Cannes Film Festival Head Thierry Frémaux On Rumors Of #MeToo Wave: “We Are Trying To Have A Festival Without These Polemics”

As a #MeToo wave looked to rock the 77th Cannes Film Festival with rumors swirling that filmmakers with films at the event would be tagged, Thierry Frémaux emphasized his event isn’t about polemics, rather the picture that’s on the screen. If there are controversies during Cannes “we try to avoid them” he said today during an afternoon presser.

“Last year, as you know, we had a few polemics, and we realized it, and so this year we decided to host a festival without polemics to make sure that the main interest for us all to be here is cinema,” Frémaux said. “So if there are other polemics, it doesn’t concern us.”

“It’s about the movies and whether they deserve or not, in aesthetic or artistic terms, to be there,” Frémaux said. “There is no ideology guiding the selection committee.”

“We would like to have a festival without polemics,” the Cannes Head continued, “the politics should be up on the screen.”

“We’ll talk about it in five years. I may not be there any longer, but will there be self-censorship coming from artists?” he asked. “What’s happening today, with the new social relationships, and the rapports between women and men in the world, will it spur new type of stories?”

Deadline had asked Frémaux about whether he agreed with Cannes Mayor David Lisnard published comments in L’Opinion equating France’s recent #MeToo movement to the East German Stasi. The Cannes Boss responded that he wasn’t familiar with the article.

Speculation had been rife prior to Cannes that a rumored bombshell report would be published on investigative website Mediapart, which has done a number of in-depth reports into #MeToo accusations in France.

However, Mediapart correspondent Marine Turchi, who has led many of these investigations, denied the rumors in an interview with Le Parisien newspaper over the weekend.

“Mediapart doesn’t publish lists but rather long, substantiated investigations with opposing points of view,” she was quoted as saying. “I don’t know where this rumor of a list has come from but it is unfounded.”

Still with buzz out there that #MeToo would ding many filmmakers with films at the fest, Frémaux set about inviting France’s #MeToo champion, actress and filmmaker Judith Godrèche to show off her short film Moi Aussi as the opening night title in Un Certain Regard on May 15. The actress accused director Benoît Jacquot of sexual abuse when she was a teenager. He has denied the allegation.

The actress has gone on to lead a campaign to end what she calls the culture of silence around abuse of all types in the French film industry. Her actions have encouraged thousands of alleged victims from all spheres of public and private life to speak up, many who she documents in her short.

“We’re extremely attentive to what is happening today, and we’re following the situation closely,” said Cannes Film Festival President Iris Knobloch in an interview with celebrity magazine Paris Match on Thursday May 9 about how the fest would handle a #MeToo wave. “If the case of a person being implicated should arise, we will take care to make the right decision on a case-by-case basis, in consultation with the board and all the involved parties. But we would also consider the work to see what is best for it. It is the real star.”