Among the titles which stand out to me immediately are two beautiful projects, one selected for Critics’ Week and the other in the Fortnight line up, which participated in the recent DFI Qumra industry incubator.
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Laetitia Ky in a still from Erige Sehiri’s ‘Promised Sky’
Cannes Line-Up announcement 2025: Wondrous women filmmakers, returning favorites and a Spike Lee joint
You have to love Spike Lee for crashing Thierry Frémaux’s insiders party at the line-up press conference… via social media of course!
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Oscar-winning director Michel Hazanavicius at Ciné Lumière in London to present his latest
‘The Most Precious of Cargoes’ is the French-born director’s foray into animation and features the narration of legendary actor Jean-Louis Trintignant in what would turn out to be his last role.
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A still from Abderrahmane Sissako’s ‘Black Tea’ which enjoys its UK premiere at the festival
Film Africa 2024 is coming to London to celebrate the best of cinema from the continent
The festival, presented by The Royal African Society, will run from 25 October to 3 November during the UK’s celebration of Black History Month and will showcase the best of African cinema in Europe.
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Cannes Film Festival awards include top prizes for Sean Baker's 'Anora' and Guan Hu's 'Black Dog' in Un Certain Regard
Many women-directed gems were snubbed, in favor of a story about a sex worker written and directed by a male filmmaker.
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This year’s Palm Dog winner Kodi with his director and co-star Laetitia Dosch
The Cannes Diaries: The day the festival went to the dogs!
The Palm Dog winners, that is…
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A still from ‘Salted Skins’ by Nicolas Fattouh, courtesy of the DFI
The Cannes Diaries: Doha Dreaming with multiple DFI projects in the Cannes Official line up & Spring 2024 upcoming grants
It’s all in a week’s work for the Doha Film Institute, the greatest cinematic organization in the MENA region.
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A still from ‘The Girl with the Needle’, courtesy of the Festival de Cannes
The Cannes Diaries: Magical interviews, chance meetings and beautiful films
There is a trick to this festival. If you stand still long enough in Cannes — something a bit difficult to do on a weekend as crowds are bustling all around you — you’ll run into everyone who is anyone in the film universe.
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A still from ‘Maria’ by Jessica Palud
Cannes adds more titles, include Jessica Palud's 'Maria' and unveils jury for Un Certain Regard
Plus, their selection of short films from all over the world and an immersive program which includes fantastic works featuring the voices of Cate Blanchett, Indira Varma, Tahar Rahim and Colin Farrell.
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‘Rhapsody in August’ by Akira Kurosawa (1991) © Shochiku Co., Ltd. / Kurosawa Prod. – Graphic design © Hartland Villa
Studio Ghibli, Kevin Costner, Baloji and other goodies to come at the Festival de Cannes
Turns out there are lots of winning people and moments on this year’s Croisette, and that’s before the festival has even started. And finally, we have a poster for the 77th edition of the festival!
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A still from ‘The Second Act’, photo © Chi-Fou-Mi Productions
The latest Cannes announcements, including the Léa Seydoux starrer which will kick off the festival
Plus, the festival releases its latest guidelines to make the event more eco-friendly.
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Jim Sheridan, Leos Carax, Claire Denis and more at Qumra for this year's DFI industry meet up
Plus Atom Egoyan fresh from the Berlinale and Academy Award nominated sound designer Martín Hernández, all to give Masterclasses while in Qatar.
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An empty red carpet means anticipation. No red carpet means defeat.
Requiem for a Festival: Letter to a Cannes FF that might never happen
I wrote a letter to the Festival de Cannes. I asked it to help save cinema by not going online.
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A still from ‘Family Romance, Llc’ by Werner Herzog
The Cannes 2019 Diaries: Wondrous Werner Herzog, 'Papicha' is my new heroine and the life surreal of a film journo
In ‘Family Romance, Llc’ Werner Herzog finds a new way to work through the difficulties life throws our way — outsource them to an agency specializing in family connections. He does it with his usual flair for our human ridiculousness and making the impossible seem real. During the junket following the screening, I loved listening to my esteemed colleagues’ confused explanations of stories they thought they’d seen like this one in documentaries, or even completely convinced this was a reality film, instead of fiction. And Herzog himself quite perfectly, calmly and smoothly shooting down each and all of their perplexed ideas.
‘Family Romance, Llc’ was a Special Screening at this year’s Festival de Cannes.
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Julianne Moore in ‘The Staggering Girl’ by Luca Guadagnino
The Cannes 2019 Diaries: Films that broke my heart and Luca Guadagnino's Valentino project
There has been a certain je ne sais quoi in the air here in Cannes, and I wasn’t able to quite put my finger on it. It bothered me, someone always good at defining a moment, person or place, that I couldn’t put that feeling into words. Then I attended the press conference for Luca Guadagnino’s ‘The Staggering Girl’ and I had a ‘EUREKA!” moment. So bear with me for a moment while I get to that…
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Me after my nightmare trip… NO! Just kidding, it’s Iggy Pop in a still from ‘The Dead Don’t Die’.
The Cannes 2019 Diaries: 'The Dead Don't Die', they land at Nice airport though!
Yes, there was a flash taxi strike at the airport in Nice yesterday, just as my flight was getting in. No, they were not prepared for an action by all taxi drivers to block the roads accessing the airport, so no vehicle of any sort could get in or out of the airport. Yes, there is a tramway track recently built which reaches terminal 3 but no, there was no tram traveling on it. So everyone had to walk for miles, with luggage in tow, under the sweltering sun, to reach an overcrowded train, through overpasses and station underpasses (read: lots and lots of stairs) mimicking the zombies in Jim Jarmusch’s Cannes opening night film.
Welcome to the glamorous life of a journalist covering the Festival de Cannes! If I hear one more time what a wonderful opportunity it is for me to be doing what I do, I’ll strangle someone. Then, I might actually begin to get the attention I deserve.
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Leading up to Cannes, here are the line-ups for Directors' Fortnight and Critics' Week
I know, most critics go to the Festival de Cannes looking forward to the Competition titles and maybe will grant themselves the joy of viewing the Un Certain Regard selection. But I’ll admit I’m more of a sidebar person, and while I will view a few great titles in the main lineups, my craves lay more in the Quinzaine (Directors’ Fortnight) and Semaine de la Critique.
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Alain Delon, photo courtesy of the Festival de Cannes
Cannes Film Festival announces Competition, Un Certain Regard titles and an honorary Palme d'or to Alain Delon
As a young girl, I remember watching anything that had Alain Delon in it. I had a super crush on him and, lucky me, no film of his was deemed inappropriate by my parents. So along with Luchino Visconti’s ‘The Leopard’ and ‘Rocco and his Brothers’, I also caught Delon in films like ‘The Swimming Pool’, ‘Zorro’ and yes, even ‘The Concorde… Airport ‘79’. In fact, from the latter I required that a friend of the family who knew how to knit make me a royal blue crew neck wool sweater that looked just like his. I would find you a photo but I would have to watch that entire film all over again and well, I’ve moved on from my pre-pubescent crush. And my taste in film has highly improved.
But Alain Delon remains the fascinating man, the sultry sex symbol that could even steal women away from Mick Jagger. And this year’s he’s the Festival de Cannes honorary Palme d’Or recipient. Kudos to the festival for finally getting the reclusive actor to accept their coveted lifetime award.
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La Pointe courte © 1994 Agnès Varda and her children - Montage and design : Flore Maquin
The Cannes Film Festival unveils its poster which pays tribute to the late, great Agnès Varda
As I learned at this year’s Qumra, held by the Doha Film Institute, the grand dame of French New Wave cinema Agnès Varda was all about finding the stories, the viewpoints that no one else would bother with. The Festival de Cannes, in its poster just unveiled for the 72nd edition of the festival, pays homage to La Varda but also to her indomitable spirit by showing the filmmaker on her first cinematic venture perched high up on a platform, atop the shoulders of a crew technician. She’s is looking to capture that image, that viewpoint which no one else would have even thought about. She is Varda, in all her perfectly humble and adventurous attitude. The same Varda who asked me, to my utter disbelief, if I’d liked her “little film” a few years ago in Cannes.
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Hanaa Issa with filmmaker Elia Suleiman at a DFI event
"This is the environment where films flourish": Talking Qumra 2019 with Hanaa Issa in Berlin
Ever since its creation in 2010 on the peninsular country of Qatar, the Doha Film Institute has been revolutionizing cinema in the Region. The word “revolution” is never a sign of good things in the Arab world and yet at DFI, they should welcome the term when it comes to describing the work they’ve been doing almost singlehandedly to create and foster a healthy cinema culture in the Arab world. And beyond.
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