Kering - Women and Motion Award at Cannes

Patty Jenkins won this year's "Kering Women in Motion Award", the director of Wonder Woman. The award was given out at a gala event on May 13 at Cannes. This is one luxury party that most women will never be able to attend or be invited to attend. One attendee this year was Danish actor Mads Mikkelson who is on record for being against the work of women in Sweden presented at equality seminars by the Swedish Film Institute at Cannes 2013. Four theaters in Sweden use a rating system that advises spectators if a film meets the criteria for the Bechdel test. (http://www.a-markt.se/) Mikkelsen disagrees with this.

When fashion conglomerate Kering came on the scene at Cannes in 2013, it was a forum for established directors or actresses interviewed in a room of a hotel for a tiny public (ca 50). Guests have included Jodie Foster, Robin Wright, Agnès Varda, Juliette Binoche, Isabelle Huppert, Claire Denis, Carey Mulligan, and Salma Hayek. The first year everyone who signed up basically got in. The next year it was more restrictive.

Kering has tried to fulfill a need of inclusion that Cannes wasn't listening to.Kering CEO is Salma Hayek's husband Francois-Henri Pinault. The Kering group acquired its fortune through fashion brand names for leather goods, jewelry and watchmaking for women. (Motto: “Kering empowers its luxury houses and its sport & lifestyle brands to reach their potential in the most imaginative way").

At the Palme d'Or closing ceremony music from the "Wonder Woman" soundtrack played when almost every award was given out- each juror gave a prize - in this "female centric jury" (5 women of 9 jurors- four men, four women, and jury president Cate Blanchett).