CANNES FESTIVAL: Highlighting more than just films as women strive for recognition

ONE of the world’s most important film festivals, the 71^st Cannes Festival is underway and will run until May 19.

With all of the publicity given to the excesses of certain movie moguls, directors and actors, this will be an important pointer to how the film industry is actually trying to change for the better.

Although the jury which is be chaired by Australian Oscar winner Cate Blanchett and includes actress Kristen Stewart as well as three other women, female directors are not greatly represented in the competition.

There are just three films out of 21 directed by women and they are France’s Eva Husson, Alice Rohrwacher from Italy and Lebanon’s Nadine Labaki and this year, Netflix is absent from the judging as it has refused to guarantee that their films will be screened in French cinemas.

One major change will be the instruction that those on the red carpet will not be permitted to take selfies and if they do, they run the risk of being refused entry to the screenings as this activity is considered vulgar.

May 15 is an important date in many Science Fiction fans diaries as the first showing of Solo: A Star Wars Story, starring Alden Ehrenreich and directed by Ron Howard will take place in Cannes.