A couple of weeks ago, the 70th anniversary poster for the Cannes Film Festival was unveiled. It featured a picture of a giddy, twirling Claudia Cardinale and received a lot of scrutiny for airbrushing Cardinale’s legs. No one understands why the decision to alter her body was made — this poster is the image that promotes and reflects the festival. But it honestly seems to hit Cannes’ longstanding gender problem right on the head. The fest continues to make us believe that women are to be seen and objectified. They are flirty and twirly, not serious. The right to be taken seriously is something women fight for each and every day. This is not about having a sense a humor. This is about respect. And many women have felt disrespected by Cannes and the film industry in general for very a long time — just consider how underrepresented female filmmakers have been, and continue to be, at the fest.
Women directed 16 percent of this year’s main competition lineup, about the same as last year. The Un Certain Regard category fared a bit better: Five of the 18 films screening (28 percent) are helmed by women, compared to last year’s four out of 18 (22 percent). Overall, Cannes is still a fest that shuts out female filmmakers. The infographic we made for Cannes 2016 unfortunately still holds up:
Whether Cannes believes it has a woman problem or not, the numbers aren’t moving.
Here are all the women-directed films playing at Cannes:
Competition
“The Beguiled,” directed by Sofia Coppola
“Radiance,” directed by Naomi Kawase
“You Were Never Really Here,” directed by Lynne Ramsay
Un Certain Regard
“The Desert Bride,” directed by Cecilia Atan and Valeria Pivato
“Beauty and the Dogs,” directed by Kaouther Ben Hania
“Western,” directed by Valeska Grisebach
“Jeune Femme,” directed by Léonor Serraille
“After the War,” directed by Annarita Zambrano
Out of Competition
“Visages, Villages,” co-directed by Agnès Varda
Special Screenings
“An Inconvenient Sequel,” co-directed by Bonni Cohen
“They,” directed by Anahita Ghazvinizadeh
“Sea Sorrow,” directed by Vanessa Redgrave
70th Anniversary Events
“Top of the Lake: China Girl,” co-directed by Jane Campion
“Come Swim,” directed by Kristen Stewart
As we had hoped, “The Beguiled” and “Radiance” will screen in the main competition. “You Were Never Really Here,” Lynne Ramsay’s film about a vet trying and failing to save a young woman from a sex trafficking ring, will join them. “You Were Never Really Here” is not completely finished yet, but still managed to make the cut at Cannes — we’re guessing it will be generating a lot of buzz post-fest.
Among the other fest highlights, we’re pleased to see Vanessa Redgrave’s directorial debut on the list. Shot in France, Greece, Italy, and Lebanon, “Sea Sorrow” is about refugees fleeing war zones across Europe throughout the last century. It stars Emma Thompson and Ralph Fiennes.
A happy surprise is the inclusion of Season 2 of “Top of Lake”. This marks co-creator/co-director Jane Campion’s return to the festival. The Oscar winner has screened her work at Cannes five times in the past and her film “The Piano” received the Palme d’Or in 1993. Campion is still the only woman to have ever won a Palme d’Or.
Cannes typically does not screen television series. According to Variety, festival president Pierre Lescure and general delegate Thierry Frémaux decided that Cannes “is a lab.” Frémaux explained, “We’re not going to start debating here the fact that even [television] series, unless proven otherwise, are using the classical art of filmmaking and of cinematic narration… It’s because those two series are signed Jane Campion and David Lynch, who are filmmakers and friends of the Cannes Film Festival, that we are showing their work.”
“Top of the Lake” star Nicole Kidman appears to be everywhere at the fest this year. Besides the Campion series, she has roles in “The Beguiled,” John Cameron Mitchell’s “How to Talk to Girls at Parties,” and Yorgos Lanthimos’ “The Killing of a Sacred Deer.” After her Oscar nom for “Lion” and her universally-praised work in “Big Little Lies,” we’re calling it: 2017 is Kidman’s year.
Cannes has yet to announce its picks for the Directors’ Fortnight and Critics’ Week categories, but Variety writes that Claire Denis’ “Black Glasses” is expected to open the former. The lineups for these two competitions will be announced later this month.
The Cannes film festival will be held May 17–28.
