven. In France nowadays, they speak of parity. They want parity in government, parity everywhere, so why not at the Cannes film festival?”

Parity, parity, parity. Damn those crazy women who want equality and parity. La Barbe totally had it right in their manifesto where they talked about how last year “four women somehow sneaked themselves in…”

Congrats and thanks to everyone who took this issue seriously. This matters because culture is important and it is vital that women’s experiences be included in the cultural conversations. We want girls and young women to believe that parity is possible that they won’t be condescended to when they demand their rightful place at the table in any area they choose.