#Can­nes­So­Ma­le? Not So Fast…

After the diver­si­ty deba­cle that was the 2016 Oscars, it’s under­stand­able that the 69^th edi­tion of the world’s most pres­ti­gious film fes­ti­val has come under intense scruti­ny. Yet those quick to point out that the Cannes line-up fea­tures more male than female film­mak­ers may be turn­ing on the solu­tion, rather than the problem.

While the Acad­e­my was right­ly crit­i­cised for its glar­ing lack of racial diver­si­ty, the organ­is­ers of Cannes have been wide­ly ridiculed for a per­ceived gen­der imbal­ance in this year’s pro­gramme. It’s easy to point out that just three films out of 20 in com­pe­ti­tion for the Palme d’Or are direct­ed by women (they are Andrea Arnold’s Amer­i­can Hon­ey, Nicole Garcia’s Mal de Pier­res and Maren Ade’s Toni Erd­man). Yet the festival’s pres­i­dent, Pierre Les­cure, made the point last year that he was focused on improv­ing Cannes’ rela­tion­ship with women (and by exten­sion the festival’s rep­u­ta­tion), and he has made pro­gres­sive steps that could yet have a sig­nif­i­cant impact on the film indus­try at large.

In a move to acknowl­edge the prob­lem of gen­der inequal­i­ty, Cannes teamed up with the French brand Ker­ing to launch ​‘Women In Motion’, a pro­gramme of talks with stars and exec­u­tives about women’s sta­tus and rep­re­sen­ta­tion in the film world. This year, the ini­tia­tive will hand out its inau­gur­al awards, to Geena Davis and Susan Saran­don, for exem­plary con­tri­bu­tion to both the film indus­try and women’s caus­es. The dai­ly morn­ing debates and inter­views that began in 2015 with the par­tic­i­pa­tion of Isabelle Hup­pert, Salma Hayek, Matthias Schoe­naerts and Agnès Var­da, will con­tin­ue this year. This clear sig­nal of intent high­lights the festival’s long-term com­mit­ment to women in cin­e­ma. It’s a vital step in the right direc­tion from a respect­ed – his­tor­i­cal­ly male-cen­tric – awards body.

But is it real­ly fair to expect fes­ti­val juries to blaze the trail? Per­haps not when you con­sid­er that the sub­mis­sions Cannes receives are dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly male-direct­ed: female film­mak­ers face the deter­min­ing hur­dles, such as secur­ing fund­ing, well before the final stage of fes­ti­val sub­mis­sion. Dur­ing her talk at last year’s ​‘Women In Motion’, Frances McDor­mand made her point hit home: ​“We don’t need help, we need mon­ey.” Gen­der dis­crim­i­na­tion at the financ­ing stage is at the root of the wider issue of rep­re­sen­ta­tion. Cannes show­ing its com­mit­ment to women will force more pro­duc­ers and stu­dios to sit up and dig into their pockets.

Since the announce­ment of this year’s line-up, more media atten­tion has been paid to films direct­ed by women. Jodie Foster’s Mon­ey Mon­ster has received its fair share of atten­tion despite screen­ing in an Out of Com­pe­ti­tion slot. Else­where, the Un Cer­tain Regard pro­gramme, a sec­tion acclaimed for its crit­i­cal weight and glob­al per­spec­tive, fea­tures four female-direct­ed films. And this year the pres­i­dents of the juries of the Un Cer­tain Regard, Cine­fon­da­tion and Short Films and Cam­era D’Or cat­e­gories are all female indus­try heavy­weights – actress Marthe Keller, writer/​director Nao­mi Kawase, and pres­i­dent of the French Direc­tors’ Soci­ety (SRF) Cather­ine Corsi­ni. Even more cru­cial­ly, more than half of the film in the Stu­dent Shorts sec­tion rep­re­sent the work of emerg­ing female tal­ent – a fact that should be tak­en as a pos­i­tive sign of things to come.