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The Cannes Film Festival is joining forces with the French government to launch a hotline for victims and witnesses of sexual assault and harassment during the festival, according to French news agency AFP.
The French equality minister, Marlene Schiappa, said Thursday that her office was collaborating with the festival to fight sexual misconduct during Cannes and would aim to protect all women in the industry, not just actresses, AFP reported.
Schiappa also linked Cannes directly to the Harvey Weinstein scandal. “One of the rapes that Harvey Weinstein is accused of happened at Cannes, and so the festival cannot fail to act,” she said.
Variety reached out to Cannes officials to confirm the report.
Thierry Fremaux, the artistic director of Cannes Film Festival, had discussed the impact of the Weinstein scandal and the emergence of #metoo and Times’ Up with Variety last month. “The world is not the same since the Weinstein case; it has woken up. And it’s fortunate,” said Fremaux.
Fremaux had also hinted that the festival had had discussions with Schiappa. Pierre Lescure and I have also met with the (French) minister of equality between women and men in order to discuss our ideas. The Cannes Film Festival must be irreproachable on all these topics,” Fremaux told Variety in March.
