Day 1: ‘Art Is a Threat’ as Oscar Race, the Resistance, BeginDe Niro, Jeremy Strong and jury chair Juliette Binoche mince no words as the annual film confab and market kick off the 78th festival
Cannes was never intended as a festival designed to feed the Oscars. Actually, it was conceived in the late ’30s to serve as a counterprotest of sorts to the Venice Film Festival, which had fallen under the sway of Hitler and Mussolini. But then World War II interrupted, and the Festival de Cannes did not officially get underway until 1946. But that’s another story. Well, not quite another story, because on Tuesday night as the curtain went up on the 78th Festival de Cannes, a bit of that original DNA re-asserted itself. With fascist-leaning regimes on the rise throughout the world, including in the U.S. itself, Cannes answered back. It began a bit tentatively at first. Asked about Trump’s threatened tariffs on films “produced in foreign lands,” jury president Juliette Binoche began, “I’m not sure I’m capable to answer that because it requires an analysis of the industry and cinema in the world,” but she concluded, “I think we can see that he’s fighting, and he’s trying in many different ways to save America and save his ass.” Fellow jury member Jeremy Strong, who knows something about Trump —having played his lawyer Roy Cohn in last year’s The Apprentice — stepped forward to say, “I think that this time where truth is under assault, where truth is becoming an increasingly endangered thing, that the role of stories, of cinema, of art and here, specifically at this temple of film, the role of film is increasingly critical because it can combat those forces in the entropy of truth, and can communicate truths, individual truths, human truths, societal truths, and affirm and celebrate our shared humanity.”
It remained for Robert De Niro, as he accepted an honorary Palme d’Or from Leonardo DiCaprio at the festival’s opening ceremony, to put the case most bluntly. “In my country, we are fighting like hell for the democracy we once took for granted. That affects all of us here, because art is the crucible that brings people together, like tonight. Art looks for truth. Art embraces diversity. That’s why art is a threat. That’s why we are a threat to autocrats and fascists,” he said. Calling Trump “America’s Philistine president,” De Niro became the voice of the resistance, at least for the night, exhorting, “It’s time for everyone who cares about liberty to organize, to protest, and when there are elections, vote. Tonight, and for the next 11 days, we show our strength and commitment by celebrating art in this glorious festival. Liberté. Égalité. Fraternité.” Meanwhile, even as Trump’s shadow looms over this year’s edition of the festival, so does the siren call of Oscar. Cannes celebrated the fact that films that played last year’s fest went on to collect 31 Oscar nominations. That was not always the case. For decades, Europe’s most glittery film festival proceeded as if the Academy Awards were something of an afterthought. But that’s changed in recent years as the Palme d’Or winner Parasite scored the Oscar for best picture in 2020 and then last year’s Palme recipient Anora also took home the Hollywood gold at the most recent Academy Awards. Both of those films were acquired and shepherded to their statuettes by Neon, and if anyone holds the keys to Cannes — and the Oscars — it’s Tom Quinn, Neon’s CEO (Katey Rich dubbed him the Palme d’Oracle a year ago). It’s not that Cannes has begun selecting more Academy-type pictures. It’s more that the Academy’s own taste, as it has drafted more international members, has become more like that of Cannes’ intentionally international juries. When he announced this year’s Cannes lineup in April, festival director Thierry Fremaux proclaimed, “What I’m really happy about is the link between Cannes in May and the Academy Awards in March. You can arrive in Cannes in May and be still alive in March almost one year later.” So which of this year’s films will engender so much applause along the Croisette that its echoes can still be heard when Oscar nominations are announced in January? It’s too early to tell. Among the usual suspects, there’s a new Wes Anderson, The Phoenician Scheme, with an idiosyncratically sprawling cast led by Benicio del Toro, and a new Spike Lee joint, Highest 2 Lowest, starring Denzel Washington. Such past Oscar winners as Joaquin Phoenix (in Ari Aster’s contemporary Western, Eddington) and Jennifer Lawrence (in Lynne Ramsay’s thriller, Die, My Love) will be on hand. And actors Kristen Stewart, Scarlett Johansson and Harris Dickinson will all try their hands at directing with, respectively, The Chronology of Water, Eleanor the Great and Urchin. Then there’s Neon and Quinn, who is shepherding several films through their Cannes debuts, including Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value, starring Renate Reinsve, who also starred in Trier’s The Worst Person in the World, and Alpha, from Julia Ducournau, the transgressive director of Titane. So it begins. Making a surprise appearance at the end of the opening ceremony at the festival’s Grand Lumiere Theater, Quentin Tarantino, a past Palme d’Or winner for his Pulp Fiction, put a punctuation point on the night by theatrically declaring, “It’s my honor to declare the 78th festival open!,” and then he literally dropped the mic.
Market Preview20 U.K. Films Courting BuyersThe buzzy titles range from Sally Potter’s Alma to Marc Forster’s Anxious People. → Continue reading
NewsEurope Calls to Oppose U.S. TariffsFrench MEP Emma Rafowicz will hold a Cannes press conference organized by the main European and national independent producer organizations to mark the signing of a new Charter for Independent Production. → Continue reading
Deal NewsCohen Media acquires U.S. rights to Our WarBernard-Henri Lévy’s documentary screened as part of Cannes’ Ukraine Day program. → Continue reading Miramax to Remake Thai HitMiramax has secured remake rights to GDH 559’s Thai smash How To Make Millions Before Grandma Dies, Pat Boonnitipat’s comedy drama which has been breaking records across Asia. → Continue reading White Lotus Star Jason Isaacs Heads to South AfricaU.K. actor Isaacs is set to join Djimon Hounsou and Ariyon Bakare in Donovan Marsh’s action drama The Bleeding Ground, due to shoot in South Africa early next year. → Continue reading South Korean Superhero Film Hi-Five Sells to U.S.Well Go USA will handle the film about five people who develop superpowers after organ transplants. → Continue reading Rocky Horror Doc Courts Foreign BuyersKaleidoscope Film Distribution has acquired international sales rights to Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror, a documentary chronicling the legacy of Richard O’Brien’s classic musical The Rocky Horror Show. → Continue reading
ReviewsCannes Opener Leave One Day Strikes Pleasant NoteDirector Amélie Bonnin’s culinary-infused film marks the first debut ever to launch the festival. → Continue reading
FeaturesNeon’s Tom Quinn Talks Cannes Winning StreakThe Palme d’Or whisperer has seen his company claim the festival’s top prize in each of its last five editions. → Continue reading Netflix and Disney Challenge Belgian LawWhy an under-the-radar legal challenge in Belgium could have huge implications for European producers. → Continue reading Films Sought for China’s Golden Panda AwardsChinese distributor Hishow is taking on a new curating role, heading into Cannes as a buyer of international films for China’s Golden Panda Awards. → Continue reading
Follow us: Instagram | YouTube | LinkedIn | Bluesky | TikTok | X | Threads | Facebook | WhatsApp ICYMI
Like & Subscribe, a creator economy newsletterThe Optionist, a newsletter about IP
|
