The 77th Cannes Film Festival opened with a 100% female ceremony with a prestigious guest, Meryl Streep, and the stated desire to make room for the movement
Camille Cottin at the helm, Meryl Streep in the spotlight and Juliette Binoche presenting her with a Palme d’Or… Such was the casting for this ceremony.
On the same Croisette where former producer Harvey Weinstein, whose fall seven years ago marked the start of
In her opening speech at the festival, the actress liked to imagine the adoption of such a law
Seven years after the launch of the movement
“A lot of concrete changes”
It must be said that the movement for freedom of speech, in the 7th art and elsewhere, is not weakening. It even almost overwhelmed the Festival with rumors of accusations from personalities, relayed on social networks and taken up by certain media, forcing the festival to deny them.
A sign of the feverishness of French cinema, in full introspection under the leadership of Judith Godrèche, who has become the leading figure of the movement since she accused directors Benoît Jacquot and Jacques Doillon of having raped her as a teenager.
It is in Cannes on Wednesday that she will present her short film Me Too, which highlights a thousand victims of sexual assault.
Another sign is Greta Gerwig, who became the first director to earn more than a billion dollars in revenue with Barbie, who chairs the most prestigious jury in the 7th art.
During the jury’s press conference, Greta Gerwig assured “that 15 years ago”, she “could not have imagined” so many women represented in cinema, also welcoming “many concrete changes” thanks to the movement
“I love cinema, it’s sacred to me. Art, films, are sacred to me,” added the first American filmmaker to take on this role during the opening ceremony.
At a press conference, actor Omar Sy, member of the jury, also welcomed the presence of “more and more women who have the courage to say things”. “A few years ago, the floor was opened and since then it has continued, so it’s a good sign, the conversation continues,” he said.
“It’s happening and it’s visibly happening more and more,” he said, saying that it didn’t just concern cinema but that it was “well distributed across all layers of society.” Company “. “It’s a good thing so we must continue to follow this progress,” he called for, rejecting any idea of delay in France on these issues.
Also on the jury are actresses Eva Green and Lily Gladstone, actor Pierfrancesco Favino, directors Hirokazu Kore-Eda, Juan Antonio Bayona, Nadine Labaki and screenwriter Ebru Ceylan.
« The Queen Meryl »
During the opening ceremony, Juliette Binoche presented the Palm of Honor to American actress Meryl Streep, who immortalized her “indelible place in the history of cinema”. The Frenchwoman could not hold back her tears: “You have changed the way we see women in the world of cinema. You changed the way we look at ourselves in cinema. And yet you don’t take yourself seriously. I see such joy in you. »
“The Queen Meryl”, 74, has already collected almost all the accolades, including a record 21 Oscar nominations and 3 golden statuettes, but had not come to Cannes for 35 years.
“I’m just so glad you didn’t get tired of my apple,” blurted the actress. “When I learned that it was you who was going to give me this Palme, I went crazy,” she assured. This award is unique in the world of cinema, I feel very honored to receive it. »
Two other Palms of Honor will be presented during this 77th edition, one at Studio Ghibli on May 20 and the other to director George Lucas, father of the “Star Wars” saga, during the closing ceremony.
Screened out of competition, Quentin Dupieux’s Second Act is the opening film of the Cannes Film Festival.
The competition will start on Wednesday with Diamant Brut, a first film by French director Agathe Riedinger. This is the first of 22 filmmakers, and only four female directors, in the running to succeed Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall.
Among them, Francis Ford Coppola, Paolo Sorrentino and Jacques Audiard, but also the Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof. The latter has just clandestinely fled Iran for an undisclosed location in Europe and implored world cinema to provide “strong support” to the threatened directors.
He says he fears for the safety of his teams remaining in Iran, and there is no guarantee of his coming to Cannes on May 24, on the eve of the awards, to present “The Seeds of the Wild Fig Tree.”