Cannes Festival Toppers Sign Pledge to Ensure Gender Equality

Two days after the march which gathered 82 women on the stairs on Cannes Film Festival’s Palais, the festival’s chief Thierry Fremaux, Critics’s Week head Charles Tesson and Directors’ Fortnight incoming topper Paolo Moretti signed on Monday a pledge ensuring greater gender equality and transparency.


The signing of the pledge took place during an international conference which brought together feminists and pro-equality movement members, including Time’s Up U.S., Time’s Up U.K., Italy’s Dissenso Comune, Spain’s IMA and Greek Women’s Wave. The debate, moderated by filmmakers Celine Sciamma (“Girlhood”) and Rebecca Zlotowski (“Planetarium”), was organized by the org 50/50 for 2020, as well as France’s culture minister Françoise Nyssen and the national film board (CNC) president Frédérique Bredin.


The pledge called for several things: “have the festivals (Cannes Film Festival, Critics’ Week and Directors’ Fortnight) issue statistics about the number of films in order to give the movement specific data; be transparent about the list of members on the selection and programming committees in order to prevent any suspicion about a lack of diversity or parity while allowing festivals to make their editorial and strategic choices; set up a timetable of goals to reach in order to ensure a perfect gender ratio within the respective terms.


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“I would like to say that the event of the stairs of the Palais last Saturday was extraordinary and should not be. It marks the end of a cycle which started this fall and the beginning of a new chapter,” said Fremaux.


“Cannes is welcoming all these initiatives to hopefully feed into the consciousness-raising.


The world is not the same and that’s a good thing. Now we’re examining our own practices, our history. The statistics speak for themselves – only one woman has won the Palme d’Or and only 82 films directed by women have played in competition — and even if there is a higher proportion of women showing films at Cannes, we’re aware that it’s not enough,” said Fremaux.