"Let's climb:" 50/50 Buttons at the Cannes Film Festival Show the Power of Protest

At this year’s Cannes Film Festival, 82 women from the film industry walked hand-in-hand up the Palais des Festivals in protest. In the 71 years of the festival, only 82 films directed by women have ever been chosen to compete in the festival’s history.

82. 

Linked arm-in-arm or hand-in-hand, the 82 women marched up the red carpet and stood together side-by-side in silence, raising their hands to applaud above their heads or clasp hands with others as they raised them toward the sky following Cate Blanchett’s speech.

“We believe that the distribution of power needs to be questioned.”

“We believe that equality restores the balance of power,” and “we believe that diversity deeply changes representations.”

These are just some of the statements from the 50/50 by 2020 website, a movement brought into the public consciousness after 82 women protested on the steps of the Palais des Festival at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.  

This year’s Festival saw multiple forms of protest, from more conventional protests, from actress Manal Issa’s “Stop the attack on Gaza!!” sign to the cast and the crew of “The Dead and the Other” protesting the treatment of Brazil’s Native population with signs reading things like, “Stop indigenous genocide!” to smaller-scale protests like actress Kristen Stewart’s attempts to go against the film festival’s requirement that women wear heels, on multiple occasions.

However, sometimes the smallest accessories, or the lack thereof, can make some of the loudest statements.

On May 12th, 82 women who work in the film industry stood side-by-side and linked arms and donned pins that said “50/50” because only 82 movies by female directors have been in contention for prizes at the festival since 1946, compared to a 1,645 by male directors.

Cate Blanchett, who led the protest, highlighted the need for increased representation of women in the film industry, asserting that the protest does not exist in a vacuum, but as a greater symbol of resistance.

“Women are not a minority in the world, yet the current state of the industry says otherwise,” Blanchett said. “We stand together on these steps today as a symbol of our determination to change and progress.”

With a small, oblong pin, the women of the Cannes Film Festival took the sexism of the film industry by storm. Every pin had a golden “50/50” on it, symbolizing the 5050X2020 goal for equal pay, equal employment and equal directorial boards by 2020.

Despite their varying backgrounds and roles within the film industry, the pin acts as a powerful, unifying accessory for all of the 82 women in the protest. It is far more than accessory, it is a movement.

“The stairs of our industry must be accessible to all,” Blanchett declared, “Let’s climb.”