Varda and Akerman have been well known and discussed forever and would especially have been among the "programmers, curators, archivists and academics" that create these lists. It seems like there is a conscious decision to push more diverse demographics up to be more inclusive (or is it to not seem exclusive?) and that's fine. It's good really. In most cases at least, some picks are a bit odd. But Jeanne Dielman's jump to #1 now that's gotta be some collusion am I right? And I like the film and all of what I've seen from the director. Conspiracy.
It surprises me to hear you say that about Varda and Akerman. I've been on movie forums for 16 years and I never heard anyone talk about them til recently. I didn't even know Jeanne Dielman existed until fairly recently (last few years) because no one ever mentioned it and it wasn't anywhere to be found unless you already knew about it. I mean, It wasn't in Roger Ebert's first THREE HUNDRED Great Movies, as an example. And Cleo sat in my queue for almost 15 years because no one ever, ever mentioned it on any of the forums I was on even when we were specifically talking about French films of the 1960s. It was all about Godard and Truffaut and Bresson and Demy and even Rivette, but I basically never heard Varda's name.
Now maybe there is a "push" but if there is I lean more toward feeling that that push is to correct long-existing oversights rather than to over-promote less-deserving films because of social climates.
And I just don't know about this conspiracy. I have spent almost as much time scouring streaming services over the last 15 years for great movies as I have watching them and Dielman only turned up in the last few years, certainly since the last poll. They didn't have a copy at my video store either. And it wasn't showing at the multiplex. It wasn't even showing at the Art House. I think it's become widely available and widely discussed recently so a lot of people have seen it and seen it recently and been floored by it, and that's how it got there.
Like I said, I think these things point more to a Recency Bias than some social conspiracy.