Cannes we start over next year?

On Women’s Wednesday I talk about women in media.

Not last week, but the week before
Women in Film were hard to ignore.
Overlooked & overwhelmed, thus they began
A petition against Festival de Cannes.

Yes, that’s my crude poem about the lack of female representation at the Cannes Film Festival, which came to a close May 23. While it appears that there was no protest, the You Cannes Not Be Serious petition reached 949 signatures. The Wrap reported that the petition was sent to the organizers of the festival – in case they were not yet aware of the stink being made – so that hopefully this situation will never be recreated.

The counter argument has been: perhaps there were no quality films by women this year.  And to be honest, I haven’t been keeping my ear to the ground regarding the indie scene, shame on me! But Sukhdev Sandhu over at The Telegraph has, saying:

The films in Competition were also all made by men. No one is asking for quota for women directors, but given the extraordinary cinema produced in recent years by the likes of Claire Denis, Lucrecia Martel, So Yong Kim, Julia Loktev, Agnes Varda and Lucy Reichardt, to name just a few), it’s hard not to conclude that any film festival so dominated by men is likely to be disappointing.

So, there you have it folks.  The circus is over. There are hopes that the fuss was not for naught and that other festivals took note. My personal assumption is, with Kathryn Bigelow’s Oscar win, more women will get the chance to direct and there will be more female-driven films to choose from.  I just hope that festivals don’t overlook them because of a close-knit boys’ club.

Thoughts?

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