At the Marché du Film’s Fantastic Pavilion, in collaboration with Yes She Cannes, a deeply personal conversation unfolded under the title “Female Visibility, Voice and Creative Power in Genre Film”. Moderated by Yes She Cannes founder Faith Elizabeth, the panel showcased the voices of women shaping the future of genre storytelling across all levels of the industry, from festival leadership and prosthetics to special effects, post-production and advocacy.

Kicking off the discussion was Mònica Garcia, general manager of the Sitges Film Festival and founder of the WomanInFan initiative. Reflecting on her logo choice – Maria from Metropolis – Garcia described her programme as both a symbolic and a structural intervention. “In 50 years of Sitges, we had only opened with a film by a woman twice,” she noted. “Less than 6% of our official selections were directed by women. That’s not accidental; that’s systemic.” WomanInFan has since become a robust research and outreach project, identifying forgotten female figures in genre history, producing publications, video content and international reports that illuminate women’s past and current contributions to horror, sci-fi and fantasy. “It’s a generational challenge,” Garcia explained, “but we must begin by reclaiming our place in the history we were written out of.”

The conversation then turned to the on-the-ground creativity of Justine Ray Le Solliec, co-owner of CinéBébé, an all-female special effects workshop. Known for their work on Julia Ducournau’s Palme d’Or-winning Titane [+leggi anche:
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scheda film], Justine and her team fuse medical realism with genre surrealism, crafting everything from hyperrealistic prosthetics and pregnant bellies to charred corpses and animatronic babies. With three films featured at this year’s Cannes – including in the Official Selection and the Critics’ Week – Le Solliec emphasised the importance of representation not only on screen, but also behind the scenes: “We want women and viewers to feel seen. It’s not just about getting the body right; it’s about honouring real experiences, like childbirth or postpartum, and making sure they're portrayed with care.” Their educational work is just as crucial. “We train crews on how to balance medical accuracy with cinematic language. If the prosthetic belly looks ‘flat’ after birth, what message are we sending to the women watching?”

Maria Shevtsova, head of production at DISAUTHORITY, represented a new generation of genre creators redefining industry hierarchies. With a background in ballroom dancing and having attended the Met Film School, Shevtsova launched her UK-based production and post-production company to centre women and genderqueer creators across all aspects of storytelling. “Our aim is not to be the final girls in a story directed by someone else,” she mentioned. “We are telling our stories, leading our productions and building a community that values care over coercion.” Her surreal graduation film, set in a fictional land called Elegancia, was a full-set build that channelled burnout into fantasy. Shevtsova’s debut feature, a supernatural horror exploring rage and repression in rural 1990s England, is already greenlit for production later this year. “We built trust through consistent short-form work, and that gave us the leverage to secure support for a microbudget feature. It’s about long-term community-building.”

Sharon Thompson, international marketing manager for Design Essentials, shared her mission to transform on-set experiences for women of all hair types, particularly black women. “A performer should never have to show up early to fix their own hair because no one on set knows what to do with it,” Thompson stressed. Through global outreach and training with stylists and make-up artists, Design Essentials provides the tools and knowledge needed to ensure authentic and respectful representation across hair textures. “It’s not just about beauty; it’s about dignity,” Thompson said. “We’re giving women the confidence to perform at their best, without compromising who they are.” The company’s impact also reaches beyond film sets. Through its charitable programme, proceeds from its African Chebe collection fund infrastructure in rural Chadian villages where the traditional hair powder originates, including the building of wells, schools and storage spaces. “It’s about ethical sourcing and mutual empowerment,” Thompson added.

As the panel concluded, moderator Elizabeth asked each participant to share a message for the audience, one that would transcend roles, regions and rhetoric. Garcia reminded attendees: “Women are not a minority; we are half the world. We deserve equal access to funding, storytelling and space.” Le Solliec added: “Take care of your sisters. Look out for each other because this is how change grows.” Shevtsova, reflecting on current political shifts, noted: “The pendulum may be swinging towards the right, but our work does not pause. We keep showing up, in big and small ways.” And Thompson closed with: “Understanding starts with care. Not just for the performers’ bodies, but also for their humanity.”

In the spirit of Yes She Cannes, the panel concluded with a resounding message: visibility is not enough. Infrastructure, education, equity and inclusion are essential if we are to reimagine genre cinema not as a mirror of existing power, but as a portal into new futures where every story, and every storyteller, has a place.