Cannes Adds Titles to Competition, Ratio of Women Directors Worsens
The 2018 Cannes Film Festival bungled its chance to make its Competition lineup a bit more women-friendly. Per Variety, the fest added three titles to the program, none of which are from female filmmakers. This means the schedule is now 14 percent women-directed, a dip from the original lineup’s 17 percent.
Three titles were added to the Certain Regard lineup as well, one of which, “The Dead and the Others,” is co-directed by a woman. The doc, co-helmed by Renée Nader Messora, follows an indigenous community in Brazil. Despite the addition of a woman-co-directed film, the Un Certain Regard’s ratio of female helmers also decreased. Eight of the 18 films are from female directors, or 44 percent. The original slate was 47 percent women-helmed.
To add insult to injury, Cannes also announced that new films from Lars von Trier and Terry Gilliam will screen out of competition this year. Neither director has exactly been an advocate for #MeToo — von Trier in fact is a prime example of why we need to eradicate sexual harassment. Last year Björk heavily hinted that he harassed her during the production of “Dancer in the Dark,” and his company Zentropa has been publicly condemned as “a brazen display of toxic masculinity.”
For his part, Gilliam has compared the #MeToo movement to an angry mob and suggested that Harvey Weinstein’s victims knew exactly what they were getting into. “Harvey opened the door for a few people, a night with Harvey — that’s the price you pay,” he recently told AFP. “I know enough girls who were in Harvey’s suites who were not victims and walked out.”
Cannes Artistic Director Thierry Fremaux might say that, because of #MeToo, the world and Cannes “will never be the same again,” but the fest’s latest Competition and Un Certain Regard gender ratios and its welcoming of von Trier and Gilliam suggest otherwise. Things are still very much the status quo at Cannes 2018 — almost as if #MeToo never happened.
Cannes will be held May 8–19.
