Cannes Film Festival will have a sexual harassment phone line for the first time in 71 years

The festival will have precautions in place to protect women  
Getty Images
Sabrina Carder30 April 2018

This year Cannes Film Festival won't only be about glitz and glamour but also, more poignantly, about stopping sexual harassment.

When the prestigious event starts on May 8 it will have one very important addition, a sexual harassment hotline.

The festival has joined forces with the French government for the first time in 71 years in order to help protect women during the annual film festival.

The phone line has been set up in the wake of the #MeToo and Time's Up movements, which is an ongoing result of the downfall of disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein, who is currently under investigation for over 60 sexual assault allegations, some of which allegedly took place in Cannes.

Harvey Weinstein at Cannes Film Festival in 2012
Getty Images

Last week, French equality minister Marlene Schiappa told AFP, "One of the rapes that Harvey Weinstein is accused of happened at Cannes, and so the festival cannot not act."

Schiappa is presumably referring to Italian actress Asia Argento, who has accused Weinstein of raping her during the renowned event in 1997, when she was 21-years-old.

And she isn't the only one.

Since Weinstein's misconduct came to light in October 2017, the number of cases which are alleged to have taken place in Cannes over the decades has now risen to four.

This precaution is certainly a step in the right direction, proving that the Time's Up movement is way more than just black-out red carpets and is genuinely making a difference towards women's wellbeing and protection.

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