Women's Empowerment Through Film

Published on September 16, 2026 in Symposium

Event Type: Conference
Date: October 9, 2026 > 8:30 a.m.
Location: Building 1 > Cambacérès Lecture Hall (1.0.B)

Principal Investigators: Rémy Cabrillac (LDP) and Sandrine Grenier (LICeM)

Admission is free

Cinema occupies a unique place in the history of women’s emancipation. Each film, in its own way, brings to light what the law sometimes struggles to articulate on its own: the evolution of a status, the attainment of autonomy, and the recognition of a body, a way of thinking, or a work of art. It thus serves as a valuable tool, revealing the tensions, limitations, and challenges of the law, and contributes to a critical understanding of this emancipation.
Each presentation will draw on the analysis of a film to shed light on a specific legal aspect of this phenomenon, creating a dialogue between the rigor of the law and the evocative power of the image. This conference will thus provide an opportunity to appreciate how cinema, as a social and cultural phenomenon, addresses women’s emancipation in all its dimensions and serves as a relevant medium for analyzing the evolution of women’s legal status and rights.
The conference will also feature film-focused sessions dedicated to the in-depth analysis of evocative films and will provide an opportunity to understand what cinema reveals about women’s emancipation, even beyond the legal lens.
By bringing together the perspectives of legal scholars and film enthusiasts, this conference aims to demonstrate that cinema is never merely a witness to its time: it is also a space where women’s rights are conceived, challenged, and, at times, anticipated.

^{Photo credit: Sandy Blanco, Professor of Film and Audiovisual Studies, University of Montpellier}