Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio and Margot Robbie at the world premiere of “Once Upon a Time In Hollywood” during the 72nd annual Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, on May 21, 2019. (Photo by Anthony Harvey/REX/Shutterstock)
The 73rd annual Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, has been postponed until further notice. The event had been scheduled to take place May 12 to 23, 2020. The news should not come as a surprise to anyone who knows about the worldwide cancellations/postponements of events since the coronavirus outbreak was classified as a pandemic in March 2020. France is one of the countries that has been hardest hit, with movie theaters, restaurants and many other businesses ordered to be shut down.
Although a statement on the Cannes Film Festival website says that the event will hopefully be rescheduled for June or July 2020, those months seem very unrealistic, considering that it will take France several months to recover from the pandemic. Many other events around that world that are taking place in June and July 2020 are being postponed or cancelled.
A Cannes Film Festival press conference to announce the movies selected for the 2020 festival was scheduled to take place on April 16, 2020, but that press conference has also been postponed.
The Cannes Film Festival has long been considered the most prestigious film festival in the world. Many of the films that win prizes at Cannes go on to win or get nominated for Oscars. The South Korean film “Parasite,” directed by Bong Joo Ho, won the Cannes Film Festival’s top prize (the Palme d’Or) in 2019, and the movie went on to win four Oscars, including Best Picture.
Even with the prestige, the festival has been at the center of controversy in recent years. The controversies include the festival’s low percentage of films from female directors; a policy instituted in 2018 that bans people from taking selfies on the red carpet; and the festival’s refusal to allow films to compete unless they can be released theatrically in France at least three months before they’re available on home video or streaming services. This latter policy has resulted in Netflix no longer participating in the Cannes Film Festival, as of 2018. Cannes Film Festival director Thierry Fremaux, who has held the position since 2007, has gotten the majority of the criticism for these controversies.
Oscar-winning filmmaker Spike Lee is serving as president of the 2020 Cannes Film Festival grand jury. It’s the first time a black person has been president of the jury. Lee’s movies “She’s Gotta Have It” (1986), “Do the Right Thing” (1989) and “BlacKkKlansman” (2018) all had their world premieres at Cannes. “BlacKkKlansman” won the Grand Prix (second place) at Cannes in 2018. The movie went on to win an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, an award that was shared by Lee and his fellow “BlacKkKlansman” screenplay co-writers Kevin Willmott, David Rabinowitz and Charlie Wachtel.
In an interview with Variety, Lee commented on the 2020 Cannes Film Festival being postponed: “I agree 100% with Thierry and the Cannes Film Festival. The world has changed and it’s changing every day. People are dying and France’s president has said, several times—I’m paraphrasing—‘We are at war.’ We are in a war-like time.”
Lee continued, “The stuff that we love has to take a back seat: movies, TV, sports, the NBA is a global sport, baseball. So many things have been postponed, and I agree with this move.”
Click here for an updated list of other corona virus-related cancellations and postponements in the entertainment industry.
Culture Representation: Set in modern-day France and 1962 Haiti, the horror film “Zombi Child” has a racially diverse cast of white and black actors who portray the upper-class and working-class.
Culture Clash: The movie shows what happens when the worlds of voodoo and zombies collide and span different generations.
Culture Audience: “Zombi Child” will appeal to people who like their horror films to be artsy and somewhat unpredictable.
Clockwise from lower left: Adilé David, Ninon François, Mathilde Riu, Louise Labeque and Wislanda Louimat in “Zombi Child” (Photo courtesy of Film Movement)
Most zombie stories take place in a post-apocalyptic setting where zombies have taken over the world, so it’s refreshing when a zombie story raises the possibility that zombies could be walking among us in the current world, and they don’t have the obvious appearance of rotting, flesh-eating corpses. The French-language horror film “Zombi Child” is a moody, atmospheric and occasionally disturbing zombie story with scares that are more psychological than bloody and gory.
“Zombi Child,” written and directed by Bertrand Bonello, takes place in two different countries in two different eras: contemporary France and 1962 Haiti. The movie starts out in a deceptively “normal” and “controlled” setting: a prestigious boarding school for teenage girls. Almost all of the students are white except for a new arrival named Mélissa (played by Wislanda Louimat), a Haitian orphan whose parents died in the earthquake that devastated Haiti in 2010. Mélissa is currently living in France with her aunt Katy (played by Katiana Milfort).
As a new student, Mélissa is treated like an outsider. She doesn’t seem to mind too much about being a loner at school, and her mysterious confidence intrigues a fellow classmate named Fanny (played by Louise Labeque), who leads a clique of popular girls at the school.
Inside and outside of classes, Mélissa and Fanny strike up a tentative acquaintance. Although Fanny might look like she’s in control of her life on the outside, on the inside, she’s experiencing a lot of turmoil. In voiceovers, we hear her talking to a boyfriend, whom she says she misses terribly and can’t wait to be in his arms again. Is she reading a letter? Is she thinking about the last time she talked to him? Or is she imagining a conversation that she’s having with him?
We find out later that the boyfriend’s name is Pablo and something has happened in his relationship with Fanny that has caused her a lot of despair, to the point where she’s ready to do something extreme. Meanwhile, Fanny hides her troubles away from the people she knows and acts as if nothing is wrong with her.
Fanny eventually decides to let Mélissa into her clique, which secretly meets at night to drink alcohol and gossip in one of the empty classrooms. One night, Mélissa joins them for one of their candlelit meetings, and Fanny tells her that she can officially join the group if Mélissa tells them a secret and if they like what Mélissa tells them.
Mélissa then reads them a poem-like statement called “Captain Zombi” about African-descended zombies taking back power from white oppressors. While the other girls go in another room to decide if Mélissa can join the group, she stays inside the room and listens to music. The girls come back in the room and tell her that she’s been accepted into the group.
Fanny wants to hear more about Mélissa and her family background, so Mélissa tells them about being an orphan. Mélissa also mentions that she lives with her aunt when she’s not at the boarding school. Mélissa says that her aunt is a mambo. Later, Fanny looks up “female mambo” on the Internet and sees that it means someone who practices voodoo.
Intrigued, Fanny finds Mélissa’s address and shows up unannounced at the house of Mélissa’s aunt. She tells the aunt that she knows Mélissa from school, and so the woman lets her in the house. It’s there that Fanny makes a very unusual request.
Meanwhile, there are mysterious flashbacks to Haiti in 1962, where we see a black man named Clairvius Narcisse (played by Mackenson Bijou), who’s been sent to work at a sugar plantation. He appears to be mute and acting like a zombie. Who this man is and what happened to him are revealed in the movie.
Meanwhile, Mélissa’s roommate tells Fanny that Mélissa has been making strange grunting noises at night, and she doesn’t know if she’s making the noises while awake or in some kind of trancelike state. Mélissa is also heard making the noises while she’s in other places on campus, so it’s established that she’s definitely making the noises while she’s awake.
“Zombi Child” is not going to satisfy zombie fans who are looking for scenes of people being chased by rabid zombies. (The actual horror scenes in the film aren’t until near the end.) The movie takes an approach that being in a zombie-like state is more of a demonic spiritual possession rather than a physical transformation where people turn into monster cannibals. “Zombi Child” is an artsy horror film, but underneath the surface is a nuanced commentary on social classes and what happens when people are complacent about wrongful oppression.
Film Movement released “Zombi Child” in select U.S. cinemas on January 24, 2020. The movie was originally released in France in 2019.
Jacques Selosse employees in “Vas-y Coupe!” (Photo courtesy of By the By Productions)
“Vas-y Coupe!”
Directed by Laura Naylor
French with subtitles
World premiere at DOC NYC in New York City on November 9, 2019.
UPDATE: “Wine Crush (Vas-y Coupe!)” is the new title of the movie.
If you’ve ever wondered about some of the people behind the making of French champagne, you’ll get a look in “Vas-y Coupe!,” a candid but slow-paced peek into the crucial harvesting process. “Vas-y Coupe!” translates to “Go ahead, cut!” in English. This movie focuses on Jacques Selosse, a family-run vineyard in France’s Champagne region and what happens during harvest season. The documentary was inspired by director Laura Naylor’s real-life experiences harvesting grapes at the vineyard in 2016, about a year after she first discovered the vineyard through a sommelier friend.
Founded in the 1950s, Jacques Selosse is located in the small village of Avize, and much of the culture in the movie feels like a 1950s time warp. The roles of the men and women are, for the most part, sharply segregated by gender. Although there are a few harvesters who are female (and they’re briefly spotted on camera), the male harvesters and their male supervisors get most of the focus in this documentary. The women in the film are primarily shown in the kitchen and fulfilling the roles of cooks, food servers and maids. The women are preoccupied with preparing meals and trying on beauty products, while the men do the dirty work of picking and distilling the grapes. Even with the Selosse family that owns the vineyard, the men in the family are the ones who get to taste and evaluate the company’s product made from the harvested grapes.
In addition to the gender lines that are clearly defined, there are also class lines that are almost never crossed. The laborers know their place as servants, and there’s sometimes tension with the vineyard owners/supervisors over wage issues. The rough-and-tumble nature of this working-class crew sometimes leads to them clashing with each other, as minor squabbles are captured on camera. But if you’re looking for shocking, dramatic moments, you won’t find them here in this mostly quiet film. To its credit, what’s shown in this movie doesn’t look staged, like a reality show.
But to its detriment, the movie suffers from editing that shows too much repetition of mundane tasks. It’s not necessary for viewers to keep seeing similar scenes of the women in the kitchen discussing the meals they’re preparing, followed by scenes of the women serving the meals to the laborers gathered in the dining room area. In order for a documentary like this to stand out, there has to be at least one big, riveting personality to keep viewers interested, but the people in this movie are just too average to make this a compelling story. And unfortunately, the movie gets bogged down in so much “slice of life” footage that the end result is a documentary that is duller than it should be.
UPDATE: First Run Features has renamed the movie “Wine Crush (Vas-y Coupe)” and will release the movie on digital and VOD on October 8, 2020.
The 72nd Annual Cannes Film Festival took place from May 14 to May 25, 2019. Here is the complete list of the event’s winners, voted for by appointed juries, and awarded at Grand Théâtre Lumière in Cannes, France, on May 25, 2019.
The Palme d’or and the Jury Special Mention for Shorts Films were awarded by the President of the Short Films and Cinéfondation Jury, Claire Denis and by Nadine Labaki, President of the Un Certain Regard Jury.
CINEFONDATION
FIRST PRIZE
MANO A MANO directed by Louise Courvoisier
CinéFabrique, France
AMBIENCE directed by Wisam Al Jafari
Dar al-Kalima University College of Arts and Culture, Palestine DUSZYCZKA (The Little Soul) directed by Barbara Rupik
PWSFTviT, Poland
The 2019 CST Artist-Technician Prize goes to Flora Volpeliere, as editor and Julien Poupard, as set and lighting designer of Ladj LY’s filmLES MISÉRABLES.
UPDATED May 2, 2019, after new films were added to the festival programming.
by Carla Hay
Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio in “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” (Photo by Andrew Cooper)
The 72nd annual Cannes Film Festival—set to take place in Cannes, Frances from May 14 to May 25, 2019—has announced its lineup of feature films. As previously reported, the opening-night film is the zombie flick “The Dead Don’t Die,” directed by Jim Jarmusch and starring Adam Driver, Bill Murray, Chloë Sevigny and Steve Buscemi. The most high-profile film at Cannes this year that is not screening in competition is the Elton John biopic “Rocketman,” directed by Dexter Fletcher and starring Taron Egerton as Grammy-winning superstar John. “Rocketman” is screening out of competition, and will premiere at Cannes on May 16. The festival is usually dominated by independent films, and Paramount Pictures’ “Rocketman” is one of the few Cannes movies this year from a major studio. “Rocketman” is due out in U.K. cinemas on March 24, and arrives in U.S. theaters on May 31.
There are 21 movies in competition at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. As expected, they are from several different countries and include a mix of famous and lesser-known directors. The high-profile directors who have films in competition this year are Quentin Tarantino with “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”; Terrence Malick with “A Hidden Life”; Xavier Dolan with “Matthias and Maxime”; Pedro Almodóvar with “Pain and Glory,” also known as “Dolor y Gloria”; Ken Loach with “Sorry We Missed You”; Ira Sachs with “Frankie”; and Bong Joon Ho with “Parasite,” also known as “Gisaengchung.”
Other well-known directors who have movies at Cannes this year include Abel Ferrara with “Tommaso” and Werner Herzog with “Family Romance, LLC.” Both movies are not in competition at Cannes and will have special screenings.
In 2019, Oscar-winning Mexican filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu (“Birdman,” “The Revenant”) is the president of the Cannes grand jury, while Lebanese filmmaker Nadine Labaki is the president of the Un Certain Regard jury. Labaki’s “Capernaum” was in competition at Cannes in 2018, and the movie went on to be nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.
Diversity and Representation
Mati Diop (Photo by Larry Busacca/Getty Images)
There are four female directors with movies in competition at Cannes this year, which an increase from three female directors the previous year. The three female directors are Mati Diop with “Atlantique”; Jessica Hausner with “Little Joe”; Justine Triet with “Sibyl”; and Céline Sciamma with “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” also known as “Portrait de la jeune fille en feu.” The 2019 Cannes Film Festival has a total of 13 female directors with feature films. Diop (who is of French and Senegalese descent) is the first black female director to have a film in competition at Cannes. She is also an actress whose credits include the indie films “Simon Killer,” “Hermia & Helena” “Fort Buchanan” and “L for Leisure.”
There are two black directors with a film in the Cannes competition this year: the aforementioned Diop and Ladj Ly, who brings his remake of “Les Misérables” to Cannes. There was only one black filmmaker (Spike Lee) in competition at Cannes in 2018. Just like last year, there are no directors of Latin-American descent in the Cannes competition this year. Almodóvar is from Spain, and is considered a white European.
The representation numbers went down this year for directors of Asian and Arab/Middle-Eastern descent in competition at Cannes. In 2018, there were four Asian (non-Middle Eastern) directors, compared to two in 2019: Bong Joon Ho with “Parasite,” also known as “Gisaengchung”; and Diao Yinan with “The Wild Goose Lake” also known as “Nan Fang Che Zhan De Ju Hui.” In 2018, there were three directors of from the Middle East in the Cannes competition. In 2019 there is just one: “It Must Be Heaven” director Elia Suleiman, who is a Greek-Palestinian.
The Streaming Service Effect
Miles Teller in “Too Old to Die Young – North of Hollywood, West of Hell” (Photo courtesy of Amazon Prime Video)
For the second year in a row, Netflix is skipping Cannes, due to festival rules that movies allowed in the Cannes Film Festival competitions must be available for theatrical release in France for at least six months before they are released on home video or any streaming service. Netflix was at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival with “Okja” and “The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)” before Cannes enforced this rule. Netflix was reportedly going to world premiere director Alfonso Cuarón’s “Roma” at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, but since Netflix is boycotting Cannes for now, “Roma” ended up having its world premiere at the 2018 Venice Film Festival, where it won the top prize (the Golden Lion) , and ended up winning three Oscars.
Netflix might no longer be part of the Cannes Film Festival, but Amazon Prime Video is still participating. Amazon is at the 2019 Cannes Festival with a sneak preview of the episodic series “Too Old to Die Young – North of Hollywood, West of Hell,” a crime drama directed by Nicolas Winding Refn and starring Miles Teller and Billy Baldwin.
New streaming services Apple+ and Disney+ are launching before the end of 2019, and it remains to be seen if they will submit any of their original content to the Cannes Film Festival. Based on what these streaming services have announced so far, they will both have original series and movies, but the majority of movies on Disney+ content will be Disney-owned movies that were already released in theaters. Therefore, Apple+ is more likely to have original movies that could potentially premiere at film festivals. It will be interesting to see how these new streaming services will affect the film-festival landscape in 2020 and beyond.
Here is the announced lineup of feature films at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival:
IN COMPETITION
Bill Murray, Chloë Sevigny and Adam Driver “The Dead Don’t Die” (Photo by Abbot Genser/Focus Features)
“Atlantique” (Directed by Mati Diop)
“Bacarau” (Directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles)
“The Dead Don’t Die” (Directed by Jim Jarmusch) **OPENING NIGHT FILM**
“Frankie” (Directed by Ira Sachs)
“A Hidden Life” (Directed by Terrence Malick)
“Intermezzo” (Directed by Abdellatif Kechiche)*
“It Must Be Heaven” (Directed by Elia Suleiman)
“Les Misérables” (Directed by Ladj Ly)
“Little Joe” (Directed by Jessica Hausner)
“Matthias and Maxime” (Directed by Xavier Dolan)
“Oh Mercy!” (Directed by Arnaud Desplechin)
“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” (Directed by Quentin Tarantino)*
“Pain and Glory” also known as “Dolor y Gloria” (Directed by Pedro Almodóvar)
“Parasite” also known as “Gisaengchung” (Directed by Bong Joon Ho)
“Portrait of a Lady on Fire” also known as “Portrait de la jeune fille en feu” (Directed by Céline Sciamma)
“Sibyl” (Directed by Justine Triet)
“Sorry We Missed You” (Directed by Ken Loach)
“The Traitor” also known as “Il Traditore” (Directed by Marco Bellocchio)
“The Whistlers” also known as “La Gomera” (Directed by Corneliu Porumboiu)
“The Wild Goose Lake” also known as “Nan Fang Che Zhan De Ju Hui” (Directed by Diao Yinan)
“The Young Ahmed” (Directed by Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne)
UN CERTAIN REGARD
Leyna Bloom (pictured at right) in “Port Authority” (Photo courtesy of Madeleine Films)
“Adam” (Directed by Maryam Touzani)
“Beanpole” also known as “Dylda” (Directed by Kantemir Balagov)
“A Brother’s Love” (Directed by Monia Chokri)
“Bull” (Directed by Annie Silverstein)
“Chambre 212” also known as “Room 212” (Directed by Christophe Honoré)
“The Climb” (Directed by Michael Covino)
“Evge” (Directed by Nariman Aliev)
“Freedom” also known as “Liberté” (Directed by Albert Serra)
“Invisible Life” also known as “Vida Invisivel” (Directed by Karim Aïnouz)
“Joan of Arc” also known as “Jeanne” (Directed by Bruno Dumont)
“La famosa invasione degli orsi in Sicilia” (Directed by Lorenzo Mattotti)*
“Odnazhdy v Trubchevske” (Directed by Larissa Sadilova)*
“Papicha” (Directed by Mounia Meddour)
“Port Authority” (Directed by Danielle Lessovitz)
“Summer of Changsha” also known as “Liu Yu Tian” (Directed by Zu Feng)
“The Swallows of Kabul” (Directed by Zabou Breitman and Eléa Gobé Mévellec)
“A Sun That Never Sets” also known as “O Que Arde” (Directed by Olivier Laxe)
“Zhuo Ren Mi Mi” (Directed by Midi Z)
OUT OF COMPETITION
Taron Egerton in “Rocketman” (Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures)
“The Best Years of a Life” (Directed by Claude Lelouch)
“Diego Maradona” (Directed by Asif Kapadia)
“La Belle Époque” (Directed by Nicolas Bedos)
“Rocketman” (Directed by Dexter Fletcher)
“Too Old to Die Young – North of Hollywood, West of Hell” (Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn)
MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS
“The Gangster, the Cop, the Devil” (Directed by Lee Won-Tae)
“Lux Aeterna” (Directed by Gaspar Noé)*
SPECIAL SCREENINGS
Waad al-Kateab in “For Sama” (Photo by Waad al-Kateab)
“5B” (Directed by Dan Krauss)*
“Chicuarotes” (Directed by Gael García Bernal)*
“Family Romance, LLC.” (Directed by Werner Herzog)
“For Sama” (Directed by Waad Al Kateab and Edward Watts)
“Ice on Fire” (Directed by Leila Conners)*
“La Cordillera de los sueños” (Patricio Guzmán)*
“Que Sea Ley” (Directed by Juan Solanas)
“Share” (Directed by Pippa Bianco)
“To Be Alive and Know It” also known as “Être vivant et le savoir” (Directed by Alain Cavalier)
“Tommaso” (Directed by Abel Ferrara)
*Addition to lineup announced on May 2, 2019.
CRITICS’ WEEK
“Litigante” (Directed by Franco Lolli)
“Heroes Don’t Die” (Directed by Aude Léa Rapin)
“Tu Mérites Un Amour” (Directed by Hafsia Herzi)
“Dwelling In The Fuchun Mountains” (Directed by Gu Xiaogang)
DIRECTORS’ FORTNIGHT
“Alice and the Mayor” (Directed by Nicolas Pariser)
“And Then We Danced” (Directed by Levan Akin)
“The Halt” (Directed by Lav Diaz)
“Song Without a Name” (Directed by Melina León)
“Deerskin” (Directed by Quentin Dupieux)
“Ghost Tropic” (Directed by Bas Devos)
“Give Me Liberty” (Directed by Kirill Mikhanovsky)
“First Love” (Directed by Takashi Miike)
“To Live to Sing” (Directed by Johnny Ma)
“Dogs Don’t Wear Pants” (Directed by Jukka-Pekka Valkeapää)
“The Lighthouse” (Directed by Robert Eggers)
“Lillian” (Directed by Andreas Horwath)
“Oļeg” (Directed by Juris Kursietis)
“Blow It to Bits” (Directed by Lech Kowalski)
“Les Particules” (Directed by (Directed by Blaise Harrison
The 71st Annual Cannes Film Festival took place from May 8 to May 19, 2018. Here is the complete list of the event’s winners, voted for by appointed juries, and awarded at Grand Théâtre Lumière in Cannes, France, on May 19, 2018.
The Palme d’or and the Jury Special Mention for Shorts Films were awarded by the President of the Short Films and Cinéfondation Jury, Bertrand Bonello.
CINEFONDATION
FIRST PRIZE
EL VERANO DEL LEÓN ELÉCTRICO (The Summer of the Electric Lion) directed by Diego Céspedes
Universidad de Chile – ICEI, Chili
SECOND PRIZE (tie)
KALENDAR (Calendar) directed by Igor Poplauhin
Moscow School of New Cinema, Russie
DONG WU XIONG MENG (The Storms in Our Blood)directed by Shen Di
Shanghai Theater Academy, Chine
THIRD PRIZE
INANIMATE directed by Lucia Bulgheroni
NFTS, Royaume-Uni
The CST Jury decided to award the VULCAIN PRIZE FOR ARTIST-TECHNICIAN to: Shin Joom-Hee for her remarkable artistic contribution to match the inventiveness of the film BURNING.
The 71st Annual Cannes Film Festival takes place from May 8 to May 19, 2018. Here are some photos and videos from the event.
Carey Mulligan, Paul Dano, and Zoe Kazan at the “Wildlife” party presented by Grey Goose and DIRECTV at Nikki Beach in Cannes, France, on May 9, 2018. (Photo by David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images for Nikki Beach)
Huma Qureshi at the “Wildlife” party presented by Grey Goose and DIRECTV at Nikki Beach in Cannes, France, on May 9, 2018. (Photo by David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images for Nikki Beach)
Imogen Poots and James Norton at the “Wildlife” party presented by Grey Goose and DIRECTV at Nikki Beach in Cannes, France, on May 9, 2018. (Photo by David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images for Nikki Beach)
Charlotte Carroll at the “Wildlife” party presented by Grey Goose and DIRECTV at Nikki Beach in Cannes, France, on May 9, 2018. (Photo by David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images for Nikki Beach)
IFC president Jonathan Sehring and guest at the “Wildlife” party presented by Grey Goose and DIRECTV at Nikki Beach in Cannes, France, on May 9, 2018. (Photo by David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images for Nikki Beach)
Joachim Trier, Eva Sangiorgi and Augustin Trapenard at the “Wildlife” party presented by Grey Goose and DIRECTV at Nikki Beach in Cannes, France, on May 9, 2018. (Photo by David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images for Nikki Beach)
A general view of atmosphere at the “Wildlife” party presented by Grey Goose and DIRECTV at Nikki Beach in Cannes, France, on May 9, 2018. (Photo by David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images for Nikki Beach)
Toby Huntington-Whiteley at the “Wildlife” party presented by Grey Goose and DIRECTV at Nikki Beach in Cannes, France, on May 9, 2018. (Photo by David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images for Nikki Beach)
DJs at at the “Wildlife” party presented by Grey Goose and DIRECTV at Nikki Beach in Cannes, France, on May 9, 2018. (Photo by David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images for Nikki Beach)
“Wildlife” party
Jessica Chastain at the “355” cocktail party, with DIRECTV and The Hollywood Reporter on the Grey Goose Terrace in Cannes, France, on May 10, 2018. (Photo by Dave Benett)
Jessica Chastain and director Simon Kinberg at the “355” cocktail party, with DIRECTV and The Hollywood Reporter on the Grey Goose Terrace in Cannes, France, on May 10, 2018. (Photo by Dave Benett)
Grey Goose Maitre de Chai Francois Thibault and Jessica Chastain at the “355” cocktail party, with DIRECTV and The Hollywood Reporter on the Grey Goose Terrace in Cannes, France, on May 10, 2018. (Photo by Dave Benett)
Danielle Copperman at the “355” cocktail party, with DIRECTV and The Hollywood Reporter on the Grey Goose Terrace in Cannes, France, on May 10, 2018. (Photo by Dave Benett)
Jim Chapman at the “355” cocktail party, with DIRECTV and The Hollywood Reporter on the Grey Goose Terrace in Cannes, France, on May 10, 2018. (Photo by Dave Benett)
Jessica Chastain at the “355” cocktail party, with DIRECTV and The Hollywood Reporter on the Grey Goose Terrace in Cannes, France, on May 10, 2018. (Photo by Dave Benett)
The following is a press release from the Cannes Film Festival:
Seen as the second competition of the Official Selection, this year’s Un Certain Regard features 18 films, 6 of which are also vying for the Caméra d’or, awarded for first films.
Chaired by actor Benicio Del Toro, the jury of 3 women and 2 men will reveal the prizewinners on Friday 18 May, during the Closing Ceremony. The new film by Ukrainian filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa, Donbass, will be the Opening film, and will be screened on Wednesday 9 May in the Debussy Theatre.
After presenting her 2003 short film Like Twenty Impossibles at Cannes under the aegis of the Cinéfondation, Annemarie Jacir’s feature debut Salt of this Sea premiered at Un Certain Regard 2008. One of the leading filmmakers from the Arab world, she has written, directed and produced over sixteen films. Her three features to date were selected as Palestine’s entry for the Oscars. With a commitment to teaching, training and hiring locally, Annemarie Jacir also curates films, actively promoting independent cinema in the region. Founder of Philistine Films, a production house with offices in Palestine and Jordan, she collaborates regularly with fellow filmmakers. She teaches screenwriting and works as a freelance editor and consultant. Her most recent film Wajib (2017) won 18 international awards including Best Film in Mar Del Plata, Dubai, Amiens, and Kerala.
Kantemir Balagov was born in 1991 in Nalchik, capital of the autonomous Russian Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria. He undertook studies in Economy then Law and directed several web mini-series shot on a still camera before discovering that Alexandre Sokurov had opened a film school in his hometown. At the end of their interview, Sokurov placed him directly in the third year study group. He directed several short films, then armed with his first feature script, he was able to raise the money, with Sokurov’s help, to direct Closeness, which premiered at Un Certain Regard 2017, where he won a FIPRESCI prize. His next film will be about women who fought as soldiers trying to rejoin civil society after the Second World War.
Virginie Ledoyen began her career appearing in television commercials from age 3. At 13, she was chosen by Philomène Esposito to play the lead in the feature film Mima. Then she appeared with Marcello Mastoianni and Michel Piccoli in Christian de Chalonge’s Le Voleur d’enfants. Her meeting with Olivier Assayas was decisive, as his Cold Water confirmed her vocation to be an actress. She went on to be directed by Claude Chabrol, Benoît Jacquot, Edward Yang and Pierre Jolivet, among others. In 2000, she worked with Leonardo DiCaprio and Guillaume Canet in Danny Boyle’s The Beach. She then appeared in François Ozon’s 8 Women, for which the ensemble cast was awarded a Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution at Berlin 2002. She went on to work with such directors as Jean-Paul Rappeneau, Koldo Serra and Robert Guédiguian. She recently appeared in Axelle Laffont’s MILF and will be seen later this year in Antoine Blossier’s Rémi sans famille.
American Executive director of the Telluride Film Festival
Julie Huntsinger is the Executive Director of the Telluride Film Festival, held each Labor Day weekend in Telluride, Colorado, USA. The former producer began her career in the film business in 1993 when she worked for Francis Ford Coppola’s film studio American Zoetrope in San Francisco. She has produced films all over the world and joined Telluride co-founder Tom Luddy as co-director in 2006. Prior to her work in film, Huntsinger studied French literature and Art History at the University of California, Berkeley, and completed the Mass Media Institute’s programme in Broadcast Journalism at Stanford University.
The 2018 Caméra d’or Jury
As the president Ursula Meier told us, “A first film is the place of all possibilities, of all audacity, of all risk-taking, of all madness”. So the 19 films competing for the Caméra d’or should break all boundaries to win over the Jury, composed of 7 members, 4 of whom are women.
The Jury will hand down its verdict at the Closing Ceremony of the Festival de Cannes, on Saturday May 19. The winning film will succed to last year’s Jury choice, Jeune Femme (Montparnasse Bienvenüe) by Léonor Serraille, presented in the Official Selection – Un Certain Regard.
John Travolta at the 74th Annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, on January 8, 2017. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
Gary Oldman at the 33rd Santa Barbara International Film Festival in Santa Barbara, California, on February 2, 2018. (Photo by Rebecca Sapp/Getty Images for SBIFF)
Director/producer Christopher Nolan on the set of “Dunkirk” (Photo by Melinda Sue Gordon)
Ryan Coogler (Photo by Han Myung-Gu/Getty Images)
The following is a press release from the Cannes Film Festival:
During the Festival de Cannes 2018, four meetings with artists will take place Buñuel Theatre replacing the Leçon de cinéma. Four masterclasses with directors and actors invited to share their work and passion about cinema during Rendez-vous for the festival goers.
Our program this year will be a focus on English and American cinema.
Thursday, May 10, 4:00PM
RYAN COOGLER
AMERICAN DIRECTOR & WRITER
Ryan Coogler was born in Oakland (California). He comes back to the Festival de Cannes and will not be the same director since he presented his first feature film, Fruitvale Station (2013), five years ago. Fruitvale Station tells the story of the last 24 hours of the life of Oscar Grant, who was shot to death by a police officer at Oakland’s Fruitvale BART station. Developed and produced by Forest Whitaker, the film won the top audience and several awards among them grand jury awards in the U.S. dramatic competition at the Sundance Film Festival and Prix de l’Avenir Un Certain Regard at the Festival de Cannes handed out by Thomas Vinterberg, then President of the Jury. Coogler has since co-written and directed the seventh film in the Rocky series, Creed (2015), and the internationally acclaimed Black Panther (2018) making him the youngest Marvel Studios filmmaker. Black Panther was revolutionary in many regards. Upon release, the film was an overwhelming success, grossing the fifth largest opening US weekend box-office results of all time.
Michael B. Jordan starring in all the films directed by Ryan Coogler will be at Cannes with Fahrenheit 451 directed by Ramin Bahrani.
The Rendez-vous with Ryan Coogler will take place on Thursday, May 10th, at 4.00PM, Buñuel Theatre. It will be conducted by American critic and journalist Elvis Mitchell.
Saturday, May 12, at 4.00PM
CHRISTOPHER NOLAN BRITISH DIRECTOR, WRITER & PRODUCER
Christopher Nolan is a multi-award-winning director, writer and producer whose varied filmography includes some of the most innovative and successful motion pictures of the early 21st century. Beginning with his breakout feature Memento, which earned Nolan an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay, his films have captivated critics and audiences alike. Inception (2010), Interstellar (2014) and the Dark Knight Trilogy (whose central film, The Dark Knight, received eight Oscar nominations) have all left their mark on contemporary cinema. Last year, Christopher Nolan made headlines again with Dunkirk, which was also nominated for several Oscars. Nolan is a great cinephile and a loving connoisseur of Stanley Kubrick and 2001: A Space Odyssey, the 50th anniversary of whose release he will be celebrating the following day (May, 13). He also defends and carries on the tradition of film, of “celluloid” and projections on a large screen, so Dunkirk had the biggest release on 70mm of the past 25 years.
The Rendez-vous with Christopher Nolan will take place on Saturday, May 12th, at 4.00PM, Buñuel Theatre. It will be conducted by French critic and historian Philippe Rouyer and translated by Massoumeh Lahidji.
Wednesday, May 16, 4:45PM
JOHN TRAVOLTA AMERICAN ACTOR & PRODUCER
John Travolta’s breakout performance in the blockbuster Saturday Night Fever (1977) brought such emotion, surprise and pleasure as strong as his role in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction awarded Palme d’or in 1994 at the Festival de Cannes. Two-time Academy award nominee John Travolta has starred in a number of monumental films. His credits include a vast filmography, the long-running musical Grease, the Brian de Palma thrillers Carrie and Blow Out, Get Shorty by Barry Sonnenfeld, The Look Who’s Talking trilogy,Broken Arrow and Face/Off by John Woo, The Thin Red Line by Terrence Malick, The Taking of Pelham 123 by Tony Scott. In 1998 he opened the Festival de Cannes with Primary Colors by Mike Nichols with Emma Thompson. John Travolta also played and produced the limited series American Crime Story: The People V. O.J. Simpson. He recently completed filming on Moose, and will next be seen in the crime drama Gotti by Kevin Connolly that will have its World Premiere as a Special Gala Screening in the Palais des Festivals at Cannes.
On Wednesday, May 16th at 9:30 PM John Travolta will also introduce on the Cinéma de la Plage (Movies on the Beach) the restored print of the musical Grease by Randal Kleiser to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the film.
The Rendez-vous with John Travolta will take place on Wednesday, May 16th, at 4:45PM, Buñuel Theatre. It will be conducted by French critic and journalist Didier Allouch.
Friday, May 18, 4:00PM
GARY OLDMAN
BRITISH ACTOR & DIRECTOR
Gary Oldman was born in London, he is one of the most celebrated actors of his generation on both stage and screen. He gained his first starring film role in Meantime(1983). In the 1990s his credits include JFK (1991), Dracula (1992), True Romance (1993), Léon (1994), The Fifth Element(1997) and Air Force One (1997) playing the villain. Being an author himself, Oldman wrote and directed Nil by Mouth produced by Luc Besson, presented in competition at Cannes (1997), and won Kathy Burke a Best Actress prize. Oldman is also known for his roles as Sirius Black in the Harry Potter series, as James Gordon in The Dark Knight Trilogy, as George Smiley in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011) by Thomas Alfredson. A year ago, his phenomenon performance of Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour brought him international acclaim and recognition, and he was awarded the Best Actor Academy Award in March 2018.
The Rendez-vous with Gary Oldman will take place Wednesday, May 18th, at 4:00PM, Buñuel Theatre. It will be conducted by Douglas Urbanski, American producer and artistic partner for thirty years.
Pictured from left to right: Cate Blanchett, Kristen Stewart, Ava DuVernay (Photos: Getty Images)
Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett has been named jury president for the 71st annual Cannes Film Festival, which takes place May 8 to May 19, 2018, in Cannes, France. The jury will decide who wins the Palme D’Or (the Cannes Film Festival’s biggest award), as well as the awards for feature films that are in competition at the festival, such as Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Director. Other film-industry VIPs who are on the jury include actress Kristen Stewart (“Twilight,” “Personal Shopper”), filmmaker Ava DuVernay (“A Wrinkle in Time,” “Selma”), filmmaker Denis Villenueve (“Blade Runner 2049,” “Arrival”) and actress Léa Seydoux (“Spectre,” “Blue Is the Warmest Color”). The jury will reveal the prize list on May 19 during the closing ceremony.
As previously announced, Oscar-winning actor Benicio del Toro is the jury president for the feature films competing in the category of Un Certain Regard.
The following is information provided in a Cannes Film Festival press release:
2018 CANNES FILM FESTIVAL JURY
Cate Blanchett – President
(Australian actress, producer)
Chang Chen
(Chinese Actor)
Ava DuVernay
(American writer, director, producer)
Robert Guédiguian
(French director, writer, producer)
Khadja Nin
(Burundian songwriter, composer, singer)
Léa Seydoux
(French actress)
Kristen Stewart
(American actress)
Denis Villeneuve
(Canadian director, writer)
Andrey Zvyagintsev
(Russian director, writer)
Chang Chen – Chinese Actor
Chang Chen made his film debut in the late Edward Yang’s A Brighter Summer Day. He rose to fame in the Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in 2000. His film credits include Wong Kar Wai’s Happy Together (1997), 2046 (2004), The Grandmaster (2013), Hou Hsiao-hsien’s Three Times (2005) and The Assassin (2015), Tian Zhuangzhuang’s The Go Master (2006) John Woo’s Red Cliff (2008-2009), The Last Supper directed by Lu Chuan (2012). In 2017, he returned for Yang Lu’s film Brotherhood of Blades II and recently played in Forever young by Fangfang Li.
Ava DuVernay – American Writer, Director, Producer
Nominated for the Academy Award and Golden Globe and winner of the BAFTA and EMMY, Ava DuVernay is a writer, director, producer and film distributor known for the historical drama Selma (2014), the criminal justice documentary 13TH (2016) and the recent Disney’s cinematic adaptation of the classic children’s novel A Wrinkle in Time. Winner of the 2012 Sundance Film Festival’s Best Director Prize for her film Middle of Nowhere, DuVernay amplifies the work of people of color and women directors through her film collective ARRAY.
Robert Guédiguian – French Director, writer, producer
The work of Robert Guédiguian, an activist filmmaker, celebrates the city of Marseille where he grew up. Acclaimed by critics when he first started directing in the 80s, he met public success with Marius and Jeannette, which won the Prix Louis-Delluc in 1997. His film credits include Marie-Jo et ses deux amours (2002) Le Promeneur du Champ de Mars (2004), Le Voyage en Arménie (2007), Lady Jane (2008), L’armée du crime (2009), The Snows of Kilimanjaro (2011). His latest film in date, The House by the Sea (2017), received enthusiastic response from critics and audience.
Khadja Nin – Burundian Songwriter, composer, singer
Youngest of a family of eight Khadja Nin studied music at an early age, before leaving Africa to go to Europe. Her albums are a mix of occidental popmusic, African and afro-cuban rhythms. She gained wide recognition and success with « Sambolera Mayi Son ». “Ya…” (“From me to you”) is a wonderful tribute to Mandela and the video of her song “Mama” was directed by Jeanne Moreau. International Artist, she became a Unicef and ACP Observatory on Migration Good Will Ambassador. She was awarded the Prize “Prix de l’Action Feminine” by the African Women’s League in 2016. She has been committed to support ordinary heroes.
Léa Seydoux – French Actress
Rising to fame with Christophe Honoré’s The Beautiful Person in 2008, Léa Seydoux is an award-winning actress, notably the Palme d’or for Abdelatif Kechiche’s Blue is the Warmest Colour in 2013. She successfully alternates between author and mainstream films. Her film credits include Rebecca Zlotowski’s Dear Prudence and Grand Central, Benoît Jacquot’s Farewell, My Queen and Diary of a Chambermaid, Bertrand Bonello’s Saint Laurent, Sam Mendes’ Spectre, Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Lobster and Xavier Dolan’s It’s Only the End of the World.
Kristen Stewart – American Actress
Kristen Stewart has been playing roles since an early age and received widespread recognition in 2008 for The Twilight Saga film series (2008–12). Her film credit includes Snow White and the Huntsman (2012), Equals by Drake Doremus (2015), Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk by Ang Lee (2016), and several Festival de Cannes Selections On the Road by Walter Salles (2012), Cloudsof Sils Maria (2014) and Personal Shopper (2016) both by Olivier Assayas (2014) as well as Café Society by Woody Allen. She directed her first short film Come Swim in 2017.
Denis Villeneuve – Canadian director, writer
Internationally renowned and recently two-time Academy Award winner for Blade Runner 2049, Denis Villeneuve made his debut at the National Film Board of Canada in the early 90’s. His first feature, Un 32 août sur terre (1998) was invited to Cannes. He returned there with Next Floor (2008), Polytechnique (2009) and the Oscar nominated Sicario (2015). In 2010 Incendies was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards. In 2017, Arrival was nominated for 8 Oscars and 9 BAFTAs, including best movie and best director.
Andreï Zvyagintsev – Russian Director, writer
Multi-award winning filmmaker Andreï Zvyagintsev has already become one of the most respected directors in Russian and international cinema. He directed his first feature film in 2003 The Return which won him a Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. He has continued to write and direct award-winning feature films The Banishment (2007), Elena(2011) and Leviathan (2014). His most recent film Loveless won the Jury Prize at the Festival de Cannes 2017, and was among the nominees at the Golden Globe and 90thAcademy Awards.
