Cannes 2019: Gender parity gains momentum at film festival
Salma Hayek and Francois-Henri Pinault
Cannes' film festival, the world's most important cinema showcase, last year signed a pledge to get an equal number of men and women in its top management by 2020 that is gradually gathering momentum at similar European and US events.
Eva Longoria
"We have so much work to do and I just think we can't let up," Longoria told journalists at the Women in Motion dinner at Cannes.
''Whenever we see something improving we can't just say 'Oh OK let's relax, the momentum's going to go that way'. It won't continue to go that way, we have to continue to change the industry for ourselves."
Gong Li and Jean-Michel Jarre
Chinese actress Gong Li, the star of 'Farewell My Concubine', was awarded a prize for her career at the event.
Julie Gayet
Cannes' organisers have said they were not planning to introduce quotas dictating the gender balance of the films selected to compete at the festival.
Mathieu Kassovitz and Elsa Zylberstein
At Cannes, four women are contending for this year's top Palme D'Or film prize, including Franco-Senegalese Mati Diop and France's Celine Sciamma, out of 21 entries - or just under 20 percent of the total.
Elsewhere, the proportion has sometimes been higher, with over 40 percent of the films competing at Berlin's festival in February made by women.
Cannes Film Festival President Pierre Lescure and Rosalie Varda
Industry insiders said the slow progress was reflected in everything from the short shrift female directors still got in the media to their under-representation at industry events.
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