Star Julianne Moore warns 'women are losing out' in Hollywood

At Cannes film festival, she urges women to band together; says she hates 'guns and explosions'

CANNES, FRANCE:

"The Hours" star Julianne Moore said she did not like "explosions and guns" as she bemoaned the drop in leading roles for women in Hollywood Saturday, saying women were being squeezed out everywhere.

The Oscar-winner said women have to band together with the number of women and girl leads in top-grossing movies down to 37 percent -- a 10 percent drop in one year.

The fall comes after study earlier this year also by the University of Southern California Annenberg Inclusion Initiative found only nine of the 100 biggest US movies last year were directed by women.

"It's not endemic just to the film industry, it's global," Moore said at the Cannes Film Festival, after getting a Women In Motion award from the luxury group Kering.

"There's not representation in the media, there's not representation in higher education. There are lots of places where we don't have the representation we deserve," the actor added.

"How do you change that? You do it slowly, steadily, speaking up, using your privilege, hiring more, talking about alliances," Moore said.

"I feel like women are each other's greatest allies, and that's the secret sauce."

Moore, 65, said progress has been made, saying "I can remember being on a set not too long ago where the only women were me and the third AC," who takes care of the focus on the camera.

"I said (to her), 'Look around the room. We're the only ones here.'"

"It's when Hillary Clinton lost the election and we were both devastated."

Moore, who broke through in Robert Altman's film "Short Cuts" in 1993, said it was "unusual when I was coming up to see women on a crew. There's more female directors and writers now."

Moore, who won her Oscar for "Still Alice" in 2015, and has four other nominations, said she gives gratuitously violent or shocking films a wide berth.

"When things are rough globally.... I don't like someone being murdered," said the "Magnolia" star.

"I don't like explosions and guns. I don't like histrionics. I don't like things that raise the stakes without real feeling underneath... I don't want to watch it."

Hartland Villa designed the official poster for the festival featuring actresses Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon on the set of Thelma & Louise (1991) by Ridley Scott, the closing film of the 44th edition. French actress Eye Haïdara will serve as host for the opening and closing ceremonies.

During the festival, three Honorary Palmes d'Or were awarded: the first was to Peter Jackson during the festival's opening ceremony, the second was awarded on short notice to John Travolta before the world premiere of Propeller One-Way Night Coach, the third will be awarded to Barbra Streisand.

The festival opened with the French period-comedy film The Electric Kiss by Pierre Salvadori.

The Official Selection for the 79th edition was announced on 9 April 2026, by the festival's President Iris Knobloch and General Delegate/Artistic Director Thierry Frémaux at a press conference held at the Pathé Palace in Paris. Frémaux noted that 2,541 feature films were submitted for consideration, with the initial main competition lineup featuring 21 films from three continents and five female directors. Pedro Almodóvar's Bitter Christmas is the only selected film that had its world premiere before the festival. AFP