Cannes Film Festival defends male-dominated competition

Workers clean the street prior to the 79th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Monday, May 11, 2026.

The head of the Cannes Film Festival defended Monday making another male-dominated selection in a year when the movie “Thelma and Louise” features on the official poster.

Only five of the 22 films vying for the prestigious Palme d’Or top prize are directed by women, compared with seven out of 22 last year.

Feminist collective 50/50 has accused organizers of “feminism washing” by using icons of female empowerment Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon playing “Thelma and Louise” in the 1991 film for publicity purposes.

“There is absolutely no point at which we’re choosing Geena Davis or Susan Sarandon or Ridley Scott’s film for the poster in order to supposedly give ourselves a feminist image,” Cannes boss Thierry Fremaux told reporters on Monday.

The 50/50 collective, which advocates for equality in the film industry, signed a charter with the Cannes Film Festival in 2018.

“At no point does this charter mention parity in selection. Under no circumstances should there be a quota policy,” Fremaux added, while insisting that the juries and the Cannes governing body were gender equal.

“If we are hesitating between two films... and that hesitation is between a film by a male director and a film by a female director, we will choose the film by the female director,” he added.

This year women directors account for 34 percent of all directors of feature films picked for the official program in Cannes, organisers say.

The proportion rises to 38 percent when short films are included.

“Today we’re seeing more and more women directors in upcoming cinema, so they are gradually making their way into the competition,” explained Fremaux, who has been running Cannes for more than 20 years. “The figures show that things are moving forward, that it’s slow, that it’s not enough.

“We need a more feminine cinema so that, as in literature and in music, the issue of seeing the world from a female perspective, a woman’s sensibility, is more present in the world of film,” he said.

France’s influential newspaper Le Monde examined Cannes’ record on promoting women directors with an article on Monday headlined: “Women on the poster, but still on the sidelines.”

Only three women have won the top Palme d’Or prize for best film in the 79-year history of Cannes, most recently French director Justine Triet for “Anatomy of a Fall” in 2023.

The festival starts Tuesday and ends on May 23.