At this year’s Cannes Film Festival, 22 films directed by 22 men will compete for the prestigious top award. But to feminist criticism of that dismal lineup, Cannes says, essentially, “Well, you can’t make us pick a girl just because she’s a girl.”

Of course, those numbers are pretty standard for Cannes. Last year there were a record-breaking four women in the running for the Palme D’Or, the festival’s top prize. But apparently that was but a minor blip in the long dude-dominated history of the event. Two years ago, there were no women either, and in the 64 years of the festival only one woman–Jane Campion–has ever actually won the Palme D’Or.

The French feminist group La Barbe took the ...