The 2012 Cannes Film Festival was criticised when all 22 films in the competition were directed by men.

But Hollywood is not much better - a recent study found that less than 10 per cent of its directors were women.

So why are there so few women film-makers? Sarah Montague puts that question to Beeban Kidron, one of the few women to have made the big time.

She is perhaps best-known for directing the second Bridget Jones movie, The Edge of Reason.

But most of her other films concern far more radical material: a documentary about the anti-nuclear women protesters at Greenham Common, a TV adaptation of the lesbian novel Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit.

Her latest documentary is about India's sacred prostitutes. Is it women and the choices they make that interests her most?

(Image: Beeban Kidron in 2005. Credit: Ian West / PA Wire)

The Greek election in June 2012 has saved Europe from economic and financial meltdown - for now.

No-one in Europe believes the combined currency, banking and sovereign debt trauma is over. And right across the continent, politicians are struggling to answer a simple question: how does Europe find a way back to sustainable economic growth?

Stephen Sackur talks to Labour's business spokesman Chuka Umunna. He says active government can revive and reshape capitalism. Are business leaders or the public ready to believe him?

(Image: Shadow Business Secretary Chuka Umunna (left) with Labour Party leader Ed Miliband. Credit: Chris Radburn / PA Wire)

Israel's secret service, the Mossad, is regarded as one of the most resourceful and ruthless intelligence agencies in the world.

But are Israel's top spies on the same page as the country's politicians when it comes to an assessment of the threat posed by Iran?

The question was prompted by Meir Dagan, director of Mossad until a year and a half ago. Just months after retiring he said an Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear facilities would be stupid.

Why did he go so public so quickly, and is there a dangerous gulf between Israel's political leadership and security chiefs?

(Image: Meir Dagan - left - shakes hands with former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon while receiving his letter of appointment in October 30, 2002. Credit: Getty Images)

Wayne McGregor is known for pushing boundaries in an art form usually associated with traditional entertainment.

Once known as the bad boy of ballet, he has been the resident choreographer in one of the dance world’s pillar of establishment, the Royal Ballet in London’s Covent Garden, for six years.

He continues to challenge his audiences and his dancers to the limit, constantly concocting new ways of marrying ballet with the world of science, new technology, pop music, art and architecture.

HARDtalk’s Katya Adler asks if this is why he remains the maverick inside the ballet establishment.

Katya Adler talks to Dr Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's ambassador to the UN's nuclear watchdog, the IAEA.

Iran's nuclear power programme has been a source of international tension for the past decade. At no point has it been able to shrug off the suspicion that its pursuit of nuclear energy is also an effort to make nuclear weapons.

Iran insists it has no such ambitions but many of the world's major powers remain unconvinced and Israel is warning it will attack.

The international community is seeking assurances from Iran at a fresh round of talks in Moscow later this month.

Katya Adler asks Dr Ali Asghar Soltanieh what guarantees Iran will give that its nuclear ambitions are entirely peaceful.

(Image: Iranian Ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Ali Asghar Soltanieh. Credit: AFP / Getty Images)

HARDtalk's Katya Adler speaks to the chairman of the Police Federation in England and Wales, Paul McKeever.

The police in Britain, used to being revered, respected and admired at home and abroad, find themselves under a heavy black cloud.

With allegations of bribery and corruption denting the public's trust, the force now also faces dramatic cuts to its budget and changes to its structure.

Paul McKeever, himself a long-serving officer, says proposed government reforms could lead to the destruction of the police as we know it. But with the force untouched by change for decades, is now not an ideal opportunity to shape up for the challenges of the 21st century?

(Image: Paul McKeever in 2011 Credit: Getty Images)

Could we soon see a cure for HIV/Aids? Francoise Barre-Sinoussi thinks so. She's the Nobel Prize-winner who helped first identify the virus 30 years ago.

She argues that the need to pour money into fighting one of the world's most deadly diseases is as great as ever. Already nearly 30 million have died from it.

But with budgets being cut, can we afford more expensive research?

(Image: Francoise Barre-Sinoussi Credit: Getty Images)

Stephen Sackur talks to the newsmakers and personalities from across the globe.

Hardtalk is in Margate, a traditional English seaside town, home to the new Turner Contemporary art gallery.

Stephen Sackur speaks to Tracey Emin, the artist of international renown who was raised in Margate and has a major exhibition based in her old home town.

Her work has always been deeply personal - a frank exploration of her sexuality, her relationships, her life.

She has made an extraordinary journey from wild youth to pillar of the cultural establishment - just how blurred is the line between her art and her life?

(Image: Tracey Emin unveils her new exhibition at the Turner Contemporary in Margate. Credit: Getty Images)

Even if you have not seen his shows, you will have heard his songs.

For works such as Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar and The Lion King, Sir Tim Rice is regarded as one of the greatest lyricists of his generation.

After a break from songwriting which lasted ten years, he is completing a new work, so what tempted him back?

Why are there so few truly original musicals nowadays and why has he made it clear that he is very unlikely to work with his one time collaborator Andrew Lloyd Webber ever again?

(Image: Lyricist, writer and composer Sir Tim Rice's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, California. Credit: Photo by Vince Bucci/Getty Images)

We are in a depression - unemployment at levels last seen during the thirties, an economic crisis in the Eurozone and the prospect of worse to come.

But the Nobel Prize Winning economist Paul Krugman, thinks none of this needs to be happening and that America and Europe should be richer than they were five years ago - even now it wouldn't take much to solve the problem.

He thinks what debt-ridden governments should be doing is borrowing more to spend their way out of trouble.

(Image: Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman. Credit: Reuters)