Italian filmmaker Margherita Spampinato accepted the Emerging Talent Award at the Cannes gala
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Getty Images Julianne Moore has received plenty of accolades throughout her 40-year career — an Oscar, an Emmy, plus awards from Berlin, Venice and Cannes, to name a few — but the Kering Women in Motion award is unique. This prize, launched in 2015 by Kering in association with the Cannes Film Festival, celebrates how cinema can advance the role of women in society —and that’s a mission close to Moore’s heart.
“I fucking love actresses,” Moore declared in the middle of an impassioned speech about the need for more stories centering the female POV, looking out at a crowd that included actresses like Demi Moore, Ruth Negga, Vicky Krieps, and past Women in Motion honorees Salma Hayek Pinault and Isabelle Huppert.
“This is something that makes me crazy,” Moore said when she stepped to the podium at the Place de la Castre in Cannes to receive the award on Sunday evening. “There is a cultural assumption, particularly in the United States, that women’s stories are less interesting or smaller, or that if we’re at the center of a narrative, we need to be strong or accomplishing something great, or doing something that is particularly male, if we want someone to watch us — if we want men to watch us. And I think that’s untrue.”
It’s an assumption that totally ignores the female audience and what they want to watch, Moore explained. Not only does she choose what cinema she wants to watch based on who she’s going to be looking at for two hours, but she also tries to center women as she navigates her everyday life.
“I see the women in my elevator, on the subway, and in the airport. If I need information, I approach a woman,” she said. “When my kids were little, I told them, if you’re ever lost or in trouble, to look for a lady, she will help you. I read books about women. My yoga group is all female, and all of my representatives, my agents, and my managers are female.”
“I’m not saying this to be particularly binary,” Moore continued. “Or to say the relationships I have with men or male-identifying people are not important to me, but to celebrate the fact that female point of view matters, matters to me, and that’s paramount in storytelling. What is the point of view, and how is it specific? I feel it as an actor when the story and direction are specific, and the audience feels it too.”
There’s a troubling narrative about invisibility for women, Moore noted, both in cinema — where recent statistics show that just 37.1% of roles were played by women and only 9 women out of 111 directors helmed top-grossing films in the U.S. in 2025 — and in the wider world.
“I’m always curious about that narrative. I want to know where they feel invisible, why they feel invisible, and have we been cultured to only be seen by a particular audience, or to only value that gaze,” Moore said. “I’m also curious at times when I don’t want to be seen, when I want to avoid any gaze, and that’s a lot of the time. But I am always interested in what I want to see. I am more curious about what I observe, what I learn, and what I experience through my own lens. And that’s the most important thing of all: what we as women see, and what we are here to celebrate tonight.” Moore ended her remarks with a simple call to action: “We need more female voices in our industry, more writers, more directors, more actresses to carry that vision forward.”
Laura Wandel, Salma Hayek Pinault, Margherita Spampinato, Julianne Moore, Demi Moore, Chloé Zhao and Ruth Negga
Fortunately, with accepting the Women in Motion Award, Moore joins a unique sorority of changemakers committed to carrying that banner — including Jane Fonda, Geena Davis, Susan Sarandon, Patty Jenkins, Gong Li, Viola Davis, Michelle Yeoh, NBCUniversal Entertainment & Studios chairman Donna Langley and her “The Hours” co-star, Nicole Kidman.
Moore was presented with the award by Cannes president Iris Knobloch — who opened the dinner with remarks about the importance of “turning visibility into real opportunity” for women — and Cannes chief Thierry Frémaux — who saluted her for her involvement in political life as well as cinema. Frémaux then introduced a reel of Moore’s performances, including “Magnolia,” “Boogie Nights,” “Nine Months,” “Hannibal,” “Far From Heaven,” “A Single Man,” “Crazy Stupid Love,” “The Kids Are All Right,” “May December” and the Oscar-winning “Still Alice.”
The clip reel was a treat for Moore, who giggled, “That’s like watching your life flash before your eyes,” and the well-heeled crowd on hand to salute her. “I’m such a fan, I got so shy when I walked in and saw her,” Halsey told Variety on the black carpet. “She can play everything,” Charlotte Le Bon said, choosing “Magnolia” and “Safe” as her favorite of the actress’s performances. Harry Melling mentioned “The Big Lebowski” as a standout: “It’s just a cameo, but my word, she’s absolutely extraordinary in it.”
This year, Moore was feted alongside Italian filmmaker Margherita Spampinato (“Gioia Mia”), who received the Emerging Talent Award, which recognizes a female director for her first feature film. The prize comes with a €50,000 grant to support the filmmaker in making their second feature. Last year’s Emerging Talent Awardee, Brazilian director Marianna Brennand, presented Spampinato with the honor.
“I am grateful and happy to receive this special prize,” Spampinato said onstage. “This award moves me because it supports the creativity and freedom of new female voices in cinema and art around the world. The mixture of talent, together with financial support, represents an important milestone that women are beginning to achieve today, despite the inequality that still exists in the industry.”
Spampinato said she looks at the Kering award as “encouragement to continue telling the stories I love and I believe in.” Her film, “Gioia Mia,” she explained, is inspired by her grandmother, her grandmother’s cousins and her close friends, who helped shape her imagination. “I’m sure that they will be happy and proud to know that we are receiving this award, and that the world, at last, is beginning to change.”
Attendees at the black-tie gala included Jordan Firstman (whose film “Club Kid” sold in a massive deal to A24 on Monday Morning), Sebastian Stan (“Fjord”), Odessa A’zion, Diego Calva (“Club Kid”), Harris Dickinson, Colman Domingo, Daisy Edgar-Jones, Halsey, Vicky Krieps (“Diamond”), Le Bon (“Full Phil”), Rami Malek (“The Man I Love”), Melling (“Butterfly Jam”), Jeremy Pope and “Her Private Hell” stars Sophie Thatcher, Havana Rose Liu and Kristine Frøseth. Director Park Chan-Wook and the festival’s competition jury, including Stellan Skarsgård, Laura Wandel, Chloé Zhao, Diego Céspedes, Isaach De Bankolé and Paul Laverty also attended the chic celebration. Scroll on for a look inside.
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Thierry Frémaux, Iris Knobloch, Salma Hayek, Margherita Spampinato, Julianne Moore, François-Henri Pinault and Luca de Meo
Image Credit: Getty Images for Kering Thierry Frémaux, Iris Knobloch, Salma Hayek, Margherita Spampinato, Julianne Moore, François-Henri Pinault and Kering CEO Luca de Meo inside the dinner.
