This year's Cannes Film Festival features directors in their 30s and their 80s, directors from Europe and North America, directors from Asia and the Middle East - but no women.

Not, at least, among the 22 filmmakers competing for the coveted Palme d'Or award. Last year, four female directors made the lineup, including Britain's Lynne Ramsay and Australia's Julie Leigh.

The French feminist group La Barbe has taken the festival to task for excluding women with a petition published in the Le Monde and The Guardian newspapers.

Festival director Thierry Fremaux argues it's not his fault that filmmaking remains primarily "a male sport." He says he chooses films only "because I think they deserve to be in selection."