Cannes 2016: What does this year's festival hold for women?

The Cannes Film Festival both defines, and it reflects. Ever since its establishment in 1946, it’s ridden the waves of cinematic revolution; of realism and surrealism, the rise of blockbuster, and the enshrinement of the auteur.

Yet, it’s also on those French shores that so many iconic careers have been launched; it’s Cannes which both enforces the cinematic canon, and defines it. It’s both revolutionary, and entirely traditional in its form.

It’s within this environment women must battle to be recognised, and to be heard. An environment which last year sparked scandal when some female attendees were turned away from the red carpet for not wearing heels; an imposition of Cannes in its most archaic form, where the only women you’d see were the beautiful ingénues in their flouncing gowns.

An image ignoring all the creatively brilliant women who attend the festival, and who deserve to be admired and respected for their contributions in equal value to their male peers, whether in heels or no.

It’s vital not to underestimate the importance of Cannes within the wider film industry here and why, in turn, the visibility of female directors at the festival is such a weighty matter; because its role in turning cinematic pieces instantly iconic or prestigious has meant a significant say in what films we remember in decades to come. It’s at Cannes, for example, that Mad Max: Fury Road first picked up the critical support that would drive it straight to six wins on Oscar night.

The Directors Guild of America recently announced its list of the 80 best-directed films of the last 80 years, listing only one woman. One. Though Kathryn Bigelow’s Hurt Locker is a searing triumph, the idea it’s the only significant film directed by a woman is laughable.

Only one female director has ever won the coveted Palme D’Or at Cannes either; Jane Campion for The Piano in 1993, which she was forced to share that year with Chen Kaige’s Farewell My Concubine. Surely, the lack of women winning major awards such as this is bound to have a heavy effect on which films are later deemed important in cinematic history?

Cannes’ reputation for promoting female directors has never been absolutely stellar. Some years, the situation appears to improve: four films by women were featured in competition in 2011, including Lynne Ramsay’s We Need to Talk About Kevin and Naomi Kawase’s Hanezu. Yet 2013 saw just one film directed by a woman featured in competition, 2014 featured two, and 2015 another two: Valerie Donzelli’s Marguerite and Maïwenn’s Mon Roi.

This year, numbers are up, with three female directors in competition for the Palme D’Or. British filmmaker Andrea Arnold’s American Honey follows a teenage girl as she joins a misfit travelling magazine sales crew on a journey across the Midwest. Post-war romance From the Land of the Moon, starring Marion Cotillard, is written and directed by Nicole Garcia; Maren Ade directs Toni Erdmann, about a father who decides to play a series of pranks on his solemn adult daughter.

Playing out of competition is Jodie Foster’s Money Monster; a financial thriller starring George Clooney, Julia Roberts, and Jack O’Connell. In the alternative Un Certain Regard section are Delphine and Muriel Coulin’s See the World, Andrea Testa (co-directing with Francisco Marquez)’s The Long Night of Francisco Sanctis, Stéphanie Di Giusto’s The Dancer, and Maha Haj’s Personal Affair.

Three films in competition for the Palme D’Or is hardly perfect, considering the full line-up consists of twenty-one selected films; but there’s at least a feeling Cannes is committed to some sense of improvement here.

Elsewhere, Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon will receive the second edition of the Women in Motion prize, honouring their contributions to supporting female professionals in the film business and a timely recognition of the 25th anniversary of the ground-breaking Thelma and Louise. Last year, Jane Fonda and producer Megan Ellison were honoured.

That said, it’s difficult to know exactly how much Cannes can do to recognise female filmmakers if those filmmakers aren’t being given the opportunities and access which allow them to produce these kinds of prestigious, independent films in the first place.

As Andrea Arnold noted in a 2012 press conference at the festival (via Film Comment); "It’s true the world over, and in the world of film, that there are just not many women film directors, and I guess Cannes is a small pocket that represents how it is out there in the world, and that’s a great pity and a great disappointment."

"Because I think women are obviously half of the population and have voices and things to say about life and the world that probably would be good for all of us to hear."

It’s a sentiment echoed by Cannes director Terry Frémaux last year, when he stated; "It is true that the place of women in cinema is not large enough. If there is a place where women are welcomed and celebrated, this is it. Cannes is just a part of the chain—it is not the only link."

Indeed, Cannes’ role is tricky in how it both defines, and reflects, current film culture. If the financial support for female directors is lacking in the first place, then how can Cannes promote films that didn’t even have the chance to be produced in the first place?

Woody Allen has played the festival so many, countless times because his place in the cinematic canon is entirely secured; yet, it was also through his continual visibility at Cannes that he partially obtained such prestige – it’s a wonder what future female filmmaker could easily rise to such heights if only given the chance.