Six women are in the running this year to win the Palme d'Or at the 76th Cannes Film Festival. A record for this institution of world cinema which unveiled its official selection on Thursday, April 13. Never before have so many female directors been in competition for the prestigious award, which includes a selection of nineteen films.

Five women were in the running for the Palme d'Or last year on twenty works in competition. But only two female directors have so far won the prize in their 76-year history: New Zealander Jane Campion for "The Piano Lesson" in 1993 and French Fa Julia Ducournau with "Titane" in 2021.

"It's still not enough, we would love to achieve parity one day. Nevertheless, we welcome the fact that things are evolving and we want to believe that it is a harbinger of long-term change," said Clémentine Charlemagne, co-president of the 50/50 collective, a French association that promotes equality between women and men in cinema and audiovisual.

The festival is one of the first to have signed, in 2018, a Charter for Parity and Diversity in Film Festivals led by this collective, at the forefront of these issues in the field. However, "historically it is not a festival that is a reference in terms of parity," recalls Clémentine Charlemagne, while the France sees the emergence and asserting itself of more and more female directors.

French women directors in force

Among those honored this year in the selection for the Palme d'Or, the presence of two French women, Catherine Breillat with "Last Summer" and Justine Triet with "Anatomy of a Fall" testifies to this vitality of women in French cinema. "80% of the French films in competition in the official selection are directed by women," applauds Clémentine Charlemagne.

What to rejoice a few months after the 2023 Césars ceremony, marked by the absence of a woman nominated in the category of best director, and this for the first time since 2014. An under-representation that is not new, since only one woman, Tonie Marshall ("Venus Beauty"), has received the award for best direction since the creation of the Césars in 1976.

In the profession, women directors make up 24% of the ranks, according to a study by the National Film Centre in 2020. This still gives the France a vanguard place in the world.

The glass ceiling of funding

For female directors, 50% of whom are present on the benches of French film schools, the difficulty comes when it comes to getting their foot in the stirrup. "They are facing problems of financing their films. Often they are confined to budgets much lower than those of the directors," says the co-president of the 50/50 collective.

But things could be changing. More and more women are producing short films and distinguished first films. "They arrive through a generational renewal," notes Clémentine Charlemagne.

It remains to be seen whether they will succeed in transforming the trial. "Until now, the longevity of female directors in the profession was less than that of men, especially when it came time to make the third film," regrets Clémentine Charlemagne, which leads to observe large differences in average age between female directors and directors. "Men, on the other hand, enjoy the possibility of longer careers."

Regulars of international competitions

Elsewhere in the world "it's worse," says Clémentine Charlemagne. We must therefore welcome the arrival in competition at Cannes of the first film directed by the Senegalese filmmaker Ramata-Toulaye Sy ("Banel & Adama"), or the Tunisian Kaouther Ben Hania ("Les Filles d'Olfa") whose films are regularly selected in international competitions.

The Austrian Jessica Hausner ("Club Zero"), and the Italian Alice Rohrwacher ("La Chimera") are regulars of the festival on the jury side, of which they were members. And on the selection side, Alice Rohrwacher has already received the Grand Prix and the Best Screenplay Award at Cannes, which makes her one of the favorites for the Palme.

And as every year, some films should still be invited in the selection of the festival by the beginning of the festivities from May 16 to 27. Another woman could also join the competition, suggested the general delegate of the festival in an interview with the American media Deadline.

With AFP

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