At a routine press conference on the eve of the Cannes Film Festival, Mr. Fremaux, the general delegate of the festival said that selection of films at the festival would not be on the basis of gender. Cannes had been traditionally criticized for it’s gender skew. Till last year, out of the 1,600 odd competition titles from men, there were just 82 from women. This made women protest on the red carpet on May 12th last year.
The only female director to have won an award was Jane Campion for her 1993 film titled ‘The Piano’. There is a marginal improvement this year with four women directors competing for the Palme D’Or. Mati Diop for’ Atlantique,’ Jessica Hausner for ‘Little Joe’, Celine for ‘Potrait of a Lady on Fire’ and Justine Triet for ‘Sibyl.’ The selection committee this year selected films that were gender balanced with an equal number of women and men.
