Women In Motion : ten years of fighting for gender equality

It’s 2015, more than two years before the #MeToo movement. Gender inequality in the film industry is glaring, with women constantly being rendered invisible both on-screen and off-screen. Kering decides to create a program to highlight female talent and to examine female representation and the roles women hold in the sector.

As a partner of the Festival de Cannes, Kering’s Women In Motion initiative reflects the Group's commitment to gender equality by shining a light on women in film and providing them with concrete support through awards, talks and podcasts, which offer a platform for influential and emerging figures, as well as by providing financial support for emerging talent. Today, ten years have passed since the platform’s creation, and while some indicators in the sector have improved, there is still a long way to go before equality is reached.  

A professor and researcher at the University of Southern California and the founder of the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, Dr. Stacy L. Smith conducted a study on the evolution of gender equality in film between 2015 and 2024 at Kering’s request, with a particular focus on the presence of women behind the camera in the most successful films across six countries and the percentage of female directors who were nominated for or received awards at major film festivals over the past ten years.  

Despite encouraging signs, the number of female directors has declined over the past two years in France according to the latest study by the French National Centre of Cinema on filmmaking in France published in April 2025. To date, Tonie Marshall and Justine Triet are the only women to have won a César Award for Best Director (for Venus Beauty Institute in 2000 and Anatomy of a Fall in 2024).  

When we examine the Academy Awards in the United States, we find a similar situation. Including Coralie Fargeat’s nomination for The Substance in 2025, female filmmakers have only received nine nominations over the course of 96 ceremonies. Only three women have won an Oscar for Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow, Jane Campion and Chloé Zhao. 

“In our study, we analyzed the representation of female directors at major film festivals such as Cannes, Venice, Toronto, Sundance, and Berlin,” commented Stacy L. Smith. “They now account for 26.8% of the selections, which is 8% more than ten years ago.” Recently, Chloe Zhao (Nomadland, 2020) and Audrey Diwan (Happening, 2021) won Golden Lions in Venice, while Carla Simón took home a Golden Bear at the Berlinale for Alcarràs in 2022. 

All of this serves to highlight the significance of one of Women In Motion's major initiatives: the Emerging Talent Award. In 2018, after attracting attention with her first film Summer 1993, Carla Simón received the Emerging Talent Award and the €50,000 grant that accompanies it. She used this funding to make the feature film, Alcarràs, for which she won a Golden Bear in Berlin.

Seven years later, the Spanish director is a fixture in the film world: her third feature film, Romería, was nominated for the Palme d'Or in 2025. Over the past decade, she and the other winners of the Women In Motion Emerging Talent Award have collectively received 72 nominations and 38 awards at various awards ceremonies around the globe. These statistics bode well for the Brazilian director Marianna Brennand, who, in accordance with tradition, was selected by the previous year’s recipient, and won the award in 2025 for Manas, her first film.  

According to the study conducted by Dr. Smith and her team (Dr. Katherine Pieper and W. Michael Sayers), the proportion of main characters played by women was 54% in 2024, 22 points higher than in 2015: a historic milestone which is cause for celebration. “For Gen Z, who were raised with the internet from birth, inclusion and equality are core values: they want to see content that reflects who they are, with women and diversity, and a full range of life experiences,” she explains. “However, women only account for 32% of all speaking roles.” And although gender parity among leads is encouraging, in the United States it largely applies to white women between the ages of 20 and 40. Whereas, if cinema truly reflected our society, African-American women should account for at least 20% of female leads in American films." 

Another persistent obstacle often raised by participants in Women In Motion talks and podcasts is ageism and the objectification of women. Among female characters with speaking roles, a quarter are depicted partially nude and only a quarter are over 40 years old. “Meryl Streep, Michelle Yeoh (Women In Motion Award 2023) and Demi Moore are the trees that hide the forest,” says Dr. Stacy L. Smith, who also regrets the dearth of women at the helm of blockbuster films. In every country, the higher the budget of a film, the less likely it is to be directed by a woman. In France, the average budget for films directed by women is 39% lower than the average budget for films directed by men. “Women are not considered capable of managing money and are seen as a risky investment. It's a psychological block that has no basis in reality,” explains Dr. Stacy L. Smith. The proof? Barbie, directed by Greta Gerwig, was number one at the global box office in 2023. “There is also a blind spot when it comes to salaries,” Dr. Smith points out. We need men and women who work at every stage of the production pipeline to give us confidential access to their contracts so that we can conduct a study on wage inequality. It is one of the last great taboos, indicative of persistent inequalities. To overcome these disparities, sisterhood is the watchword. Following Reese Witherspoon and Kate Winslet’s example, female actors are increasingly becoming involved in the production process in order to bring other women’s stories to the screen and to support women directors and screenwriters. Mentorship programs are also being set up to empower female voices.

While real progress has been made, in 2025 the recognition and support of female talent remains just as vital as the fight against sexual abuse and assault in the industry. Conscious of the long road that lies ahead, the Festival de Cannes and Kering have renewed their partnership. So that the voices of women in film will continue to resonate in the media and artistic landscape. So that the leading figures of today will inspire the generations of tomorrow. So that the seventh art will remain an inclusive and virtuous domain, both on-screen and behind the scenes.