CANNES, France—After one of France’s top actors, Adèle Haenel, announced she was quitting a French film industry that she denounced for “complacency toward sexual aggressors,” Cannes Film Festival chief Thierry Fremaux rejected her criticisms while addressing members of the media Monday., last week published an open letter in themagazine in which the 34-year-old said Cannes and other pillars of the French film industry are “ready to do anything to defend their rapist chiefs.
In 2019, Haenel accused French director Christophe Ruggia of sexually harassing her for years beginning from the age of 12. Ruggia has denied it. Since then, Haenel has often vocally protested what she’s called an insufficient response sexual abuse in French filmmaking. At the César Awards in 2020, she walked out of the ceremony after Roman Polanski won best director.
“The proof is that if you believed it, you would not be here, listening to me now, taking your accreditations and complaining about the press screenings for a festival of rapists,” Fremaux said the gathered reporters. Fremaux acknowledged that the festival once had a problem in gender inclusivity. “Maybe I was clumsy,” he said. This year, there are a record seven films directed by women out of the 21 movies in competition, which he said reflects the growing prominence of female filmmakers around the world.