Plenty of women on screen but none vying for the Palme d'Or - Building Gender Balanced Business

• During the Cannes Film Festival’s sixty-third year, not one woman was in the contending line-up for the Golden Palm, the festival’s most sought after prize.

• There is a woman drawing attention…but she just happens to be the lone person depicted on this year’s official poster.

• The absence of women draws the obvious question: are men really able to accurately portray women on screen?

• This year, two full length features, revolved primarily around female characters: Mike Leigh’s “Another Year” and Woody Allen’s “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger.”

• The article paints Allen’s film as a disappointment but highly praises “Another Year” starting that the feature’s only possible flaw is its arguably caricatural female characters.

• Certain films presented at Cannes show what exactly can happen if men are left alone to make films.

• “Aurora” by Cristi Puiu is described as a “macho scrawl of self-pity or self-glorification” and a “self-regarding echo chamber of male aggrievement.” The movie itself follows a disturbed man left by his wife who turns to murder.

• Other films, like Bertrand Tavernier’s “The Princess of Montpensier” (based on a novel written by Madame de Lafayette) and Manoel De Oliveira, two veteran directors, show that it is possible for a man to understand and depict the world from the outlooks of both genders.

The Financial Times article