“The whole ambiguity of French cinema is as follows: it is the one that has the most female directors in the world, but it is also the one that rewards them the least”, sums up journalist Véronique Le Bris in one sentence. Since the creation of the Césars, only one woman, Tonie Marshall, has won the prize for best director, in 2000 for Venus Beauty (Institute). This year, on the occasion of the 48th ceremony, which will take place this Friday evening, the Academy has selected exclusively men to compete in this same category.
However, as Véronique Le Bris, a film specialist, points out, “there were more films made by women than in previous years”. Only, only five feature films were selected unlike last year, where seven competed. “They have also been noticed and awarded internationally, she develops. So it’s not a quality or talent issue. It’s simply because we are in a system that is unfavorable to women and that does not give them the same chances of succeeding. When you only have to keep one, it’s a man. So the more we reduce the possibilities of gaining access to the prize list, the more women are disadvantaged. »
“What blocks are the mentalities”
It is in the face of this lack of recognition of the work of French female directors that Véronique Le Bris created the Alice Guy Award in 2018, like the Prix Femina launched in 1906 in opposition to the Prix Goncourt, then exclusively composed of men. A problem that has not really evolved, more than a century later.
It is not for lack of having tried to shake up the codes. In 2020, the Académie des César was completely reformed to modernize its operation. It now has almost as many voters as voters among more than 5,000 members. “Even by creating a more equal collective, that is not enough, exclaims the journalist. It goes to show that it’s a very entrenched, broader, systemic problem.” Before adding: “What blocks are mentalities. »
So when we imagine new gendered categories such as “best director” and “best director”, Véronique Le Bris answers directly while remaining lucid: “The world of cinema is not ready, especially women. In particular, because they continue to think that they must be judged like their peers and they are afraid of being locked into some kind of sub-category to win a prize that would not have the same value. »
We must keep “an open competition”
The problem “must be dealt with upstream” and not “through gendered categories”, believes for his part the director of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Cinéma institution, which has supported several nominated films, in particular The Night of 12 And The Innocent, two feature films shot in the region. “The competition must absolutely remain open”, insists Grégory Faes, according to whom “we do not vote for a man or for a woman but for the best film or the best realization”. As in sailing sports competitions where “we make no distinction”, he compares.
“It’s much more rewarding for a woman to compete and succeed by being judged under the same conditions as a man,” he says. A former member of the Academy, he also points out that another solution, adopted by the Berlinale, was to “degender the price of interpretation”. What he deems to be nonsense.
“Promote the path of women”
The subject remains delicate in the middle. Despite our numerous requests to various film authorities, very few agreed to give their opinion on this “touchy” question.
“The real question is to understand why, when there are so many girls and boys studying cinema, there are fewer female directors on arrival? “, underlines Grégory Faes, believing that the solution is to” ensure that there are more projects which succeed “. And for that, continue to “promote the path of women” because there are “still too many obstacles in their career as a director”. The man regrets, however, that Alice Winocour is not in the selection of César: “She would have completely deserved her place in the best realization”. It was she who won the Alice Guy prize, awarded on Wednesday.