China Entertainment started from Nortel 2002

Chapter 1030 Gender is not limited to male and female

At noon in Cannes, the sun generously shines on the entire town, and the Cote d'Azur shines even more brightly against the golden light.

The sky is a clear blue without a trace of clouds, and there is a faint salty smell in the air, as if you can smell the breath of the Mediterranean.

Along the famous Croisette Boulevard, street cafes are packed with people. Under the open-air white umbrellas, movie fans and tourists are leisurely enjoying French coffee and fresh seafood salad.

Many tourists also greeted Li Mu and his group.

At this time, Fumao and members of the Cannes Organizing Committee were taking Li Mu and members of the jury to a five-star hotel restaurant on Croisette Boulevard for dinner.

This is also a small benefit for the judges. During the film festival, the Cannes Organizing Committee will arrange formal luncheons for the jury from time to time.

And as it is the first day, it will naturally be arranged.

The menu is French-inspired, with Mediterranean-inspired appetizers, fresh seafood or steak entrees, as well as desserts and wine.

However, during the meal, Fumao communicated with Li Mu about the press conference to be held by the jury in the afternoon.

The press conference almost always touches on a core issue, which is also a common one in Hollywood: gender equality.

"American media that emphasize gender equality will almost certainly ask you about works by female directors."

Fumao shook his head and said that he had already had some dealings with the American media, which resulted in the number of films directed by female directors rising to five this year, the highest number in history.

Speaking of this, Fumao was also a little indignant.

Because this story started in 2018, when more than female filmmakers, including Cate Blanchett and Agnès Varda, collectively protested against Cannes's discrimination against women. This also led to the Cannes Organizing Committee signing a fair agreement, promising to make improvements with the goal of achieving a - split between works by male and female directors in the future.

But this is not an easy task, because looking at the global film industry, the number of female filmmakers is far less than that of male filmmakers, and it is even more difficult for female directors to match the number of male directors.

Although female directors today are not rare, those who are truly active in the industry and who produce works of a certain quantity and quality are still a minority.

In addition, due to the epidemic in recent years, various film production plans have been shelved or postponed. Correspondingly, the number of works by female directors has decreased in various regions.

The base was not very large to begin with, so after this shock, it is inevitable that the output will be low.

"Five movies is not a low number." Li Mu couldn't help but smile bitterly when he heard that.

There are probably quite a few low-quality works here, but there is nothing we can do about it. They were pulled here. In fact, this is very unfair to the excellent works.

"I remember that in the United States itself, among the 2021 films released in 276, less than 2021% were directed by women, and among the top 12 American films in the North American box office in , only % were directed by women, which is also a very low proportion. They themselves haven't done it!"

"But at the Oscars, both female directors Cheyenne Hyde and Jane Campion won big."

Fu Mao said in a deep voice, which made Li Mu stunned for a moment.

If you think about it carefully, "The Hearing Girl" and "Power of a Dog" won the Best Picture and Best Director awards, the two most prestigious honors, and lived up to expectations and fell into the hands of female filmmakers.

Although it is indeed an excellent movie, this is also the reason why Hollywood blames Cannes!
Li Mu didn't know what to say for a moment. Fumao told Li Mu at this time, naturally, to let Li Mu think about the wording at the press conference in the afternoon, otherwise if he said something wrong, Hollywood would start to criticize fiercely again.

During the lunch break, Li Mu talked about this with Liu Yifei.

It just so happened that it was around seven o'clock in the evening in the imperial capital.

"Have you thought of the wording?"

Liu Yifei couldn't help but feel a little worried. After all, this kind of issue is quite sensitive. If she doesn't handle it well, she will be criticized by the whole world.

"If the enemy comes, we will stop him with our generals; if the water comes, we will block it with earth!"

Li Mu rubbed his brows. It was not easy to be the chairman of the jury. He needed to coordinate the internal review issues and perform well when facing the media. The focus was always on him.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, the jury press conference was held on time at the main venue of the Cannes Film Festival.

Amid flashing spotlights, Li Mu led the jury members to take their seats one by one. Behind them were the eye-catching words "Cannes Film Festival" written in French and English, and above them hung the festival's Golden Palm logo.

The seats below the stage were packed, with media from all over the world gathered together, waiting for this highly anticipated press conference to begin.

Because the jury will only hold two sessions at most during this period, if there are no major issues, after this session, we will have to wait until the awards ceremony.

Li Mu sat in the center of the jury, wearing a dark suit and looking calm.

After the host introduced the identities and backgrounds of Li Mu and other judges in fluent French and English, he went straight to the question-and-answer session.

The first person to ask a question was indeed a reporter from Hollywood. The representative of The New York Times spoke first:
"Mr. Li Mu, there are five female directors in the main competition unit of the Cannes Film Festival this year. This does not achieve the gender balance that Cannes originally promised. Will this have a huge impact on the judges?"

They are just good at making trouble, Li Mu cursed secretly. Hollywood, which always claims to want gender equality, is actually just a slogan most of the time. It writes a lot of blank checks but gives little actual benefits.

For example, female directors in the United States account for only slightly over 10% of the total number of directors in the country, while female directors in Europe account for about 20%; as for the country with the highest proportion of female directors in Europe, it has to be France.

Cannes is actually much better than Hollywood in this regard.

However, Li Mu, who has never been afraid of reporters, was not at all inferior.

"A quarter of the films in this year's competition are from women, and considering that just ten years ago UNESCO reported that only 7% of directors worldwide were women, I think Cannes has done a pretty good job in terms of gender equality.

As for judging, my view has always been very clear: I don’t have a quota system. What films can be nominated and win awards depends only on their artistic value, not the gender of the director. ”

Li Mu glanced at the reporter and then continued firmly, "I still hope that this reporter friend can focus more on the movie itself and not be confused by gender. After all, there are more than just two genders."

As soon as Li Mu said this, some media in the audience burst into laughter. Although they didn't laugh out loud, they couldn't help but cover their mouths and smirk.

Because Li Mu’s following sentence is a subtle sarcasm towards the United States.

There are all kinds of genders, more than a dozen in one toilet, and perhaps there will be hundreds in the future.
(End of this chapter)