Women are often objectified and sexualised in the filmmaking industry, while their acting skills and talents are given less attention.
Source: JustJared
On May 12, 82 women walked the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival, protesting gender inequality and sexual harassment in the industry, the New York Times reports.
Among those protesting were filmmaker Agnes Varda, actresses Marion Cotillard, Salma Hayek and Cate Blanchett, who is the president of the jury this year. The number of participants was chosen for a reason – 82 female filmmakers have been nominated for prizes over 71 years of the festival. To compare, 1,645 men have competed for awards since 1946. Only three films by female directors have been awarded the Palme d’Or, the festival’s highest prize.
“Cinema is a world that is founded on desire: the desire of producers and directors to make movies with this or that actress, the desire of spectators to watch those movies—and that desire is based, also, on physical attraction,” Artforum quotes Marlène Schiappa, France’s junior minister for gender equality, as saying. When desire is mixed with “power, visibility, notoriety and money”, it creates a “a cocktail of factors” that may lead to excesses.
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