Asghar Farhadi, Benicio del Toro, Cannes, Cannes Film Festival, Everybody Knows, film festivals, France, Javier Bardem, movies, Penelope Cruz
April 4, 2018
Oscar-winning actor Benicio del Toro has been named president of the Un Certain Regard jury at the 71st Annual Cannes Film Festival, which takes place in Cannes, France, from May 8 to May 19, 2018.
In other Cannes news, Variety has reported that the Spanish-language psychological thriller “Everybody Knows” (“Todos Lo Saben”) , directed by Oscar winner Asghar Farhadi, will open the festival. Oscar-winning spouses Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz star in the movie, which is the first Spanish-language film to open the Cannes Film Festival since Pedro Almodovar’s “Bad Education” in 2004. The lineup of films at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival will be announced May 12 at a press conference that will be streamed live at 11 a.m. CET on the official Cannes Film Festival website, YouTube and Daily Motion.
Here is the official press release from the Cannes Film Festival about del Toro heading the Un Certain Regard jury:
The man who will preside over the fate of the Un Certain Regard Jury is not only a film lover but a brilliant actor, entirely devoted to his art. Eight years ago, along with Tim Burton, Benicio del Toro and his fellow members of the Jury selected Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Uncle Boonmee (The One Who Can Recall His Past Lives) as the winner of the Palme d’or.
Born in Puerto Rico, raised in Pennsylvania, he is an artist who knows no boundaries. He is a great admirer of Jean Vigo and Charlie Chaplin and would have loved to have met Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney, Toshiro Mifune or Humphrey Bogart. When he was 20 years old, he discovered The 400 Blows and the infinite universe of Fellini, Eisenstein, Bergman, Eustache, Kurosawa… The Naked Island of Kaneto Shindô became his go-to film.
At 6 feet 2, Benicio Del Toro always dreamt of becoming a basketball player but became an actor instead. His intense and magnetic presence on the screen makes him sleek and attractive. A chameleon with a thousand faces: a mild-mannered gangster (Usual Suspects, 1995), an eccentric moustachioed lawyer (Las Vegas Parano, 1998), a four-fingered robber (Snatch, 2000), an agent in a Mexican drug squad in cartel areas (Traffic, 2001, Ocar for Best Supporting Actor), an ex-convict turned fundamentalist Christian (21 Grams, 2003), a troubled American Indian (Jimmy P.: Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian, 2013), a famous drug dealer both charming and terrifying (Paradise Lost, 2014).
The charismatic Benicio Del Toro transforms each of his performances into impressive but subtle displays. Despite his apparent insouciance, he throws himself like no other into his roles – his teacher was Stella Adler of the Actors Studio. He is a loyal supporter of independent cinema and has worked with Abel Ferrara (The Funeral, 1996), Julian Schnabel (Basquiat, 1997) and Oliver Stone (Savages, 2012) – he also appears in the 8thepisode of the saga Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017).
In 2008, he received the award for best actor in Cannes for his role as Che Guevara in Steven Soderbergh’s two-part film – a part he carried for no fewer than seven years. Del Toro and the Festival have a long shared history. He was there for the special screening of Usual Suspects, then The Pledge (2001), Sin City (2005) and more recently, Sicario(2015) which was selected to compete for the Palme d’or. He was even there for his directorial debut, El Yuma, one of the segments of 7 Days in Havana, a collective work selected at Un Certain Regard in 2012. The following year, Benicio Del Toro said: “I’ve come here many times and it’s always amazing. I am totally thrilled and excited to be here.”
As the second competition within the Official Selection, Un Certain Regard will once again feature some twenty original and unique works in terms of themes and aesthetics.
Benicio Del Toro takes over from Uma Thurman, who was president in 2017 of a jury that awarded prizes to Mohammad Rasoulof, Jasmine Trinca, Mathieu Amalric, Taylor Sheridan and Michel Franco.
This year’s Festival de Cannes will take place from Tuesday 8 to Saturday 19 May.
April 5, 2018 UPDATE:
The following is a press release from Momento Films:
EVERYBODY KNOWS, the new film by director Asghar Farhadi, with Penélope Cruz, Javier Bardem and Ricardo Darín, will be the opening film of the 71st Cannes International Film Festival on 8 May. It will also be in Competition for the Golden Palm and will be released in France on 9 May. EVERYBODY KNOWS is produced, distributed in France and handled internationally by Memento Films.
Asghar Farhadi is back in the Cannes Film Festival after THE SALESMAN, winner of the Academy Award® for Best Foreign Film 2017, and winner of Best Actor and Best Screenplay at Cannes 2016. Asghar Farhadi also won the Academy Award® for Best Foreign Film in 2012 with A SEPARATION. The new film by the Iranian director will be screened in opening and in Competition 8 May.
Memento Films Distribution will release EVERYBODY KNOWS on 9 May in 350 theatres.
EVERYBODY KNOWS was entirely shot in Spain and in Spanish with Penélope Cruz, Javier Bardem and the Argentinian actor Ricardo Darín as main characters. Spanish actors Eduard Fernández, Bárbara Lennie and Inma Cuesta also star in the film. The psychological thriller follows Laura who travels with her family from Buenos Aires to the village where she was born, on a Spanish vineyard, to attend her sister’s wedding but unexpected events lead this gathering towards a crisis which exposes the hidden past of the family.
Asghar Farhadi collaborated with great names of Spanish cinema including Jose-Luis Alcaine as DOP and Sonia Grande as costume designer, both regulars in Pedro Almodovar’s filmography. Clara Notari, known for WILD TALES and Soderbergh’s CHE, supervised the production design. The editing of the film was helmed by Hayedeh Safiyari who already worked with Asghar Farhadi on A SEPARATION and THE SALESMAN.
After THE SALESMAN and THE PAST, EVERYBODY KNOWS is the third consecutive film by Asghar Farhadi produced by Alexandre Mallet-Guy from Memento Films Production. The French producer collaborated with Spanish producer Alvaro Longoria from Morena Films. Lucky Red and Rai Cinema in Italy, France 3