The Cannes Film Festival was marked by controversial moments this year, including an incident on the red carpet when a female security guard clashed with Dominican actress Massiel Taveras, who fought to display the train of her dress depicting Jesus Christ. Another controversial moment was when a trans-identified male actor who goes by the female name Karla Sofia Gascon won the Best Actress award.
Taveras, donning a black gown and white cape with a long train featuring a hand-painted image of Jesus Christ with a crown of thorns, faced a challenging situation. As she tried to arrange her dress to display the image, ushers and security intervened, hurriedly directing her up the stairs. A video captured Taveras visibly upset, pushing ushers away after they made physical contact to rush her.
Despite the disruption, Taveras, 39, later managed to showcase her dress, designed by Giannina Azar with the image painted by Yan Páez, inside the theater.
The incident echoed a similar confrontation experienced by singer and actress Kelly Rowland days earlier. “The woman knows what happened, I know what happened,” Rowland told The Associated Press about that incident last Tuesday. At the premiere of the French film “Marcello Mio,” Rowland and the same female security guard had a heated exchange after the guard rushed her along, stepping on her dress and repeatedly touching her arm. This angered Rowland, who asserted, “I have a boundary and I stand by those boundaries, and that is it.”
Rowland also highlighted a discrepancy in treatment, noting that other women who did not look like her were not rushed or scolded. “I stood my ground, and she felt like she had to stand hers. But I stood my ground,” she emphasized.
In support of Rowland, Taveras reshared posts detailing Rowland’s experience on Instagram, writing, “We need respect,” and praising Rowland for standing her ground.
The incident caught the attention of Miss B Converted, a self-described “repentant sinner, converted to Christ,” who criticized the festival on social media. She claimed, “The Cannes Film Festival tried its hardest to make sure Giannina Azar (the designer of Taveras’s dress) couldn’t display Jesus on the red carpet. Pardon my bluntness, but Hollywood is saturated with satanists, pedophiles, and the worst people on the planet. It’s no surprise the image of Christ is repulsive to them,” she wrote on X.
At Cannes, a notable event was the Best Actress award being shared by Karla Sofia Gascon, a 46-year-old Spanish, trans-identified male actor, for roles in Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Perez.” During the acceptance speech, Gascon expressed gratitude to Audiard and dedicated the award to the trans community, saying, “We all have the opportunity to change for the better, to be better people.”
Gascon shared the Best Actress award with Selena Gomez, Zoe Saldana, and Adriana Paz. The decision sparked mixed reactions online. Oli London, author of “Gender Madness,” posted on X, “Transgender man wins best ACTRESS award at the Cannes Film Festival,” describing the film “Emilia Perez” as a “trans gangster musical” and noting that Gascon “accepted the best actress award on behalf of the female members of the cast.”
