CANNESERIES
and diversity

CANNESERIES carries in its DNA and since its creation, a strong interest for diversity issues in front of and behind the camera.

We believe diversity is a resource and that the world of series is a unique field that allows for exploration, representation and embodiment of the plurality of our societies. The team of CANNESERIES is truly aware of the representation of diversity in series and we try to implement it through our series selection, our rendez-vous, masterclasses, and awards. We consider it a mission for the festival to take an interest in and introduce these issues to the audience. However, we of course stay humble regarding those complex and systemic questions and simply consider ourselves as a team on the right course.

Gender Statistics in our selection

As we committed to it by signing, during our second season, the Festivals charter of the 5050 collective, we respect the principle of transparency with our selection.Here are the numbers coming out of this selection : out of the 252 series we have received, 194 were long form series and 58 were short forms.

In the Long Form category

Out of the 194 series we have received, 45 were created or co-created by women, that is to say 23,2%.

Out of the 10 series selected in competition, 60% were created or co-created by women.

60% have passed the Bechdel2 test (based on the episodes we are screening).

In the Short Form category

Out of the 58 short form series we have received, 30 were created or co-created by women, that is to say 51,7%.

Out of the 10 series selected in competition, 60% were created or co-created by women.

50% have passed the Bechdel test (based on the episodes we are screening).

We can observe that our statistics confirm the well-known trends:

There are more series created or co-created by a woman in short form series than in the long form category
The medium percentage of series created or co-created by women is generally around 25% (therefore about 1 series out of 4);
Our selection has a higher percentage of series created or co-created by women than the ratio among the series received.

Let it be in our team or our selection committee, we keep sharpening, selection after selection, our knowledge of these issues that we relate more generally to equal opportunity issues.

CANNESERIES pioneer in the non-gendered interpretation prizes

Since its first season, CANNESERIES has decided to give two non-gendered interpretation awards: the Best Performance Prize, rewarding an individual performance, and the Special Interpretation Prize, rewarding an ensemble performance.

Behind that choice, a conviction: a performance has nothing to do with the gender of the artist and therefore it makes no sense considering it this way. We are proud to have been pioneers by giving these two prizes since 2018. They allow us to raise our jury and the media’s awareness on these issues. We will soon be able to start drawing analysis and indicators to follow. The non gendered Dior Revelation Prize is added to these two prizes this year, for the Short Form Competition.

Le Lab Femmes de de cinéma, partner of CANNESERIES

CANNESERIES is happy to welcome for the second year the Lab Femmes de Cinéma, also interested in series! The Lab is a think tank working on the issues of women representation and diversity in cinema, and more generally, in the audiovisual landscape.

The Lab will organise a workshop during the CANNESERIES Writer’s Club to think collectively with 50 screenwriters.

This workshop, co-organised by the 5050 Collective, represented for the Lab by Fabienne Silvestre, co- founder, and for the 5050 Collective by Sandrine Brauer, co-president, will tackle the question of “Representation of diversity in screenwriting: freedom and responsibility?”