Hollywood stars call for equal pay at Cannes festival
82 protesters represent top award contenders by female directors
CANNES, France — Hollywood stars including Cate Blanchett, Kristen Stewart and Salma Hayek called on Saturday for equal pay in the cinema industry and beyond in a red-carpet protest at the Cannes film festival.
Eighty-two actresses, filmmakers and producers marched arm and arm to demand equality and “a safe workplace”, seven months after the world was shaken by the #MeToo movement.
“We demand that our workplaces are diverse and equitable so they can best reflect the world in which we live,” said Blanchett in a statement read out with the legendary 89-year-old French director Agnes Varda.
Blanchett, a double Oscar winner, said they wanted “a world that allows all of us in front and behind the camera to thrive shoulder to shoulder with our male colleagues”.
With Cannes under fire for its dearth of women directors, the world’s top film festival hoped to fend off some of the fierce criticism with the march.
The number of protesters was highly symbolic as it represented the 82 films by female directors who have competed for the top Palme d’Or prize since 1946 — a number dwarfed by the nearly 1,700 male contenders.
The star-studded group stopped halfway up the stairs to the Palais des Festivals to mark the obstacles they face in trying to reach the top.
‘Let’s climb’
“The stairs of our industry must be accessible to all. Let’s climb,” Blanchett declared, with some of the rally’s participants visibly moved.
The protest was held ahead of the premiere of French filmmaker Eva Husson’s Girls of
the Sun, which is about a Kurdish battalion of women soldiers. Husson is one of three female filmmakers out of the 21 movies in competition for the Palme d’Or this year.
The other two — Nadine Labaki’s Capernaum, and Alice Rohrwacher’s Happy as
Lazzaro — are to premiere next week.
The protest comes at the first Cannes festival since the cinema industry was engulfed by the spiraling sex abuse allegations against Weinstein.
In response, the festival set up an anti-harassment hotline this year.
The number has already received “several calls” since the festival’s launch on May 9, said French Equality Minister Marlene Schiappa.
Cannes “must be a safe space for women”, she said.
‘Disturbing’ depictions
Blanchett has criticized Cannes for once again failing to invite more female directors.
“There are many women on the jury but I wish there were more in competition,” the Australian-born star told French radio earlier this week.
The 48-year-old has emerged as a key figure in Hollywood’s fight against sexual misconduct.
One of the first women to call out Weinstein, Blanchett co-founded the “Time’s Up” movement to support abuse victims.
Her comments echo those of fellow actress Jessica Chastain who served on the jury last year and lambasted Cannes for its “disturbing” depiction of women.
Chastain caused a stir on Thursday when she revealed that she planned to make Hollywood’s first big budget all-female blockbuster with a cast including Penelope Cruz and Lupita Nyong’o.
Only 7 percent of Hollywood blockbusters were directed by women in 2016.
France has the best ratio among the major film-producing countries with 23 percent of films directed by women.