In a groundbreaking move for the film industry, three of the Cannes Film Festival’s most important figures signed a pledge on Monday to improve gender parity at international film festivals.
Cannes leaders just signed a landmark pledge for gender equity in the film industry
Some of world cinema’s most important figures kicked off a campaign to bring greater transparency and parity to their field.
Alissa Wilkinson covered film and culture for Vox. Alissa is a member of the New York Film Critics Circle and the National Society of Film Critics.
At a ceremony kicking off a day of programming focused on gender equality, the directors of three important sections at Cannes — Director’s Fortnight artistic director Edouard Waintrop, Critics’ Week artistic director Charles Tesson, and festival director Thierry Frémaux — signed the “Programming Pledge for Parity and Inclusion in Cinema Festivals.”
The pledge was drafted by the French organization 5050x2020, which also organized Saturday’s red-carpet protest featuring 82 women and led by this year’s jury president Cate Blanchett and director Agnès Varda, one of two women to be awarded the Palme d’Or in the festival’s 71-year history. (Varda’s Palme d’Or was honorary.)
The Cannes Film Festival president, Pierre Lescure, also attended the pledge-signing ceremony, as well as this year’s female jury members, including Blanchett, Kristen Stewart, Léa Seydoux, and Ava DuVernay.
The pledge was part of a larger discussion about gender parity at Cannes and in the broader industry
Only 82 films by women have competed for the Palme d’Or — the highest honor at Cannes — in the festival’s 71 years, compared with 1,645 by men. This year’s competition includes 21 directors, only three of whom are women, a number that has been noted by many alongside the festival’s discussion of women’s stories and place in the industry.
The key commitments of the pledge are aimed at creating a more transparent selection process at festivals that will reveal members of selection and programming committees, a record of filmmakers’ and key crew’s gender in submissions, and a movement toward parity on executive boards.
Organizers aim to roll out the pledge at other international film festivals in the coming months. But the participation of Cannes’ directors is an important first step, given that the festival continues to be among the world’s most influential and prestigious events. Today’s pledge signing virtually ensures that discussion of gender parity in the film industry will continue throughout the year.
It’s part of the industry’s struggle to grapple with itself in the wake of revelations about sexual harassment and assault, as well as the formation of movements in a number of countries (including Time’s Up in Hollywood) to advocate for safe working environments, fair pay, and equal opportunities for women in film.
The pledge signing took place at the beginning of an international conference on gender parity, organized by 5050x2020 and bringing together feminists and pro-equality movements including Time’s Up (both in the US and the UK), Dissenso Comune in Italy, IMA in Spain, and Women’s Wave in Greece. France’s culture minister, Françoise Nyssen, and the national film board president, Frédérique Bredin, also took part.
Seydoux noted at the signing that the festival’s involvement in the move toward parity was “fundamental.”
And Blanchett thanked the festival and Frémaux in particular for participating. “It’s about uniting, not dividing,” she said, remarking that “without Thierry Frémaux saying yes to the pledge, without saying yes to [Saturday’s red-carpet protest], we wouldn’t be here.”
“If he’s part of the problem, he is part of the solution as well,” she concluded.
By Alissa Wilkinson
By Alissa Wilkinson
