Cannes Film Festival is taking steps to protect women at its 2018 edition with the help of the French government. According to Screen Daily, Cannes is organizing a hotline for survivors and witnesses of sexual harassment and assault. French gender equality minister Marlène Schiappa is collaborating with the film fest on the hotline, which is for all women in the industry, and not solely actresses.
Information on the hotline, its accompanying website, and France’s sexual harassment laws will be distributed at the film festival, which runs May 8–19.
As Schiappa stated, Cannes is linked with Harvey Weinstein, the disgraced mogul who abused dozens of women. Weinstein made many trips to the fest over his career, and was welcomed with open arms. Actress Asia Argento has alleged Weinstein sexually assaulted her during Cannes 1997. “One of the rapes that Harvey Weinstein is accused of happened at Cannes, and so the festival cannot fail to act,” Schiappa said. “The idea is to give a sign that Cannes is not immobile on this.”
It’s great to hear Cannes has finally taken official action in the wake of the Weinstein revelations and the onslaught of sexual harassment allegations against powerful men that have followed since. While the fest’s artistic director, Thierry Fremaux, has offered words of support to survivors and the #MeToo movement, the gender disparity at Cannes remains stark.
Only 14 percent of Competition titles are women-directed. Plus, the fest officials might back #MeToo in theory, but their actions send a decidedly different message: films from Lars von Trier and Terry Gilliam were selected to screen out of competition this year. The former has been accused of sexual harassment and leads a production company that has been described as “a brazen display of toxic masculinity,” and the latter thinks #MeToo is mob justice.
So, obviously, it’s high time Cannes put their money where their mouth is. The hotline is a start.
The past few months have seen several other organizations launch helplines specifically to protect industry women from sexual misconduct, including Women In Film and the BFI and BAFTA.
