Berlinale 2018: Isabelle Huppert to Lead Anne Fontaine’s New Film, Fest Hosts Gender Equality Events

The 68th Berlinale hasn’t reached its midway point yet but it’s already seen the announcement of Anne Fontaine’s next film and organized events focusing on industry gender discrimination. According to separate reports from Variety, Isabelle Huppert will star in Fontaine’s “Pure as Snow” and directors discussed the gender gap in European cinema during a panel presented by Eurimages. South African filmmakers also launched #ThatsNotOk, a campaign tackling workplace harassment.

“Pure as Snow” is an erotic comedy based on the Brothers Grimm’s “Snow White” fairy tale. Lou de Laâge, the star of Fontaine’s “The Innocents,” will play Claire, who works for her cruel stepmother Maud at her late father’s hotel. “Claire unwittingly sparks uncontrollable jealousy in Maud (Huppert), whose young lover has fallen in love with Claire,” Variety summarizes. “Maud decides to get rid of Claire, who finds shelter in a farm where she’s allowed to break free from her strict upbringing through encounters with seven ‘princes.’”

Gaumont kicked off pre-sales for “Pure as Snow” at Berlinale last week. It also began pre-sales for Hélène Fillières’ romantic army drama “Raising Colors,” which is expected to be released later in 2018.

“Anne Fontaine modernized this tale and gave it a light-hearted, erotic, and refined tone,” said Gaumont’s Cecile Gaget. “[She] also depicts her female characters in a way that feels both empowering and uplifting.”

Berlinale’s Eurimages event revealed findings on gender disparity in European film, specifically the film submissions the cultural support fund of the Council of Europe received from 2014 to 2017. Per Variety, women represented 25 percent of narrative feature directors. They accounted for 38 percent of documentary helmers and 23 percent of animation directors. Over 60 percent of production roles on the narrative films were filled by men.

Filmmakers Barbara Albert (“Mademoiselle Paradis”) and Isabel Coixet (“The Bookshop”) participated in a discussion on the numbers. “For me there must be a quota,” Albert said. “There must be 50–50, and if there is, I think it also has to be for festival participation. It is so sad for me still that [only] four films in competition at Berlinale are by women. And for us that is quite a lot because we know in Cannes it is sometimes zero percent.”

Coixet, who recently won three Goyas for “The Bookshop,” spoke about the sexism she experienced as she was building her career. “Your life as a woman and a director is a little more exhausting,” she observed.

Both Albert and Coixet pointed out that they’ve been discussing gender inequality in film for years but are determined to keep on fighting the good fight.

Event participants also talked about the Council of Europe’s anti-discrimination Recommendation on Gender Equality in the Audiovisual Sector and how Eurimages is implementing it into its business practices.

“What this recommendation acknowledges is there has been, up until now, a lack of awareness of the prevalence of inequality,” remarked Eurimages project manager Francine Raveney. “There has been conscious and unconscious gender bias at all levels, and there has been unequal distribution of funding for audiovisual content.”

Sisters Working in Film and Television (SWIFT) announced the #ThatsNotOk campaign on Sunday at the fest. The movement will fight against workplace harassment in the South African film industry by adopting a new code of conduct and producing PSAs. Variety notes that two-thirds of women working in South Africa’s film and TV have encountered sexual harassment on the job.

“In a country that suffers from one of the world’s highest rates of violence against women, the initiative is geared toward providing a legal framework to both identify and combat incidents of workplace harassment,” the source details.

According to SWIFT’s Zoe Chiriseri-Ramushu, one of the goals of #ThatsNotOk is to make sure that no South African production will receive funding or be commissioned without proving it has used the new code of conduct.

The 2018 Berlinale runs through Sunday, February 25.