Cannes has announced its 2018 Directors’ Fortnight schedule and, unfortunately, the numbers have dipped quite a bit from last year. Five of the 20 features selected to screen in the sidebar — 25 percent — are from female filmmakers, as compared to 2017’s 35 percent (which actually marked a huge increase from 2016). Not exactly the trajectory one would hope for.
Debra Granik’s “Leave No Trace,” which premiered at Sundance earlier this year, is among the Directors’ Fortnight feature films. The drama centers on a father and daughter whose happy, isolated existence is suddenly threatened. Also screening is Arantxa Echevarria’s narrative portrait of two gypsy girls, “Carmen & Lola.” The Cristina Gallego co-directed “Birds Of Passage,” set during the early days of the Columbian drug trade, has been named the Directors’ Fortnight’s opening film.
Four of the 11 Directors’ Fortnight shorts, or 36 percent, are women-directed. They include Juanita Onzaga’s “Our Song To War,” a narrative-documentary hybrid about Colombia’s “Novenario” death ritual, and Tiphaine Raffier’s “The Song,” which sees three young women forming a singing group.
Women directors are much better represented in France’s Association for the Diffusion of Independent Cinema (ACID) Cannes showcase. The program spotlights up and coming filmmakers with the goal of securing their films theatrical release. Six of the nine features in ACID’s main lineup, or 67 percent, are women-helmed. Among them are Olga Korotko’s “Bad Bad Winter,” about a young woman who returns home after her grandmother dies, and Marta Bergman’s “Seule A Mon Mariage,” which centers on a young mother who decides to leave her community in pursuit of adventure.
Find all the women-directed and co-directed Directors’ Fortnight and ACID titles below. Lists adapted from Screen Daily.
FEATURES
Carmen & Lola (Sp) dir. Arantxa Echevarria
Treat Me Like Fire (Joueurs), (Fr) dir. Marie Monge
Leave No Trace, (US) dir. Debra Granik
Los Silencios (Braz) dir. Beatriz Seigner
Birds Of Passage (Pajaros De Verano) (Col) dir. Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra (OPENING FILM)
SHORT FILMS
This Magnificent Cake! (Ce Magnifique Gâteau!), dir. Emma De Swaef and Marc James Roels
The Song (La Chanson), dir. Tiphaine Raffier
O Órfão, dir. Carolina Markowicz
Our Song To War, dir. Juanita Onzaga
ACID
Bad Bad Winter (Kazakhstan) by Olga Korotko
Cassandro The Exotico! (France) by Marie Losier
Dans La Terrible Jungle/ In The Mighty Jungle (France) by Caroline Capelle & Ombline Ley
Il Se Passe Quelque Chose / Something Is Happening (France) by Anne Alix
Seule A Mon Mariage / Alone At My Wedding (Belgium) by Marta Bergman
We The Coyotes (France/USA) by Hanna Ladoul and Marco La Via
ACID TRIP
Terra Franca / Ashore by Leonor Teles
Colo by Teresa Villaverde
