Women to be under the spotlight at 2015 Cannes Film Festival

As the 68^th edition of the Cannes Film Festival takes off today, the women will be seen participating more than the previous editions. Even though the festival will have only two female directors showcasing their work, a fair number of women centred-films will be screened during the next 12 days. This year, legendary director Agnes Varda will be honoured with Palme d’Or, making her the first woman to receive the prestigious title.

Here are a few others reasons why you should be looking forward to this year’s festival:

Emmanuelle Bercot’s "La tête haute," to open the festival

For the second time in the festival’s history, a woman director’s work will open the festival, who is only one of the two women, among the 19 directors competing this year. Bercot’s "La tête haute," which will be screened with English subtitles, stars Catherine Deneuve and Benoît Magimel, and will see Deneuve play a juvenile judge. The French Director’s last film to be screened at the festival was ‘Clément’ in 2001.

‘Carol’ based on Patricia Highsmith’s “The Price of Salt” to be screened

Based on Patricia Highsmith’s scandalous 1952 novel, “The Price of Salt,” Carol, a movie about the passionate love affair between two women living in New York in the 1950s, will be screened at the festival on the 17^th of May. Starring Cate Blanchett, the film was dropped by several directors and still fears success. About a decade after ‘Brokeback Mountain,’ gay love stories, especially those involving women, still struggle to find a large audience but Blanchett believes that this is all changing.

A discussion panel on "Woman in Motion"

After receiving criticism regarding women playing an insignificant role in the film festivals, the organizers have been making an effort to correct this. Apart from having reserved the first slot for a woman director to showcase her work, the festival will also observe a discussion panel on "Woman in Motion." Among the women who will participate in the discussion will be Frances McDormand, Salma Hayek, Iranian actress-singer Golshifteh Farahani, , Isabella Rossellini, producer Christine Vachon and French writer and director Claire Denis.

Variety.com>