Ava DuVernay, Kristen Stewart, and 80 More Women Just Took Part in a Powerful Protest at Cannes

Ava DuVernay, Kristen Stewart, Jane Fonda, Marion Cotillard, and Salma Hayek are among the 82 women who took part in a powerful protest gesture at the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday to highlight how difficult it is for women to climb the professional ladder in the film industry. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the group walked up the steps leading to the festival's Théâtre Debussy, paused midway, and silently faced the central Palais building.

Actress Cate Blanchett, who is this year's competition jury president, and Belgian film director Agnès Varda also presented a joint statement:

"On these steps today stand 82 women representing the number of female directors who have climbed these stairs since the first edition of the Cannes Film Festival in 1946. In the same period 1,688 male directors have climbed these very same stairs. In the 71 years of this world-renowned festival there have been 12 female heads of its juries. The prestigious Palme d’Or has been bestowed upon 71 male directors—too numerous to mention by name—but only two women, Jane Campion, who is with us in spirit, and Agnès Varda, who stands with us today," said Blanchett.

"These facts are stark and undeniable. Women are not a minority in the world, yet the current state of our industry says otherwise. As women, we all face our own unique challenges, but we stand together on these stairs today as a symbol of our determination and commitment to progress. We are writers, producers, directors, actresses, cinematographers, talent agents, editors, distributors, sales agents and all involved in the cinematic arts. We stand in solidarity with women of all industries," they continued.

They then read a list of powerful demands:

"We will expect our institutions to actively provide parity and transparency in their executive bodies and safe environments in which to work. We will expect our governments to make sure that the laws of equal pay for equal work are upheld. We will demand that our workplaces are diverse and equitable so that they can best reflect the world in which we actually live. A world that allows all of us behind and in front of the camera to thrive shoulder to shoulder with our male colleagues. We acknowledge all of the women and men who are standing for change. The stairs of our industry must be accessible to all. Let’s climb."

The dramatic gesture was organized by 5050×2020, a French equality movement, and took place just before the premiere of Girls of the Sun, a film by Eva Husson. Husson is the only French female director in the competition this year, and she told Vanity Fair that it's critical to initiate conversations around gender inequality in film.

"It’s high time. It’s healthy. It’s scary. It’s exploding in the face of a lot of people," she said. "The patriarchy has not seen it coming so they feel really threatened by it. It’s a huge paradigm shift."

The festival has been reckoning with ways to address issues of sexual assault, particularly because Harvey Weinstein allegedly assaulted or harassed multiple women during the festival in the past. As a response to the Weinstein allegations, Cannes worked with the French government to launch a hotline where women could report sexual assault or harassment at the event.

But many people have pointed out that Cannes still needs to figure out its own gender gap issues. This year, only three of the 21 directors competing for the prestigious Palme d'Or prize are women. The festival also faced backlash for including a film by Lars von Trier, the Danish director who had been banned from the festival for seven years after making anti-Semitic remarks and whose production company has been accused of sexual harassment.

After Saturday's dramatic statement, women will continue staging acts to call attention to gender disparity. On Monday, Vanity Fair also reports that women are planning to ask members of the Directors’ Fortnight and Cannes Critics’ Week panel to sign a pledge that calls for more inclusion and diversity.

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