'Why can only guys make movies?'



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Sofia Quiros and Melina Leon

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Cannes Film Festival

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Sofia Quiros (l) and Melina Leon

In the almost 70-year history of the Cannes Film Festival only one female director, Jane Campion, has won the prestigious Palme d'Or prize for best film.

Moreover, just 86 movies by female directors have been in competition for the festival's main prize, compared with more than 1,650 films by male directors.

This year, the 21 film shortlist features a joint record of women, showing how far the event – which the late feminist director Agnès Varda has its poster girl – has to go in terms of gender equality.

However, there is no shortage of talent in their story, with those from Latin America leading the charge.

Melina Leon last week became the first female director of Cannes, Cannes, France, with a name of her own. gold, golden camera, awarded to the best feature by a first-time director.

The film, which premiered in the Directors' Fortnight section, is set in the politically turbulent Peru of the 1980s and follows Georgina, a young native woman from the Andes, whose newborn daughter is stolen from a health clinic.

Leon made a year after star protests Cannes to sign up to a 50:50 gender parity pledge, balancing it's 2019 jury and selection committee accordingly; and the festival has hosted a series of talks about 'Women in Motion'.

She welcomes conversations around the issue, even if they're difficult.

"Just the fact that we're talking about it [is good], "she tells the BBC." It might be uncomfortable – but everything is going to be confrontational.

"There's so many female students of film and then when it comes to making the first [full-length] it's only the guys – why?

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"Unfortunately we do not get the chance." There's only one I think I could think of.

"But yeah, the fact that the juries are mixed, I think that's great, for many years, that was not a concern here or anywhere."

The Peruvian Writer / Director, who is calling out for 'rebel spirits', adds: "I hope we can not really get away from it. but we need the opportunity to make [films] so we work can be judged!

"There is this prejudice that we do not have enough work to do because it's such a big budget and we do not have enough females in the crews, especially photographers …

"There's no gonna be change if all parts do not come together."

In the first week of the festival, French-Senegalese director Mati Diop became the first black female director to premiere a film in competition (Atlantics), and at the press conference for the movie, The Dead Do not die, actor Tilda Swinton that top female filmmakers were clearly out there, whether they were being recognized and written about or not.

Swinton said: "I would have been countless movies out there by women.

"The question is: Why do we not necessarily know about them?

"We need to look at the cannon and appreciate it and screen it.

"It all exists we just have to pay attention to it and bring it all up."

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Tilda Swinton

One woman on the way up is Sofía Quirós, who holds the fresh "honor" of becoming a feature film competing in International Critics' Week – which runs parallel to Cannes – and the first from Costa Rica.

Her film, Land of Ashes (Ceniza Negra) is based on a short film she brought to Cannes a few years ago and tells the story of 13-year-old Selva – played by first-time actor Smachleen Gutierrez – and how she learns about life through the death of her closest family members.

Empowered

The director, who studied filmmaking in the Argentine capital of Buenos Aries and prefers to work with non-actors says it's "very strange" to be the only woman up for the alternative prize, in the arts.

"In Costa Rica we have a very special case," she says.

"Our country is a special thing, we are in a bubble, It's such an aim, but it's such a great thing.

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Sofia Quiros

The 29-year-old believes in the future of the country with a focus on sales, allowing the girls to "shine on the international area" with more "sensitive art house films".

Like Leon before her though, she still sees many women "disappear" after the short film, before getting the chance to try a feature length movie.

That's bound out by Cannes' program – where 26 per cent of the full-length movies were submitted this year were made by women. In the short film section, that figure rose to 32 percent, while it was 44 percent in the category for student films.

Quiros was keen therefore to be around with female colleagues while making her film, to help inspire greater opportunities.

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Media captionLand of Ashes (Ceniza Negra) trailer

"For me it was a very free process," she says. "I feel very comfortable with them, they are all friends and we have a lot of freedom, working with non-actors in a creative group since the beginning.

"I feel [I was able to do it] because I have this team of girls working with me since the first years. "

Cannes' closing ceremony takes place on Saturday, with the big announcement of the Palme d'Or winner. And while no newcomers Quiros or Leon find themselves in the running yet, look for their names and more emerging female filmmakers in the near future.

The names Diop, Jessica Hausner, Celine Sciamma, and Justine Triet are on the top of the list of goals (including Quentin Tarantino, Ken Loach and Pedro Almodovar), as ever at Cannes, the odds remain stacked against them.

Could this year be the year?

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