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Cannes film festival to open anti-sexual predator hotline after Weinstein scandal

An anti-sexual harassment hotline will be set up for the Cannes film festival next month after disgraced Hollywood tycoon Harvey Weinstein was accused of attacking four actresses at the event.

Published: 27 April 2018 10:18 CEST
Cannes film festival to open anti-sexual predator hotline after Weinstein scandal
The French equality minister Marlene Schiappa said movers and shakers would be warned about their behaviour when they arrive at the world's biggest film 
festival on the French Riviera.
   
“We have set up a partnership with the Cannes film festival to tackle sexual harassment,” Schiappa said late Thursday, with a telephone hotline for victims or witnesses to report aggressors. 
   
“One of the rapes that Harvey Weinstein is accused of happened at Cannes, and so the festival cannot not act,” the  minister told AFP.
 
READ ALSO:

France to strip Hollywood's Weinstein of Legion d'Honneur award

Photo: AFP

Weinstein has been accused of four sexual assaults at Cannes in previous years, including the rape of the Italian actress Asia Argento in his luxury hotel suite when she was 21.

Schiappa said the measures were being put in place not just to protect actresses but all women working in or around the film industry.
   
Although this year's jury to decide the Palme d'Or top prize is being headed by Australian actress Cate Blanchett, Cannes has faced criticism about its attitude to women in the past, with rows over the need to wear high heels on the red carpet.
 
In a year when the #MeToo movement has dominated the headlines, only three female directors made the shortlist of 18 competing in the main competition.
   
Eyebrows have also been raised by the lifting of the ban on the controversial Danish director Lars Von Trier, who was barred seven years ago for saying he was a Nazi.
   
The Icelandic star Bjork said in October that he had harassed her on the set of “Dancer in the Dark”, the musical for which she won best actress at Cannes in 2000. 
 
With only a tiny percentage of Hollywood films directed by women, the French Culture Minister Francoise Nyssen has been calling for women to be given more control behind the camera.
   
She and her Swedish opposite number intent to launch a international fund to help women directors during the festival, which runs from May 8 to 19.

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FILM

Cannes Film Festival postponed to July due to Covid

The Cannes Film Festival has been rescheduled for July 6th to 17th - postponed by around two months due to the ongoing virus crisis, organisers said on Wednesday.

Published: 28 January 2021 08:06 CET
Cannes Film Festival postponed to July due to Covid
The 2018 Palme d'Or winner Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-Eda posing for the cameras at the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual highlight for movie lovers in France. Photo: AFP

“As announced last autumn, the Festival de Cannes reserved the right to change its dates depending on how the global health situation developed,” they said in a statement.

“Initially scheduled from 11th to 22nd May 2021, the Festival will therefore now take place from Tuesday 6th to Saturday 17th July 2021.”

The festival was cancelled last year, while rival European events in Berlin and Venice went ahead under strict health restrictions.

The Berlin Film Festival, which usually kicks off in February, said last month it would run this year's edition in two stages, an online offering for industry professionals in March and a public event in June.

France has closed all cinemas, theatres and show rooms alongside cafés, bars and restaurants as part of its Covid-19 health measures and the government has pushed back their reopening date until further notice due to rising levels of viral spread across the country.

The Cannes festival normally attracts some 45,000 people with official accreditations, of whom around 4,500 are journalists.

It had only been cancelled once before, due to the outbreak of war in 1939.

Its Film Market, held alongside the main competition, is the industry's biggest marketplace for producers, distributors, buyers and programmers.

Last year, the festival still made an official selection of 56 films – including the latest offerings from Wes Anderson, Francois Ozon and Steve McQueen – allowing them to use the “Cannes official selection” label.

 

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