🎧 Why Women Directors Get Sidelined at Cannes


Hello Reader,

We’re midway through this year’s Cannes Film Festival — and while it hasn’t made many headlines, seven women directors are in Competition this year. That’s the most in the festival’s history.

It’s progress — but it’s also a reminder of how far we still are from gender parity. And most of those seven are white women. Many of the best women directors working today are still relegated to sidebars… or left out entirely.

In Episode 1 of our Women at Cannes series on the Seventh Row Podcast, we dig into the festival’s long and complicated relationship with women filmmakers: who gets programmed (and who doesn’t), how sidebars get treated as second-class (even though they’ve played host to some of the greatest films of all time), and what that says about how Cannes defines “important” cinema.

🎧 Listen to Episode 1:

We talk about the politics of programming, the persistent invisibility of women (especially women of colour), and the rare exceptions who broke through — often in spite of the institution.

Happy listening,
Alex

P.S. Want more? This episode is the first in our Women at Cannes series — uncovering the real story behind the red carpet.

Seventh Row

Seventh Row is a nonprofit Canadian film criticism publication and publishing house. We're dedicated to helping you expand your horizons by curating the best socially progressive films from around the world and helping you think deeply about them. This newsletter is run by Seventh Row (http://seventh-row.com) but features exclusive content not found on the website.

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