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 The world's biggest movie
festival, along with rival showcases in the
likes of Venice, has long come under scrutiny
over the low number of women directors in the
running for top awards or in positions of
influence.
At the Cannes extravaganza, set to kick off on
Tuesday with the premiere of Leos Carax's
musical "Annette", U.S. director Spike Lee will
head up the jury that picks the winner of the
top Palme D'Or award, the first Black person to
do so.
Five women will make up the nine-strong panel,
however - Laurent, U.S. actress Maggie
Gyllenhaal, film directors Jessica Hausner and
Mati Diop and singer Mylene Farmer.
"My dream would be for this to be the first and
last festival where there is a debate about
women," Laurent told a news conference on the
French Riviera, flanked by jury members wearing
face masks amid tight COVID-19 controls.
Diop, whose debut feature "Atlantics" won a top
award at Cannes in 2019, said she also hoped the
cinema world would one day be free of such
distinctions.
"I don't know if in our lifetime we'll get to
the stage when we'll no longer have to put
'woman' before 'director'," Diop said.
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 Only four films directed by
women were picked among the 24 vying for the
Palme d'Or this year, although the number of
female directors present in other parallel
events and competitions has increased,
organisers said.
"This is mirroring that our society is now ready
for a certain change that should have happened
earlier," said Austrian director Hausner, whose
"Little Joe" feature film was selected to
compete for the Palme d'Or in 2019.
Gyllenhaal, known for her roles in "Sherrybaby"
and "Crazy Heart", said the female gaze mattered
in films and other artforms.
"(There's an) extra little muscle you have to
exercise to turn it into something that as a
woman I could relate to," Gyllenhaal said of
movies with male leads or female characters
expressed by a male director.
(Reporting by Sarah White and Michaela Cabrera;
Editing by Nick Macfie)
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