After seven years in office, Pierre Lescure will hand over his position in early July to German Iris Knobloch, who will become the first woman to preside over the Cannes Film Festival. This appointment comes in addition to the recent one of Ava Cahen as head of Critics' Week . Increasing the representation of women in cinema is one of the major challenges they will have to address. We take stock of the projects underway, the remaining obstacles, and the hopes to be realized.

Towards more parity

“ Less visible, less awarded, less paid .” This threefold observation is the starting point for the new series Les Effrontées, broadcast on France TV just before Cannes and now available online. This four-part documentary takes the time to explore the place of women from the beginnings of cinema to the present day. Four years after the Weinstein affair, cinema would thus retain its reputation as an eminently “gendered” art form.

The latest report from the CNC (National Center for Cinema and the Moving Image) shows that 25% of French films were directed (or co-directed) by women, following a six-point increase between 2010 and 2019. This represents a modest recovery for an art form perpetually seeking innovation, yet where conservatism still prevails. In 2022, the most junior roles, from script supervisor to costume designer and makeup artist, were predominantly held by women. As for the sound mixer, the final link in the film production chain , this position remains traditionally held by a man. On the production side: with equal skills, the average budget for a female director's feature film is almost half that of a male director. Beyond a certain number of millions of euros, it's all male directors, as is the common refrain in the industry.

France has nevertheless implemented various initiatives to accelerate the feminization of the sector. Since 2018: parity of presidencies and members of the CNC commissions, creation of an observatory, obligation of gender statistics, obligation of training to fight against sexual harassment... Under the impetus of the Collectif 50/50, which campaigns for parity and diversity, the Center has also distributed aid for films whose teams are parity. Last year, this bonus (+15% of the support fund) benefited 32% of films (including Titane and l'Événement), compared to a quarter in 2019.

For film scholar Brigitte Rollet, a specialist in gender issues, if cinema is ever to cease being " this art of making pretty women do pretty things ," a phrase wrongly attributed to François Truffaut, measures must continue and expand. She lists them: " Allocating bonuses to films that don't systematically place girls in hypersexualized situations, supporting distributors who promote films that deviate from the implicit rules of representation of femininity and masculinity. This would also mean including a percentage of films made by women in film school curricula, as well as female directors in the Cinémathèque's programs ." French cinema also suffers from a certain French exceptionalism, the observer continues. " In addition to the weight of socio-cultural habits, we are the only country to uphold the principle of republican universalism, according to which all citizens are equal, and this tradition proves to be an obstacle here." Other countries that do not share this universalist tradition address the issue of feminization more directly. In Germany, for example, the Berlinale has provided gender-disaggregated statistics since 2004.

Festivals at the forefront?

2021 remains the year of triumph for female directors at film festivals. First, Chloé Zhao in Hollywood: her film Nomadland won the Oscar for Best Picture in April. Since the ceremony's inception in 1929, only one woman had won the statuette: Kathryn Bigelow in 2010. In July, Julia Ducournau took home the Palme d'Or at Cannes for Titane. She became the second female director to win the prize, 28 years after Jane Campion. Finally, in Venice, Audrey Diwan won the Golden Lion for L'Événement (The Event ). A powerful symbol for advocates of gender equality.

Not enough, say most observers, pointing to the usual low representation of women in the official Cannes selections, the Festival's weak link. This year, five women (out of 21 films) participated in the competition, compared to four last year, which is still a record. The proportion improves in the parallel sections: five films directed by women out of 11 features selected for Critics' Week and 11 female directors out of a total of 23 films in Directors' Fortnight. The result? The 2022 jury has little to be ashamed of, awarding prizes in the official selection to directors Claire Denis (Grand Prix shared for Stars at Noon ), Riley Keough and Gina Gamelle ( War Pony ), and Charlotte Vandermeersch (who co-directed The Eight Mountains with her husband). While the French Touch prize also stands out by awarding the Scottish Charlotte Well ( Aftersun ).

It must be said that the world's largest film festival has positioned itself as a privileged observatory of the female condition since the famous red carpet event in 2018, a tribute to the 82 women selected since the first edition in 1946 (compared to 1,688 men). Led by Cate Blanchett as the flamboyant jury president, accompanied by Agnès Varda, the movement called on festivals worldwide to sign a charter of parity and equal pay. The event made a lasting impression. Since then, approximately 180 festivals have made commitments. Among the major events keeping their promise, the Berlinale is leading the way. Its latest edition, in February, announced five women winners out of nine competition prizes, including the Spanish director Carla Simón and, once again, Claire Denis. This feminization is also reflected on screen with a significant number of films in the selection featuring heroines, from Juliette Binoche in With Love and Relentlessness to The Novelist by Hong Sang-soo, a story of a writer's wanderings in Seoul.

The figureheads

Overturning perceptions and representations. The battle for female representation obviously also involves the content of films. Testifying in the documentary series * Les Effrontés* , Anaïs Volpé, director of *Entre les vagues*, embodies this generation that champions the values ​​of sisterhood and challenges conventions and perspectives. Not forgetting the older generation—Céline Sciamma, Valérie Donzelli, Mia Hansen-Løve, Rebecca Zlotowski—who had already seized the opportunity opened by Claire Denis and Noémie Lvovsky… In France, there is no shortage of female fighters.

For researcher Brigitte Rollet, the challenge in the coming years is not so much to bring forth new talent as to establish women filmmakers in the history of cinema. “It is very rare to find narrative or formal territories that have not yet been explored. In Cannes in the 80s and 90s, we already found female directors who were pushing boundaries, like Claire Devers or Pascale Ferran, each winning the Caméra d'Or for their first film. Yet these directors have practically disappeared or make few films. The constant search for new profiles in which the media confines us prevents us from thinking more broadly and deprives us, in the name of a trend, of appreciating other visions and other perspectives .”

A sign of the times: if we had to cite just one example of a catalyst among recent releases, it would be Call My Agent! (Dix pour cent). According to Brigitte Rollet, the series, which garnered over four million viewers (in its first season), stands out as an anomaly in the French audiovisual landscape. " Firstly, because the series was supported by three very different major players: Canal+, France Télévisions, and Netflix. Secondly, because the unrepentant lesbian character played by Camille Cottin sends strong signals of the possibility of change. " The researcher points out that it is extremely rare in France to find, during prime time on public television, a series featuring a lesbian character who escapes the usual tropes of LGBT characters and who, on the contrary, is not reduced to her sexuality, which she lives in a completely open and free way. " Knowing how the media operates, we can easily imagine that the success of the series (written by a woman, incidentally) and the popularity of the character Andréa will encourage other, less conventional, fictional works ."