'Cannes fest to have ripple effect after Weinstein earthquake'

Artistic director Thierry Fremaux says the Cannes Film Festival will never be the same after Hollywood's sexual scandal following the exposure of producer Harvey Weinstein.

Fremaux on Thursday discussed his first Cannes Film Festival without Weinstein, describing it as an "earthquake" moment for the industry, reports hollywoodreporter.com.

"The world will never be the same again, the Cannes Film Festival will never be the same again," Fremaux said, adding that the movement sparked by the allegations against Weinstein had also caused an internal evaluation by the festival itself.

"We will discuss our own practices with the festival team. We will discuss equality of salary, we want to question our own process about the parity of the juries," he added.

At a press conference following the announcement of the film festival's official selection, Fremaux answered questions about the lack of women in the line-up, offering his usual reply that the festival has to deal with the titles that are being submitted.

"But there are three female movie makers in competition," he said, pointing to Nadine Labaki, Alice Rohrwacher and Eva Husson, but adding that there "may be four" following late additions that are expected.

Fremaux also compared Husson's film "Girls of the Sun", about a battalion of female Kurdish troops and starring Golshifteh Farahani and Julie Delpy, to "Black Panther" in breaking new cultural ground.

--IANS

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