Women Directors at Cannes

There is anger that none of the 19 films in competition at Cannes was directed by a woman:

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/cannes/article7121359.ece

The closing night film The Tree, not in competition (and not mentioned in the article), was directed by Julie Bertucelli. There is one woman director in Un Certain Regard, Agnes Kocsis (among 19 films in that group). I checked my master list of Cannes rumors, and noticed that a few other woman directors were mentioned as prospects: Pernilla August, Susanne Bier, Sofia Coppola, Isabel Czajko, Lola Doillon, Jodie Foster, Kelly Reichardt, Joann Sfar, Julie Taymor, For whatever reasons, none of those got in. Some of the films may not have been ready; that was apparently the case with the Coppola and Reichardt films The Coppola is being mentioned as a likelihood for Venice in September.

The article linked to above, and the arguments of the women quoted in it, are weakened by lack of specificity. There is no enumeration of which worthy films directed by women were overlooked this time. Cannes films are not chosen at random; there is a pool of contenders (albeit not "officially" defined), and if you're not willing to discuss the pool, then a complaint about lack of representation comes across as very generalized.

For sake of completeness, here are some additional stats: One of the seven features in the Critics' Week was directed by a woman (Rebecca Zlotowski); three of the 22 features in the Directors' Fortnight were directed or co-directed by women (Alicia Duffy, Marina Meliade, Katell Quillevere). The best representation of all is in the ACID (Association for Independent Film Distribution), with five of nine features directed by women (Renate Costa, Marina Deak, Sophie Letourneur, Mariana Otero, Tatjana Turanskyj). Among the 18 out-of-competition films and special screenings, four women are represented besides Julie Bertucelli: Sophie Fiennes, Luciana Bezerra, Lucy Walker, and Sabina Guzzanti.

So if one looks beyond just the main competition, 15 of the 94 films "at" Cannes (not counting "market films" or the Cannes Classics sidebar) were directed or co-directed by women. That's 16%, which is in fact considerably above the estimated percentage of women-directed films submitted to Cannes, given in the Times article as fewer than 10%.