The Gender Parity Pledge was launched at Cannes last year with the mission of making film festivals more inclusive and transparent. Behind-the-scenes, the Cannes Film Fest does seem to be improving: earlier this year it announced the members of its (gender-balanced) selection committee for the first time, and the fest will offer childcare to industry attendees with kids this year. What’s lacking in any indication of meaningful progress is the fest’s actual 2019 lineup, especially the main competition, where a massive gender gap remains.
Cannes has unveiled its 2019 schedule and, overall, just 13 of the 51 credited film directors, or 25 percent, are women. Only four women-helmed films will play in Competition — just one more than last year. In fact, since 2005, Cannes’ Competition program has never included more than four titles from female filmmakers.
This isn’t good enough.
Nineteen total films have been selected for Competition, which means the gender ratio is 21 percent women-directed. Percentage-wise, this is a marked increase: in 2018, 14 percent of the category’s films were made by women. However, 21 percent is still a far cry from gender parity and feels especially discouraging post-pledge and considering the feminist activism that took place at Cannes last year.
Céline Sciamma’s latest, “Portrait de la jeune fille en feu,” is among the Competition titles. The period pic depicts the relationship between an artist and the young woman of whom she’s been commissioned to paint a wedding portrait. Another Competition film is Justine Triet’s “Sibyl,” which sees a psychotherapist pursuing her first passion of writing. Jessica Hausner’s sci-fi about the effects genetically modified plants have on humans, “Little Joe,” and Mati Diop’s feature directorial debut, “Atlantique,” are set to screen as well.
Six of the 16 Un Certain Regard films are from women directors, or 38 percent, as compared to 2018’s 47 percent. Among them is Danielle Lessovitz’s love story “Port Authority,” the first film with a trans woman of color lead to premiere at Cannes. The other selections include Annie Silverstein’s “Bull,” a drama about the bond between a teen and her bullfighter neighbor, and Zabou Breitman and Eléa Gobé Mévellec’s animated pic “The Swallows of Kabul.”
Pippa Bianco’s “Share” and Waad Al-Kateab and Edward Watts’ “For Sama” will be presented as Special Screenings. The former, a Sundance winner, centers on a 16-year-old girl who is the subject of a disturbing viral video that was made during a night she doesn’t remember. SXSW winner “For Sama” is a doc tracing the conflict in Syria via a mother’s words to her daughter.
No women-directed films were selected for Cannes’ Out of Competition program.
While Cannes’ 2019 Competition marks a slight improvement from the previous year, the fest’s continued exclusion of women directors is simply unacceptable. And even though the selection committee is now transparent and features a 50/50 gender split, the truth is, the final Cannes lineup decisions come down to two old white guys. Obviously, this fight isn’t over. We still need to push for parity, to be seen. This is not about remediation. This is about people seeing women’s narratives as equal to men’s.
Cannes 2019 will run May 14-25. Check out all the women-helmed selections below. List adapted from Cineuropa.
Competition
Atlantique – Mati Diop
Little Joe – Jessica Hausner
Portrait de la jeune fille en feu – Céline Sciamma
Sibyl – Justine Triet
Special Screenings
Share – Pippa Bianco
For Sama – Waad Al-Kateab & Edward Watts
Un Certain Regard
The Swallows of Kabul – Zabou Breitman & Eléa Gobé Mévellec
A Brother’s Love – Monia Chokri
Port Authority – Danielle Lessovitz
Papicha – Mounia Meddour
Adam – Maryam Touzani
Bull – Annie Silverstein
Melissa Silverstein originally published portions of this post as tweets. Follow her on Twitter @melsil.
