If you haven’t noticed, there’s a bit of a quiet revolution going on in the vapid and mostly intolerable “red carpet” world, with actors and filmmakers suggesting press might wanna push their questions beyond dresses and diets. So in the midst of such a radical—yet long overdue—rethinking of red carpet protocols, a particularly noxious bit of unofficial dress code policy at the Cannes Film Festival is striking an especially sour note.

According to Screen Daily, a group of women in their ‘50s were refused entry to a screening of the new Todd Haynes film Carol — a film about the romance between two women in the 1950s. The offense? Wearing rhinestone flats.

“The festival declined to comment on the matter,” writes Screen Daily’s Andreas Wiseamn, “but did confirm that it is obligatory for all women to wear high-heels to red-carpet screenings.” The site also notes Senna and Amy director Asif Kapadia tweeted his wife was nearly turned away from a screening herself for the same reason.

Backlash has been swift, with Emily Blunt calling out the policy at a press conference for her new film Sicario (“That’s very disappointing, just when you kind of think there are these new waves of equality”). The festival quickly attempted to walk back the controversy; director Thierry Frémaux called the “rumor” “unfounded,” while spokeswoman Christine Aime says the whole thing was a big misunderstanding. “There is no specific mention about the height of the women’s heels as well as for men’s,” she told the AP. “Thus, in order to make sure that this rule is respected, the festival’s hosts and hostesses were reminded of it.”