With the Cannes Film Festival 2018 edition taking place, it provided a moment for bringing more attention to the cause of gender inequality within Hollywood. A red carpet rally was the latest method of protest involving women who work in the film industry. It featured a total of 82 females who united to show solidarity in Cannes, France, as they hoped to shed light on the industry's lower recognition rate of the females who have helped Hollywood.

What happened at Cannes?

A total of 82 females joined together on the Cannes red carpet ahead of the premiere of the movie, "Girls of Sun." All of the females have been involved in Hollywood in some capacity.

Among them were Oscar-winning and nominated actresses including Salma Hayek and Marion Cotillard, as well as French filmmaker Agnès Varda.

The 82 women walked together on the red carpet and up the staircase, eventually turning to face the crowd as part of their rally at Cannes. Actress Cate Blanchett and Agnes Varda spoke about needing some change in the industry. Varda noted that while "women are not a minority in the world," the Hollywood "industry says the opposite."

Why 82 women participated

There was significance involving the total of 82 women on the Cannes red carpet.

A total of 71 festival competitions have taken place at Cannes dating back to 1946. During this time, a total of 1,645 films by male directors have been part of the field. In comparison, there have been only 82 films created by female directors.

During that span of competitions, director Jane Campion's film "The Piano Teacher" won the Palme d'Or, which is the top prize for a movie at Cannes.

That was the only time a movie directed by a female has won the award in the history of the competition.

'Girls of the Sun' significance

As mentioned, the red carpet rally occurred ahead of the premiere of "Girls of the Sun." The movie is a French drama film. It involves an all-female group of fighters fighting ISIS in Iraqi Kurdistan to try to reclaim their town.

The movie was directed by Eva Husson and was nominated among the 21 contenders for the prestigious Palme d'Or award this year.

The original title of the film in French is "Les Filles du Soleil." Husson said the decision to have the rally ahead of her film's premiere was to highlight the movie since it features a mostly female cast and crew that worked on bringing it to life on the screen.

Change happening already?

A website, 5050 in 2020, has also highlighted the statistical imbalance between male and female-directed moves at Cannes.

The site's statistics showed that only 23 percent of the 2,066 directors who made one or more films between 2006 and 2016 were women.

Actress Salma Hayek called the red carpet rally a "historic moment" that will aid in the conversation that is needed. She also said in her more recent work as a producer she's seen changes happening already. These have included more projects featuring women or made by women.

Hayek also said the shortage of films by women is due to issues within the "entire industry." This includes the lack of financing or projects being green-lit for women. However, today's Cannes film festival rally helped to raise further awareness of the issue, and hopefully stirred up more conversation where it needs to happen within the circles of Hollywood.
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