Jane Fonda & Viola Davis Honor Female Filmmakers at L’Oréal Cannes Award

CANNES, France – Cannes was lit up by Jane Fonda and Viola Davis, who arrived on the final weekend of the film festival to honor the next wave of female filmmakers at L’Oréal Paris’ Lights on Women’s Worth awards, celebrated in a beachside ceremony.

Fellow brand ambassadors Gillian Anderson, who joined the L’Oréal family in February, Simone Ashley, an ambassador since last year, and Elle Fanning were in attendance, after hitting the red carpet earlier in the evening. Cannes Film Festival president Iris Knobloch and Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode executive president Pascal Morand were also among the guests.

“It’s not young filmmakers, it’s young women filmmakers, and that’s what’s important,” Fonda emphasized. “Women, for centuries, have not been a powerful presence in Hollywood. This is slowly changing.”

Reflecting on her early days in the industry, Fonda recalled often being the only woman on set, forced to navigate complex on-set politics, as well as love scenes, without support. While she praised the introduction of intimacy coordinators and acknowledged growing representation, she insisted there is still a lot of work to be done.

“This is why it’s important – we respond differently to everything. We respond differently to war, to poverty, to health. And so, if you leave our voices out of the media of the culture, then everybody’s getting half the story. We’re poorer because we’re only getting half the story. So when you bring women in, then suddenly there’s the full picture. And that’s good for men as well as for women, and for boys as well as girls.”

Fonda, who hasn’t appeared onscreen in two years, has been devoting her energy to climate activism. She also admitted she’s been turning down scripts.

“I get offered movies all the time and they’re bad, they’re not good. They’re stereotype – you know, the ‘old woman.’ And so I am waiting for a good project,” she said.

In the meantime, the iconic actress is working on a memoir titled “Before I Forget,”  which she is still in the process of writing.

For Davis, the juror for the award, the evening felt personal after screening the 13 eligible films from the short and student film categories.

“I feel like I have a front row seat to all of these great female filmmakers’ stories, [and] that I’m now a part of it,” she said. “I have a front row seat in congratulating them, celebrating them, spotlighting them, awarding them. And that’s the gift that it gives to me.”

She also praised the powerful narratives being told in women-led films.

“There’s some extraordinary films that are out there. The thing that surprises me—but see, it doesn’t surprise me—is the depth of storytelling. When you give a woman a story where the woman is in the center of the narrative and they control that voice, what you get is a level of truth that you haven’t seen in film making. It’s a brutal truth at times and it makes you feel seen because it’s so honest.”

While progress is happening, Davis acknowledged that there is still a glass ceiling that exists in Hollywood. Still, more actresses are stepping behind the camera to direct, including Kristen Stewart, Scarlett Johansson, and Regina King among them.

“It’s still very difficult, but what’s happening now is, we’re getting hip to the fact that we have to do it anyway,” she said. “They’re out there and they’re doing it despite of [difficulty] and they’re doing it on their terms. That’s the future of film making. I think that we’ve discovered the elixir.”

One of the few actors to achieve EGOT status (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony), Davis admitted she rarely visits the room where her trophies reside. But recently she took some time to revel in a moment of celebration.

“I did allow myself, a few months ago, to sit in there for a couple of hours. And I forced myself to look at them so I can squeal, be proud of my story and my journey and actually, almost proudly say that I’ve had an interesting life.”

At the ceremony, Davis presented the award to Heo Gayoung for her short film “First Summer,” which was selected from the eligible films. The South Korean director’s film follows a woman torn between attending a memorial service and her granddaughter’s wedding.

“The depth of understanding the complexity of human loss is a mighty feat. Heo Gayoung through [main character] Yeongsun captures that desperate need for us to claim what makes us feel alive at all costs. Brave, bold and absolutely the story of what it means to be a woman,” Davis said.

Delphine Viguier-Hovasse, global brand president of L’Oréal Paris, reflected on the award’s significance.

“This fifth anniversary of the Lights on Women’s Worth Award is a powerful reaffirmation of our enduring commitment to uplifting women in cinema. This mission is deeply woven into the fabric of who we are at L’Oréal Paris,” she said.

“For the past five years we have been committed to giving recognition and visibility to promising young female directors. I hope one day this award will no longer be needed — a sign that our women have finally claimed their rightful place at the heart of the cinema industry.”