Bird's Eye View

Cannes Film Festival Announce Line-up lacking ladies

Yes it is true that this year has been a great year for women directors. And yes the first woman to win an Oscar for Best Director was Kathryn Bigelow earlier last month. But at the same time we know that since the recession there are less women working in the industry. And just to stress this point further….as Cannes Film Festival announce their line up for 2010, we see that there are in fact no women in the competition category. Although Agnes Kocsis represents women’s cinematic vision with Adrienn Pal in the category of Un Certain Regard, and two female directors appear in the Special Screenings category – Sophie Fiennes with Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow and Sabina Guzzanti with Draquila – L’Italia Che Trema, there are absolutely no women in competition. I was genuinely quite startled as I continued to check through the list of names, but mostly saddened that such a significant festival on the film calendar lacks diversity to such a degree.  So many female directors have told BEV that they hope Kathryn Bigelows win represents something of a ‘watershed’ and yet this list suggests otherwise. Lucky that BEV is here eh?