Day 3: KStew Debut; IMAX CEO on Nolan; Screen Jury Grid Starts!Stewart celebrates the "BTE" of her star, Imogen Poots. Plus: Latest deals from Prime Video, Kirsten Dunst
Kristen Stewart wants the world to know that anyone can make a movie. With her bleached blonde hair pulled back and her tattoos exposed in a white T-shirt, the star got a warm reception and plenty of laughs during a conversation Friday about her directorial debut with The Chronology of Water. Stewart, who shot to fame as Bella Swan in the Twilight movies, got emotional in front of a crowd of fashionable filmmakers. “There is this bullshit fallacy that you need to have experience or technical adeptness,” she said. “Anyone can make a movie if they have something to say . . . There is no amount of learning or skill — that’s just crap, if you can speak to your people and if you just feel allowed to communicate… a film will come out of you.” The newlywed, who arrived in Cannes dressed in Chanel, also drew laughter when she described why she had chosen British actress Imogen Poots to star in her film. “She doesn’t have like big tits or anything, but she seems like she does,” Stewart said. “It’s like ‘Big Dick Energy,’ what is that? She has BTE.” The Chronology of Water is adapted from the 2011 book by Lidia Yuknavitch — a memoir of trauma and survival that swirls with gender and identity issues. Stewart said she’s excited to get her next film out too, now that she’s “broken the seal.”
Stewart was speaking at a panel at Campari Beach put on by the Breaking Through the Lens, a non-profit aimed at helping women and LGBTQ+ filmmakers finance their projects. She urged women to be more assertive and won a round of applause when she said: “It’s important to feel comfortable and proud and not just, ‘Oh, did I just say something that’s going to be put in a headline?’ Yes. Absolutely put it in a headline.” Also on deck was Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon, who appears in the movie, which premieres Friday at the Cannes Film Festival. Gordon gave Stewart a final word of praise at the end of the session, “When you gave me direction you were super articulate.” “Yeah, I wanted it,” Stewart replied. “You just might get it,” Gordon shot back. — CA IMAX’s Rich Gelfond: ‘Studios Are Leaning in’Given all its ostentatious displays of glitz and glamour, sometimes the Cannes Film Festival feels like fiddling while Rome — um, make that Hollywood — burns. After all, back in the states, despite surprise springtime hits like A Minecraft Movie and Sinners, the industry is still facing an unpredictable summer as it tries to recover from a down year in 2024. But none of that fazes Rich Gelfond, IMAX CEO, who was able to turn his latest visit to Cannes into something of a victory lap as the large-format film company scored its biggest-ever first quarter ever with global box office of $298 million, while also reporting its April box office was up 47 percent over April 2024. “When were were at CinemaCon, a lot of traditional cinema exhibitors were kind of walking with their heads down,” Gelfond tells me, “but I think they found IMAX and wanted to talk to us because we’re on pace for a record year.”  In part, Gelfond credited IMAX’s recent tallies to Warners having promoted the fact that Ryan Coogler’s Sinners was shot with IMAX film cameras, which in turn drew audiences to IMAX theaters, where Sinners has racked up 20 percent of its global box office, which currently stands at $292 million. After ceding those screens to Thunderbolts*, Sinners returned to IMAX in 70mm in nine major markets this week. The company, which boasts more than 800 theaters in China, also got a big boost from the monster Chinese animated hit Ne Zha 2, which has contributed $165 million to IMAX coffers. “Globally, the studios are leaning much more into IMAX theaters than they have in the past,” Gelfond said as he presided over a luncheon at the Members Club at the Plage du Festivals on Thursday. As if to illustrate that, even as Tom Cruise was walking the red carpet at Cannes’ official premiere of his Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning at the Grand Theatre Lumiere, a separate press screening of the film was held at a local IMAX theater. Paramount’s local premieres for the movie — in New York, London and Tokyo — are all being held in IMAX theaters. Gelfond talked up the rest of IMAX’s 2025 slate, which includes the Brad Pitt racing pic F1 and the year-end release of James Cameron’s Avatar: Fire and Ash. “I’ve seen about 20 minutes of it,” he added of the Cameron film, and “one of the things that’s special about it is that it’s a different color scheme than the prior Avatars. It has a different look and feel. It feels very fresh and new.” “We’re also feeling very good about ’26,” Gelfond offered, which was something of an understatement because that calendar includes Christopher Nolan’s currently filming Odyssey and Greta Gerwig’s Narnia. Odyssey, in fact, will be the first commercial film to shoot entirely on Imax film cameras. IMAX film cameras have been a lot bulkier than its digital cameras, creating challenges for directors like Nolan, a big IMAX booster who prefers to work with film. After the success of Oppenheimer, Gelfond recounted how “Chris called me up and said, ‘If you can figure out how to solve the problems, I will make [Odyssey] 100 percent in IMAX.’ And that’s what we’re doing. He forced us to rethink that side of our business — our film recorders, our film cameras.” IMAX will also be breaking new ground when Gerwig’s Narnia, a Netflix production, arrives at the end of ’26. The streamer, no fan of theatrical exhibition, has made an exception in Gerwig’s case, and her film will bow on IMAX screens exclusively 28 days before it becomes available to home viewers. IMAX has committed to a two-week run for the film, with the option of extending that. There have been questions whether American theater chains like AMC and Regal will welcome the film into the IMAX screens they house, but Gelfond insisted, “Many of our leading partners, including AMC, have already committed, and AMC is about half of our footprint in North America.” Because about 20 percent of IMAX’s box office also comes from local-language productions, Gelfond also used the occasion to announce that, taking a cue from the success of the 2024 documentary The Blue Angels, it’s begun filming Patrouille de France, the first-ever foreign-language IMAX documentary.
A co-production between Federation Studios and Imago Production, the feature doc chronicles a year in the life of the Patrouille de France, the legendary aerobatics team of the French Air and Space Force. Gelfond is also undaunted by President Trump’s threat of tariffs on foreign film production. “We never really thought that proposal was very likely to take effect,” he said. “It just didn’t seem practical.” And, he added, “in terms of China, it’s really been business as usual.” So even as much of Hollywood is bent on downsizing, IMAX continues to bet that bigger is better. — GK
Claire on the Croisette: Hotel for Dogs
Market NewsHot Projects from SpainThrillers and ghost stories vie for buyers. → Click here to keep reading
NewsNeon Hires Ryan WernerThe marketing whiz has been named president of global cinema. → Click here to keep reading Trump’s Tariff Threats Politicize CannesFrench culture minister Rachida Dati to address industry issues. → Click here to keep reading
DealsKirsten Dunst To Star in Self HelpFlora Birnbaum’s debut feature follows a woman sucked into a conspiracy. → Click here to keep reading Prime Video Takes Thriller Over Your Dead BodyJorma Taccone’s film stars Jason Segel and Samara Weaving. → Click here to keep reading The Film Sales Company Reps The Real All AmericansThe comedy is based on sportswriter Sally Jenkins’ book about a Native American college football team. → Click here to keep reading
ReviewsA Desert Trek in SirâtFrench-Spanish director Oliver Laxe serves up a search for a missing girl. → Click here to keep reading Case 137 Dramatizes Police CorruptionLea Drucker stars in Dominik Moll’s French drama. → Click here to keep reading
FeaturesSigning a Deal on a NapkinU.K. producers Elizabeth Karlsen and Stephen Woolley trade Cannes memories. → Click here to keep reading Iraqi Director Hasan Hadi’s Debt to HollywoodHis debut feature The President’s Cake got assists from Chris Columbus and others. → Click here to keep reading
Today’s Screen Jury at CannesThe long-running Screen International Jury Grid is a critical ranking of competition films in Cannes, according to an assembled jury of 12 international film critics, including Screen’s reviewers (four stars is the top rating). Mascha Schilinski’s Sound of Falling, the German director’s second feature, has captivated reviewers early with its depiction of female trauma. Mk2 is handling international rights for the film that’s set for a September release in Germany. → Click here for the full grid.
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