It took a few extra days — and years of advocacy — but the Cannes Film Festival has finally broken its long-held record for the number of female filmmakers premiering films in the Competition section. With today’s new addition to the slate, this year’s festival will debut five films directed or co-directed by women in competition for the first time ever.

As IndieWire reported last week, when the the bulk of this year’s lineup was announced, the festival again failed to bump up its representation of female filmmakers in the competition. At the time, the festival announced just three films directed by women had made the cut, with Claire Denis, Kelly Reichardt, and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi all in the section. Today, with a fleet of new films announced, they will be joined by Charlotte Vandermeersch, who co-directed new competition title “The Eight Mountains” with Felix Van Groeningen, and former...