Only three out of 18 films competing this year are directed by women.
Only three out of 18 films competing at next month’s Cannes film festival are directed by women, Variety first reported Thursday, four years after the festival pledged to improve gender representation. After a 2018 red carpet protest led by Cate Blanchett, Kristen Stewart and Salma Hayek arguing for more female directors, Cannes and several other major film festivals signed a gender parity pledge, which didn’t mandate gender quotas but pushed that festival management teams strive for gender parity and make their overall progress toward inclusion public, among other initiatives.
