The International Film Festival of Cannes, May 11th to 22nd, is the largest media event in the world after the Olympics. The Red Carpet Gala Premieres of world renowned auteur films, movie stars plus their photos go to every newspaper, magazine and television station in the world.
This year we’ll see the stars (and directors with their entourages) in films by Woody Allen, Jim Jarmusch, Jodie Foster ♀, Stephen Spielberg, Jeff Nichols, Sean Penn, Nicolas Winding Refn, Pedro Almodóvar, Ashghar Farhadi, Andrea Arnold ♀, Olivier Assayas, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Xavier Dolan, Bruno Dumont, Nicole Garcia ♀, Ken Loach, Paul Verhoeven, Hirokazu Kore-Eda, David Mackenzie, Matt Ross, Shane Black, Paul Schrader, Rithy Panh and others from almost 30 countries as they pose on the red carpet.
The Official Selection Competition shows films of bankable masters and Un Certain Regard spotlights original and young talent. The Official Selection also includes Out of Competition films, Special Screenings, Midnight Screenings, Cannes Classics, and the Cinéfondation Selection targeting film schools. The Cannes Short Film Corner offers a panorama of short film production worldwide.
There are more short films in the festival and three other “sidebar” festivals which have evolved since Cannes began in 1946. Directors banded together to create the Directors’ Fortnight, critics created the Critics Week and 20 years ago independent filmmakers created Acid.
And with all this hoopla, there are less than 95 feature films screening in all.
At the same time, there is an enormous film market called the Marché du Film. It is the most important event of the film industry, the meeting point for more than 10,000 professionals, including 3,200 producers, 1,500 international sales agents licensing almost 4,000 films and projects to 2,300 distributors from everywhere in the world (about 60 “territories” covering Europe, Latin America, Africa, Middle East, Asia and North America), and 790 festival organizers all there to discover the gems which will make them stand out.
There are gala parties, panel discussions hosted by many different organizations, and for the past three years there has been an increasingly bright spotlight on women and the need for parity in all areas of the film industry.
Traditional theatrical and movie channel buyers are looking for undiscovered jewels, whether in the festival or in the market, films which they judge will be most appealing to their audiences.
In the market itself, Cmg is selling directors Dorota Kobiela and Welchman’s “Loving Vincent”, an animated story of Vincent Van Gogh, still unfinished but which has “presold” in 17 territories. It features over 120 of Vincent Van Gogh’s greatest paintings with a plot drawn from the 800 letters written by the painter himself, leading us to the significant people and events in the time leading up to his unexpected death.
The other big issue today is the unequal number of women in the directors’ ranks…4% worldwide is not representative of the 51% population. Cannes is working to show its interest in improving the numbers. The need to find and show good films by women is important to everyone.
Cambodia and Singapore. Critics’ Week, devoted to first and second features, chose 10 films out of 1,100 feature-length submissions and is dominated by female film-makers, with Justine Triet’s “In Bed With Victoria”, a crime thriller, selected as the opening film. And totally unique, closing night will be three short films – including Chloë Sevigny’s adaptation of the Paul Bowles novel “Kitty”, “Smile” (“Bonne Figure”) by Sandrine Kiberlain of France and “En moi” by Laetitia Casta of France.
Other films from afar include the Opening Night film of Un Certain Regard, “Eshtebak” (“Clash”) by Egypt’s Mohamed Diab, Cambodia’s “Diamond island” by Davy Chou in Competition in Critics’ Week, a Cambodian-French-German coproduction. There are two films from Lebanon, “Fallen From Heaven” a first feature in Acid and “Tramontane” in Critics Week. From Tunisia comes Karim Dridi’s “Chouf” in the Official Selection Special Screenings.
Perhaps the most exotic film showing is the Afghanistan-Denmark- France-Sweden coproduction, “Wolf and Sheep” in Directors’ Fortnight. In her debut feature, the young Afghan filmmaker Shahrbanoo Sadat portrays the community in a small village in rural Afghanistan through shepherd children.
Although he is still confined in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, Julian Assange will make an appearance at the Cannes film festival – via Laura Poitras’s documentary “Risk”, which has been selected for the Directors’ Fortnight sidebar.
Iran’s famous Oscar-winning (“A Separation”) director, Asghar Farhadi is here with “Inversion”.
As always everyone will be running on adrenalin trying to accomplish everything in ten neverending days.
This year we’ll see the stars (and directors with their entourages) in films by Woody Allen, Jim Jarmusch, Jodie Foster ♀, Stephen Spielberg, Jeff Nichols, Sean Penn, Nicolas Winding Refn, Pedro Almodóvar, Ashghar Farhadi, Andrea Arnold ♀, Olivier Assayas, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Xavier Dolan, Bruno Dumont, Nicole Garcia ♀, Ken Loach, Paul Verhoeven, Hirokazu Kore-Eda, David Mackenzie, Matt Ross, Shane Black, Paul Schrader, Rithy Panh and others from almost 30 countries as they pose on the red carpet.
The Official Selection Competition shows films of bankable masters and Un Certain Regard spotlights original and young talent. The Official Selection also includes Out of Competition films, Special Screenings, Midnight Screenings, Cannes Classics, and the Cinéfondation Selection targeting film schools. The Cannes Short Film Corner offers a panorama of short film production worldwide.
There are more short films in the festival and three other “sidebar” festivals which have evolved since Cannes began in 1946. Directors banded together to create the Directors’ Fortnight, critics created the Critics Week and 20 years ago independent filmmakers created Acid.
And with all this hoopla, there are less than 95 feature films screening in all.
At the same time, there is an enormous film market called the Marché du Film. It is the most important event of the film industry, the meeting point for more than 10,000 professionals, including 3,200 producers, 1,500 international sales agents licensing almost 4,000 films and projects to 2,300 distributors from everywhere in the world (about 60 “territories” covering Europe, Latin America, Africa, Middle East, Asia and North America), and 790 festival organizers all there to discover the gems which will make them stand out.
There are gala parties, panel discussions hosted by many different organizations, and for the past three years there has been an increasingly bright spotlight on women and the need for parity in all areas of the film industry.
Traditional theatrical and movie channel buyers are looking for undiscovered jewels, whether in the festival or in the market, films which they judge will be most appealing to their audiences.
In the market itself, Cmg is selling directors Dorota Kobiela and Welchman’s “Loving Vincent”, an animated story of Vincent Van Gogh, still unfinished but which has “presold” in 17 territories. It features over 120 of Vincent Van Gogh’s greatest paintings with a plot drawn from the 800 letters written by the painter himself, leading us to the significant people and events in the time leading up to his unexpected death.
The other big issue today is the unequal number of women in the directors’ ranks…4% worldwide is not representative of the 51% population. Cannes is working to show its interest in improving the numbers. The need to find and show good films by women is important to everyone.
Cambodia and Singapore. Critics’ Week, devoted to first and second features, chose 10 films out of 1,100 feature-length submissions and is dominated by female film-makers, with Justine Triet’s “In Bed With Victoria”, a crime thriller, selected as the opening film. And totally unique, closing night will be three short films – including Chloë Sevigny’s adaptation of the Paul Bowles novel “Kitty”, “Smile” (“Bonne Figure”) by Sandrine Kiberlain of France and “En moi” by Laetitia Casta of France.
Other films from afar include the Opening Night film of Un Certain Regard, “Eshtebak” (“Clash”) by Egypt’s Mohamed Diab, Cambodia’s “Diamond island” by Davy Chou in Competition in Critics’ Week, a Cambodian-French-German coproduction. There are two films from Lebanon, “Fallen From Heaven” a first feature in Acid and “Tramontane” in Critics Week. From Tunisia comes Karim Dridi’s “Chouf” in the Official Selection Special Screenings.
Perhaps the most exotic film showing is the Afghanistan-Denmark- France-Sweden coproduction, “Wolf and Sheep” in Directors’ Fortnight. In her debut feature, the young Afghan filmmaker Shahrbanoo Sadat portrays the community in a small village in rural Afghanistan through shepherd children.
Although he is still confined in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, Julian Assange will make an appearance at the Cannes film festival – via Laura Poitras’s documentary “Risk”, which has been selected for the Directors’ Fortnight sidebar.
Iran’s famous Oscar-winning (“A Separation”) director, Asghar Farhadi is here with “Inversion”.
As always everyone will be running on adrenalin trying to accomplish everything in ten neverending days.
- 5/11/2016
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Late last week, the Cannes Film Festival unveiled their lineup at long last. The upcoming 2016 incarnation of the fest looks to be a potentially strong one, with some Cannes favorites returning alongside a whole bunch of possible awards contenders. There’s no guarantees that the festival translates to Oscar, but we almost always can get a contender or two from the group. Whether they can turn into nominees or not is another thing, but the potential is certainly there. You’ll be able to see the full Cannes lineup below, but before that, I’ll be looking over the list for a few films to really look forward to first. Then, you can take a gander at all of the titles set to unspool soon at the fest. Here we go… From what I can tell, the bigger Academy Award players, assuming the reception over in the South of France warrants it,...
- 4/18/2016
- by Joey Magidson
- Hollywoodnews.com
Cannes chief discusses the festival’s repeat invitations policy and explains why Oliver Stone’s Snowden will not be premiering at the festival.
Screen sat down with Cannes festival director Thierry Fremaux to discuss this year’s well-received selection and unpack some of the burning questions.
Good-afternoon, Thierry. You received 1,869 films this year but just four of the directors in Competition are there for the first time. What’s your response to those who say it is always the same names in Competition at Cannes?
We don’t always have the same names. Okay, the Dardennes and Ken Loach come back again and again, but this year Alain Guiraudie is there for the first-time while Nicole Garcia and even Xavier Dolan aren’t habitués. It’s only the second time Xavier’s been in Competition and we’ve also got newcomers like Brazil’s Mendonca, Puiu from Romanian and Germany’s Maren Ade.
At the same...
Screen sat down with Cannes festival director Thierry Fremaux to discuss this year’s well-received selection and unpack some of the burning questions.
Good-afternoon, Thierry. You received 1,869 films this year but just four of the directors in Competition are there for the first time. What’s your response to those who say it is always the same names in Competition at Cannes?
We don’t always have the same names. Okay, the Dardennes and Ken Loach come back again and again, but this year Alain Guiraudie is there for the first-time while Nicole Garcia and even Xavier Dolan aren’t habitués. It’s only the second time Xavier’s been in Competition and we’ve also got newcomers like Brazil’s Mendonca, Puiu from Romanian and Germany’s Maren Ade.
At the same...
- 4/15/2016
- ScreenDaily
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