Cannes, France (AP) – The 78th Cannes Film Festival Open Tuesday with expectations at the top of what could be a banner edition.
All ingredients – an absurd number of stars, high -level filmmakers, political intrigue – seem to be aligned for The spectacular French Riviera. Over the next 12 days, Cannes will welcome the first of Megawatt, including those of “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning”, “Eddington” by Ari Aster by Spike Lee and Ari Aster.
Things start on Tuesday with the unveiling of Juliette Binoche’s jury, a tribute to three films to Ukraine and the film of the opening evening, the French romance of Amélie Bonnin “Leave One Day”. During the festival opening ceremony, Robert de Niro will receive an honorary palm of gold49 years after “Taxi Driver” won the first Cannes prize.
Cannes comes out of a 2024 festival which has produced a certain number of pretenders with possible Oscars, including “Emilia Pérez”, “The substance”, “Flow” and The best winner in the film, “Anora”. When he was asked if he felt the pressure this time, the director of the Thierry Frémaux festival said that the only type of pressure in which he believed was beer. (Beer in the tap in France is “pressure beer”.)
“Indeed, last year was a great year,” said Frémaux on Monday. “But at the very moment when I was with (journalists) at the start of the festival, we did not know if it was going to be a good year or not.”
Cannes launches the same day Gérard Depardieu, One of the most famous actors in France, was found guilty of having sexually assaulted two women on a set in 2021. In one of the most important #MeToo cases in France, Depardieu received a 18 -month suspended prison sentence. The 76 -year -old man has long been a regular presence in Cannes.
The introduction of the binoche jury
This year’s Cannes Film Festival, the first international cinematographic gathering, is also burnting after US President Donald Trump Call at prices on films made abroad. While Frémaux expressed his sympathy for the cause of strengthening local film production, he said that he was too early to comment on the still informed plans.
“I don’t know what to really say about it,” Binoche told journalists on Tuesday when asked questions about the prices. “We can see that he is fighting and tried in different ways to save America and save his ass.”
With Binoche, the other eight jurors include Halle Berry and Jeremy Strong, who could not attend Cannes last year for the first of his Trump Film “The Apprentice”. Strong referred to this film, which led to his first nomination to the Oscars, in his comments on the American president on Tuesday.
“The truth is in the process of attack,” said Strong. “More precisely in this temple of the film, the role of the film is more and more critical because it can fight these forces in the entropy of the truth, and can communicate truths, individual truths, human truths, societal truths and assert and celebrate our shared humanity.”
Jake Coyle covered the Cannes Film Festival Since 2012. To prepare for this year, he has practiced the consumption of on the run and interviewed the filmmakers on three continents who are in competition for the first honor of Cannes, the Palme d’Or.
Berry, responding to Cannes’ new protocols on outfit for the red carpet, said she had “an incredible dress” with a long train for the opening ceremony, but would wear something else. Cannes prohibited nudity and dresses with long trains for its first in the evening at the palace.
“I had to pivot,” said Berry. “But the part of nudity, I think it’s probably also a good rule.”
Starry programming, with geopolitics playing a co-date role
Cannes will follow Tuesday’s festivities with Tom Cruise’s return Wednesday. Three years after bringing “Top Gun: Maverick” to the festival, He is back with the latest film “Mission: Impossible”.
Twenty-two movies will life for cannes’ top prize, the palm of gold, to be presented may 24. Those films include Wes Anderson’s “The Phoenician Scheme,” Richard Linklater’s “Nouvelle Vague,” Lynne Ramsay’s “Die, My Love,” Joachim Trier’s “Sentimental Value,” Reichardt’s “The Mastermind,” Oliver Hermanus’ “The History of Sound,” “Alpha” by Julia Ducournau and “A simple accident” by Jafar Panahi.
In the Cannes section, a certain number of respect, three eminent actors make their director’s debut: Harris Dickinson (“Urchin”), Kristen Stewart (“La Chronologie de l’Eau”) and Scarlett Johansson (“Eleanor The Great”).
Geopolitics should play a main role in Cannes, which begins by projecting three Ukraine 2025 documentaries: “Zelensky”, “our war” by Bernard-Henri Lévy and co-production associated with the press “2000 meters in Andriivka”, “ by “20 days in Mariupol” Oscar Gagnant MSTYSLAV Chernov.
“This” day of Ukraine “is a reminder of the commitment of artists, authors and journalists to tell the story of this conflict in the heart of Europe,” the festival said in a statement.
On Tuesday, more than 350 filmmakers, actors and others in the film industry – notably Richard Gere, Pedro Almodovar, Javier Bardem, Viggo Mortensen and Mark Ruffalo, published an open letter in the French Liberation newspaper and in the variety of cinema institutions to respond more forces to what they called “Gaza Gene”.
Acid, a parallel section of Cannes, includes the documentary “Put your soul on your hand and walk”. It is Fatma Hassona, a 25 -year -old Palestinian photojournalist who was killed the day after the documentary selection in April.
“Why is cinema, a reproductive ground for socially committed works, seems so indifferent to the horror of reality and oppression suffered by our sisters and our brothers?” The letter read.
___
For more coverage of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/cannes-film-festival
