Hayek: Time to build on Me Too strength
The protest was striking not in how many women stood on the red carpet but in how few.
Halfway up the stairs at the Palais des Festivals at the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday stood 82 women, representing the 82 female directors who have climbed those same stairs since the first year the festival was held, 1946. As they stood there, arms linked, the group of women fit comfortably on the red carpet, surrounded by empty stairs.
“In the same period, 1,688 male directors have climbed these very same stairs,” said actress Cate Blanchett, the president of the festival’s jury. “The prestigious Palme d’Or has been bestowed upon 71 male directors, too numerous to mention by name, but only two female directors.” Three of the 18 films in this year’s festival are from female filmmakers, and that’s the highest number in seven years.
Among the 82 women standing in protest was the actress, producer and director Salma Hayek, a leading voice in the Me Too and Time’s Up movements and among the dozens of women who have accused Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein of sexual misconduct.
Hayek urged women to shift their focus from advocacy to action.
“Change has already happened” in Hollywood, Hayek said, so the time has come for women in the industry to build on that momentum through their film work. Now is the time for female filmmakers to show audiences and industry leaders, “look what you were missing all this time,” she said.