Stars to wear #MeToo white ribbons at 'French Oscars'

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Following in the footsteps of their peers in the US and the UK, stars will wear a white ribbon in protest at violence against women at the upcoming "French Oscars" – the Cesars – on Friday.

"We are all going to wear white ribbons," Alain Terzian, head of the French Academy, said on Tuesday, after actors and directors at the Golden Globes and the British Bafta awards wore black in solidarity with the #MeToo movement.

Stars wear black or "Time's Up" pins to show support for the anti-sexual harassment campaigns. /CGTN Photo

The just-concluded Berlin film festival also came under pressure to replace its red carpet with a black one in support of victims of sexual harassment in Hollywood after the Harvey Weinstein scandal.

The Cesars sparked feminist fury last year by inviting controversial Franco-Polish director Roman Polanski to preside over the awards before he was forced to pull out.

The veteran filmmaker – who has been accused of sexual assault by several women – is wanted in the US for the statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl in 1977.

Demonstrations were held in Paris against Roman Polanski last year. /AFP Photo

Terzian said the Franco-American actress and director Tonie Marshall came up with the white ribbon idea to support a French foundation that works to stop violence against women.

"We will all wear the ribbon with conviction and determination," he added.

French Culture Minister Francoise Nyssen said film producers had a huge "responsibility to fight stereotypes, discrimination and harassment" both on camera and behind it.

Patriarchal gaze

"No matter who we are dealing with, we cannot have any tolerance or complacency about unacceptable behavior," she added.

Nyssen also was highly critical of how few films directed by women get made.

"Certainly we have made some progress in recent years, but it is still not acceptable that there are fewer women film makers, that they are less visible and less supported" than their male counterparts, she said.

Franco-American actress and director Tonie Marshall is the only woman to have won a Cesar for best director. /AFP Photo

"In 42 years the Cesar for best director has only been won once by a woman," she added, referring to Marshall, who won in 2000 for "Venus Beauty."

She said only one in five feature films subsidized by the French state every year are made by women.

The situation is Hollywood is even worse, with only seven percent of the top 250 films in 2016 directed by women.

Several actors at Berlin launched a campaign to bring equal rights to the red carpet.

German star Anna Bruggemann urged actresses to ditch high heels and low-cut dresses to challenge the "patriarchal gaze" women face at award ceremonies.

She launched a Twitter hashtag #NobodysDoll and signed up a number of other mostly German stars to her cause.

(With inputs from AFP)