CANNES – The jury president is almost always center stage at the official jury press conference, but with a Cannes Film Festival facing a number of political headwinds this year’s ringleader was truly in the crossfire. Luckily, Greta Gerwig was more than up to the challenge. And, frankly, we’d expect nothing less.
Despite a jury that features Lily Gladstone, J.A. Bayona, Omar Sy, Eva Green, Nadine Labiki, Pierfrancesco Favino, Hirokazu Kore-eda, and Ebru Cylan, she faced some of the toughest questions. A compartively easy inquiry was about the lack of female directors at the festival in general at Cannes. Unlike some of its other festival peers, the number of world premieres from female directors usually trails the likes of Sundance and TIFF, among others. This despite two of the last three Palme d’Or’s being awarded to Julia Ducournau for “Titane” and Justine Triet for “Anatomy of a Fall.”
“Well, I think I’m very honored and pleased to be a director and also to follow in the footsteps of Jane Campion who was head of the jury 10 years ago,” Gerwig says. “I think I’ve been making movies and going to film festivals for almost 20 years. And in a way this has never not been a question of moving things forward and increasing the number of female directors and the number of female authors. And in my lifetime of making movies, it’s changed and it’s gotten better and there’s more, and it’s not done yet, but it’s certainly moving in the right direction.”
Gerwig continues, “And I look forward to every movie that we are fortunate enough to see and every year I cheer when there are more and more and more women being represented. And I think it’s about the long arc of moving this. And again, I think it also goes back to how long it takes movies to get made. It’s also something where it comes over time and I thought, I don’t know, 15 years ago I couldn’t imagine the number of women that were represented not only in international festivals but in distribution and in awards conversations. And so I’m hopeful that it’s just continuing.”
Seven years after the #MeToo movement exploded in the United States, France is having a reckoning within its own entertainment industry. Activist and actress Judith Godrèche will debut her new short film “Moi Aussi” tomorrow and their are rumblings that new allegations against directors and talent in films screening at Cannes could be revealed over the course of the festival. This is such a hot topic in France at the moment that Gerwig was asked about it twice. Initially, she elected on the “substantive change” she’s experienced in the American film community and the need to “expand that conversation.” Later, she was asked why she thought it took so long for the movement to be taken seriously across the Atlantic.
“I can’t speak to the way the timelines work with movements like this, but I can say that it is evolving all the time,” Gerwig notes “And it’s not something that’s a destination we all reach together. It’s something that we keep discussing and figuring out how we want our industry in cinema to be.”
The “Barbie” helmer and four-time Oscar nominee also reflected on how the rise of intimacy coordinators was a sign of substantial change because of the #MeToo movement in the U.S.
“That was not something when I was starting out that happened at all and now it’s being built into films,” Gerwig says. “And I think the exact same way as I think of a stunt coordinator [or] a fight coordinator, it is an art and it’s part of building a safe environment just as you would if you were going to have two people fight with swords. You don’t just see what happens. That would be terrifying. So, I think that it’s being in the conversation and I think it will continue. I think it’s always changing.”
As for the potential strike by the employees of the festival, Gerwig noted, “I certainly support labor movements. We’ve certainly gone through this just now in our unions and I hope that the festival and the workers can form an agreement that is good for them and supports them and supports the festival because this is very important that people have protection and a living wage.”
Politics are also inescapable at festival such as Cannes. 20 years ago, Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11” won the Palme d’Or and was seen as a powerful indictment against then president George W. Bush. At the time, many thought it might lead to his downfall in the 2024 election. That didn’t come to pass. Now, “The Apprentice,” a movie centered on Donald Trump in the 1980s, is debuting at the festival next week in the middle of another presidential election. Both Gerwig and Gladstone were asked what they thought when they saw the film was in the selection. Especially in the context of the former president’s policies against indigenous Americans and women. Gladstone sidestepped the question, but, once again, Gerwig made her case.
“I try to come to every film that we see with an open mind and an open heart and to be willing to be surprised,” Gerwig says. “I think sometimes the surface of something when they say, ‘Oh, it’s about this’ or ‘It’s about that,’ and you get in the movie theater and it’s about something that you had no idea that it was going to be about. And I think so I don’t want to make any assumptions about what it is, but I very much look forward to it. I look forward to all the films, but I couldn’t say what it will be, but maybe afterwards.”
