The Cannes Film Festival held its inaugural Women In Motion Awards last week, honoring Zero Dark Thirty producer Megan Ellison, actress Jane Fonda, and screen legend, Olivia de Havilland, who could not attend. Both Ellison and Fonda gave awesome acceptance speeches that focused on giving women the opportunity to tell their own stories.
According to The Hollywood Reporter:
On stage, Ellison admitted that her work so far in the film industry has had an emotional impact on her. “It has made me feel less alone in the world, and for that, I will always be grateful,” she said. “I don’t believe in very many things, but art is definitely one of them. And at the top of that list, film and art, influence our world’s culture much more than many of us understand and fully respect. Art does not belong to the few, but to the many.”
She continued to say that the perspectives filmmakers are putting out in the world should not come from such a small subset of people because that would be a disservice.
Fonda lauded the 29-year-old producer of films like American Hustle, Zero Dark Thirty, Her, and Foxcatcher during her own speech, saying:
I want to give a shout out to Megan Ellison. It’s hard to believe how young she is. Without her, a lot of the most daring, cutting edge, important filmmakers in the United States would not be making their movies.
Fonda then went on to talk about how important it is to see women’s stories on screen. Not just for women, but for men, too:
This industry, our industry, is without doubt the most important cultural force in the world. It knows no boundaries. … It’s critical that women are at the heart of the international film industry, not just as glamorous icons but as creators, as artists, as decision makers, ensuring that the narrative — of not just half but 51% of the world’s population — is fully represented. We women we see things differently, we experience things differently, we express things differently, we just do. And if our stories, our truths, are not respected on that big silver screen, then the women in those dark theaters are going to risk feeling that they are not seen and that they don’t really matter that much. And the half of the world that is male will be robbed of half of reality.
Pierre Lescure, president of the Cannes Film Festival, and Thierry Fremaux, Cannes’ General Delegate, co-hosted the event, which was connected to the Women in Motion Talks at Cannes, designed to allow filmmakers to discuss ways in which to make sure female voices are heard throughout the global film industry.
Here’s hoping they make a dent.
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