Amber Heard supporters have launched a social media campaign with the hashtag #CannesYouNot, calling out the Cannes Film Festival for ‘celebrating abusers for 76 years.’ The campaign was launched online, days before the festival, by supporters of Amber Heard. Her ex-husband Johnny Depp’s new film, ‘Jeanne du Barry,’ will open the prestigious festival on Tuesday night when Cannes kicks off in the South of France.
Eve Barlow, a journalist, activist, and close friend of Amber Heard’s, posted the hashtag across her social platforms. ‘Cannes seems proud of their history supporting rapists and abusers,’ Barlow posted on social media with the French expression, ‘Plus ça change,’ which roughly translates to, ‘The more things change, the more they stay the same.’
The #CannesYouNot hashtag is being promoted across pro-Heard accounts on social media. A supporter named Rebecca, who runs the Twitter account @LeaveHeardAlone, is one of the individuals who helped organize the campaign. Rebecca says that most people involved in organizing the campaign, including herself, are survivors of sexual abuse. They found the Depp v. Heard trial to be ‘heartbreaking and frightening.’
‘The Depp v. Heard trial became the vehicle through which the backlash against the #MeToo movement went viral. Hollywood industries seem to be riding that backlash to return to the status quo,’ Rebecca says. ‘To open your festival with Johnny Depp? To be frank, it feels like a slap in the face.’
The city of Cannes has banned protests along the Croisette and its surroundings during the Cannes Film Festival. Organizers of the #CannesYouNot campaign, however, say they can’t be prevented from protesting online. The campaign was designed with Depp in mind, Rebecca says, but the intent is to shine a light on ‘the larger issue of men accused of abuse being protected and insulated by the film industry.’
On Monday at the first press conference of the festival, Cannes chief Thierry Fremaux pushed back on criticism that Cannes supports abuser. Speaking to a room full of journalist, Fremaux said, ‘If you thought that it’s a festival for rapists, you wouldn’t be here listening to me, you would not be complaining that you can’t get tickets to get into screenings.’
Depp’s public persona over the past few years has largely been defined by his ongoing legal battles with Heard. He lost a 2020 libel case involving her abuse allegations in the U.K., and then won another one in the U.S. that captivated the globe in 2022 with the trial being broadcast and closely examined across TikTok. Cannes’ opening of ‘Jeanne du Barry’ is seen as a major comeback for Depp.
