Cannes Jury Campion Says Film World Suffers from 'Inherent Sexism'

Head of the Cannes jury Jane Campion -- the only woman ever to win the festival's top prize -- on Wednesday blamed the lack of women movie makers on "inherent sexism".

"I think you would have to say that there's some inherent sexism in the industry," the New Zealand screenwriter and director told reporters on the first day of the Cannes Film Festival.

"It does feel very undemocratic and women do notice. Time and time again we don't get our share of representation," she said, adding that men seemed to "eat all the cake".

Campion, whose New Zealand-set movie "The Piano" about a mute pianist and her daughter won the Palme d'Or in 1993, is also one of only four women film-makers ever to have been nominated for a best director Oscar.

Another of the four, Sofia Coppola, nominated in 2003 for "Lost in Translation", is also on this year's Cannes jury.

Campion added that there were so few women working in movies that it is "always a surprise for the world, when a woman film-maker does come along you get a more feminine vision".

The 18 films competing for this year's Palme d'Or include only two by women directors -- Japan's Naomi Kawase ("Still the Water") and Italy's Alice Rohrwacher ("The Wonders").

Last year there was one, while in 2012 there was not a single film made by a woman and only seven percent of the 1,700-odd films submitted to Cannes this year were by women.

Festival organizers say they recognize the problem but that doing anything other than selecting on merit would be an insult to women film-makers.

Artistic director Thierry Fremaux last year told entertainment industry website ScreenDaily the lack of women was a "fundamental problem".

But he added that it was not a battle he could "wage as a Cannes selector".