The 2022 Cannes Film Festival kicks-off Tuesday, May 18, 2022 and runs till Saturday, May 28, 2022. This will be our first official year at the Festival as our Amanda Gilmore will be on the French Riviera covering the Festival!
Returning to its traditional May slot, the Festival serves as a major precursor to what we might see Awards Season later this year. But timed perfectly, some huge Blockbusters like TOP GUN: MAVERICK and Baz Luhrmann‘s ELVIS will be getting their chance to premiere before the world. Many eyes will be on Openight Night film Michel Hazanavicius’ FINAL CUT, David Cronenberg’s Athens-filmed CRIMES OF THE FUTURE and Closing Night selection SHOWING UP from Director Kelly Reichardt.
Amanda previews for us her six-most eagerly-anticipated titles of the Festival.
Canada’s David Cronenberg is finally back at Cannes and is bringing Kristen Stewart, Lea Seydoux and Viggo Mortensen with him. Crimes of the Future takes place in the not-so-distant future where the human species adapts to a synthetic environment, the body undergoes new transformations and mutations. In a recent interview, Cronenberg said he’s expecting walkouts at the Festival screenings. This only makes us want to see it more! It will compete for the prestigious Palme d’Or.
After spending some time making television, Director Park Chan-wook has returned to Film with Decision to Leave. It’s a mystery thriller that follows a detective who falls for a widow after she becomes the prime suspect in his latest murder investigation. We are fans of Chan-wook’s prior films such as Oldboy and Stoker. We can’t wait to see what he’s got up his sleeve for Decision to Leave. It will compete for the prestigious Palme d’Or.
We have been waiting for this biopic of Elvis Presley for some time now after production was halted at the beginning of the pandemic. Finally, it will be having its world premiere at the Festival and we couldn’t be happier. Baz Luhrmann is bringing his dazzling direction to the Rock Legend’s life and he’s assembled quite the cast. We can’t wait to see Austin Butler become the man himself and Tom Hanks’ portrayal of his manager Colonel Tom Parker.
This Film tells the true, eerie story of twin sisters who were entirely silent, communicating only with each other as children. As teenagers, they became obsessed with writing fiction, then with teenage boys, and finally, with crime. It’s Written and Directed by Agnieszka Smoczynska and stars Letitia Wright as both sisters. It will screen in-competition for the Un Certain Regard Award.
Writer-Director George Miller is returning to Cannes for this Fantasy Romance starring Idris Elba and Tilda Swinton. It follows a lonely scholar on a trip to Istanbul who discovers a Djinn who offers her three wishes in exchange for his freedom. What she wants is love, but can and should he grant it to her? We can’t wait to see what epic journey Miller brings us on this time.
Actress Riley Keogh is making her Director Debut with War Pony. She Co-Directs with Gina Gammell and the Film is based on real events. It follows the interlocking stories of three Lakota men living on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The three tales explore the concept of belonging: a child belonging to a family, a man belonging to “America,” and an elder belonging to his Tribe. It will screen in-competition for the Un Certain Regard Award.
Stay tuned for our coverage and bookmark this link for updated Reviews and coverage!
David Cronenberg‘s CRIMES OF THE FUTURE will be premiering at Cannes! This is the sixth time the Canadian Filmmaker has appeared at the Festival in competition.
Shot in Athens, the Film stars Viggo Mortensen, LĂ©a Seydoux, Kristen Stewart and Scott Speedman.
Synopsis:
As the human species adapts to a synthetic environment, the body undergoes new transformations and mutations. With his partner Caprice (Léa Seydoux), Saul Tenser (Viggo Mortensen), celebrity performance artist, publicly showcases the metamorphosis of his organs in avant-garde performances. Timlin (Kristen Stewart), an investigator from the National Organ Registry, obsessively tracks their movements, which is when a mysterious group is revealed… Their mission – to use Saul’s notoriety to shed light on the next phase of human evolution.
From Sphere Films (formerly MK2 | MILE END), the Film will be opening across Canada on June 3, 2022, following its world premiere in the Official Competition at the Festival de Cannes
(Photo/video credit: Sphere Films)
Umm… can we go to Cannes? The lineup for the prestigious Film Festival has been revealed and this year 49 titles from 28 countries will be making their way to the Croisette May 11-12, 2016. Â The Festival is seen as a precursor to some of the Films that will be seen Awards Season as contenders and also in our City, TIFF this September?
Among the highlights are Woody Allen‘s latest, CafĂ© Society, which re-teams once again Kristen Stewart and Jesse Eisenberg. The Film is about a young man in the ’30s who goes to Paris looking to work in Film, but he falls in love and is swept away by the cafĂ© society. It opens the Festival.
Unlike other years, no Closing Night Film was announced. Like TIFF, they will re-screen the winner of the prestigious Palme d’Or.
American Honey from Andrea Arnold (Transparent), is a British Film about a group of young people who travel the U.S. selling magazine subscriptions and the antics they get into. Shia Labeouf and Riley Keough star.
Elle is the latest from Paul Verhoeven (Showgirls, Basic Instinct) and it centers around a video game company executive who gets attacked in her own home. She devotes her energies into finding her assailant and what results is much like an unpredictable video game.
Canada is well-represented by festival darling Xavier Dolan‘s latest, It’s Only the End of the World. It centers on a man who returns home to tell his family he’s dying. It stars Vincent Cassel, Marion Cotillard and LĂ©a Seydoux.
Visionary Pedro AlmodĂłvar returns to the festival circuit with his latest Julieta, which follows the life of a woman on the verge of madness and her life 30 years prior when things were grand.
Loving from Jeff Nichols follows an interracial couple who go to prison for being in love in 1958. Ruth Negga and Joel Edgerton star.
Jim Jarsmusch returns with his latest, Paterson, about a bus driver who dabbles in poetry. Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ Adam Driver stars.
Sean Penn directs The Last Face, starring Charlize Theron and Javier Bardem, both aid workers who fall in love in a war-torn Liberia.
Park Chan-wook (Oldboy) returns with The Handmaiden, about an heiress who falls for a thief.
Nicolas Winding Refn is developing a reputation for stylish, unconventional and polarizing Films and he returns with The Neon Demon, starring Elle Fanning as a supermodel whom is preyed upon by her rivals.
Personal Shopper stars Kristen Stewart as a young woman working as a shopper for a celebrity. Olivier Assayas directs.
Screening out of competition, meaning they are not competing for the Palme d’Or, are Jodie Foster‘s New York-filmed Money Monster starring Julia Roberts, George Clooney and Jack O’Connell. Steven Spielberg‘s eagerly-awaited Roald Dahl adaptation, The BFG also premieres. The Nice Guys by Shane Black, stars Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe – a pair of almost-cops who bend the rules surrounding a missing girl’s investigation.
(Photo credit: Warner Bros.)
Following-up his Oscar-nominated Animal Kingdom from 2010, Director/Writer David MichĂ´d will premiere his latest, The Rover in Cannes this May as part of their Midnight Screenings Program.
Official Synopsis:
A Loner tracks the gang who stole his car from a desolate town in the Australian outback with the forced assistance of a wounded guy left behind in the wake of the theft.
The Rover stars:Â Guy Pearce, Robert Pattinson, Scoot McNairy, David Field, Anthony Hayes, Gillian Jones and Susan Prior.
See the semi-sweet Trailer here:
Those of us hoping for a TIFF ’14 Premiere, will have their hopes dashed as it gets a Canadian release June 20, 2014 in Canada via eOne Films, whom are represented by not one, but THREE Canadian Films in Cannes this May including: David Cronenberg‘s Maps to the Stars (also starring Pattinson!), Xavier Dolan‘s Mommy and Atom Egoyan‘s The Captive!
(Photo/video credit: A24 Films)
Concluding the 66th annual Cannes Film Festival, the Main Jury (headed by Steven Spielberg, including Nicole Kidman and Ang Lee) handed-out their Prizes earlier today. Winning top honours this year, the Palme d’Or, was Blue is the Warmest Colour (La vie d’Adèle), directed by Abdellatif Kechiche. The racy Drama, clocking-in at over three hours, is about a teenage Girl who has an affair with a Woman. It also has the distinction of winning the FIPRESCI Competition Prize.
In the acting categories Bérénice Bejo, who received an Oscar nomination for her silent performance in The Artist, won Best Actress for Italian-French Production The Past, about a Parisian Woman looking to divorce her Iranian Husband. Bruce Dern won Best Actor for his work in Nebraska, directed by Alexander Payne (Sideways, The Descendants), about a Father and Son who reunite to claim a Sweepstakes prize. The Drama which stars SNL Alumni Will Forte, gets a November release via Paramount Pictures in North America.
Winning the Grand Prix was eagerly-awaited Coen Brothers Film, Inside Llewyn Davis. Set in the ’60s, the Drama about the Folk Music Scene stars an exciting Cast of Carey Mulligan, Justin Timberlake, Garrett Hedlund, John Goodman and Oscar Isaac.
Mexican Filmmaker Amat Escalante won Best Director for his work on Heli, a Mexican Drama about a Family torn-apart by drugs.
On our radars is Fruitvale Station, to be distributed by eOne Films in select Canadian Citiies on July 26, 2013. The Ryan Coogler Drama, which was a Hit at Sundance earlier this year, picked-up the Future Prize and is about a 22-year-old Man’s final day on New Year’s Eve 2008.
Clearly on the Awards Trail and release dates scheduled for later this year, perhaps we can expect Nebraska, Inside Llewyn Davis, The Past and Blue is the Warmest Colour to surface in Toronto at TIFF this September?
Complete list of Winners here.
(Photo credit: Quat’sous Films)
Kristin Scott Thomas, you naughty Girl you! The Weinstein Co. unveiled Clips from a few of their upcoming Marquee releases at Cannes on Friday and shocking just about everybody is Nicolas Winding Refn‘s Follow-up to 2010’s excellent Drive.
The Thriller, Only God Forgives, competes in-competition at the Festival this year and shot entirely in Bangkok, the Film centers around Julian (Ryan Gosling), a Drug Smuggler whose life is complicated further by her Mother’s (Thomas) mission to find who killed his older Brother, Billy (Tom Burke).
“You know what he does for a living right? Heroine, Cocaine… that’s where the money comes. That’s how he can afford to pay you to f*** him”, she says to the Girl her Son brings home to her, Mai (Rhatha Phongam), in quite possibly her most shocking role to date. Believe me, it takes a lot to shock me and this is pretty darn shocking and might I add, completely NSFW. I can just imagine the room of international Journalists gasping at the Subtitles!
Watch the Clip below:
With the Cannes Film Festival kicking into high gear this weekend, the Director and Principal Cast of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire held a Photo Call earlier today at Majestic Hotel. Was it ever an extravagant affair! Stars Jennifer Lawrence, Liam Hemsworth and Sam Claflin (just in Toronto this week) attended along with Director Francis Lawrence.  No sign of Josh Hutcherson however, as he’s in Panama filming the Thriller, Paradise Lost alongside Benicio del Toro.
See the amazing Display they set-up for the Film below:
It also has been announced that Covergirl will be partnering with the Film to release a limited edition Makeup Collection inspired by the Film!
eOne Films releases The Hunger Games: Catching Fire on November 22, 2013.
(Photo credit: Lionsgate Films/Getty Images)
This delights me so! After premiering earlier today at the Cannes Film Festival, Sofia Coppola‘s latest effort The Bling Ring, based on true events surrounding a group of Teens who masterminded the burglary of several Celebrity homes, debuts with plenty of praise! I admit, things were looking a bit iffy there with 2010’s plodding Somewhere.
Here’s what some of the Critics are saying about The Bling Ring:
“An unexpected pleasure” – The Guardian
“Sofia Coppola’s most provocative Film yet” – Entertainment Weekly
“The Parents are awful, the Teenagers are repulsive and the Celebrities are removed from reality, but no one gets away clean in Sofia Coppola‘s brilliant Movie” – The Wrap
“The acting is so authentic that it takes a while to differentiate the girls… As such, it will attain a certain stature itself as a Cultural Artifact but without stirring significant interest artistically or commercially.” – The Hollywood Reporter
“Though it lacks the name cast and self-consciously outre style of another recent girls-gone-wild opus, Spring Breakers, this lively and fascinating pic should score well with its target hipster demo…” – Variety
As an aside, we saw Coppola last week at the Met Gala in New York City with Marc Jacobs. More on that here!
Have you seen The Bling Ring‘s Trailer yet? Watch it here.
eOne Films releases The Bling Ring on June 21, 2013.
(Photo/video credit: A24)
Some pretty exciting announcements were made earlier today for this year’s Cannes Film Festival, set to begin May 15, 2013 for a full eleven full days. In addition to Baz Luhmann‘s The Great Batsby 3-D opening the Festival, Nicolas Winding Refn and Ryan Gosling, who teamed-up on 2010’s excellent Drive will be back with Only God Forgives, which is in the race for the prestigious Palme d’Or; Kristin Scott Thomas also stars in the Film about a Gangster in Bangkok.
Several other notable Directors also will be well-represented at the Festival this year, hoping to impress Jury President Steven Spielberg:
Alexander Payne (Sideways) who competes with Nebraska, about a Father and estranged Son on a road trip to claim their Sweepstakes Prize; Bruce Dern, Stacy Keach and Will Forte star.
Steven Soderbergh (Ocean’s Eleven) competes with HBO‘s Behind the Candelabra, which gets a Television release in North America; Michael Douglas and Matt Damon star in this Liberace Biopic.
The Coen Brothers (No Country for Old Men) competes with Inside Llewyn Davis, set in New York City’s Folk Scene during the ’60s; Carey Mulligan, Justin Timberlake, Garrett Hedlund and John Goodman star.
Roman Polanski (Rosemary’s Baby) competes with Venus in Fur about an Actress who tries convincing a Director she is fit for a role; stars Mathieu Amalric and Emmanuelle Seigner. Polanski has a Documentary also out-of-competition in Weekend of a Champion.
James Gray (Two Lovers) competes with The Immigrant, about an innocent Woman tricked into a life of Burlesque, until a Magician saves her; stars Marion Cotillard and Joaquin Phoenix.
Several other notable Films also will compete out-of-competition, including:
Stephen Frears’ (The Queen) Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight starring Danny Glover, Frank Langella and Christopher Plummer.
Sophia Coppola‘s (Lost in Translation) The Bling Ring, which we’re eagerly awaiting, starring Emma Watson and Taissa Farmiga.
Ron Howard‘s (A Beautiful Mind) Rush, a Biopic about Formula 1 Driver Niki Lauda; stars Chris Hemsworth, Olivia Wilde and Natalie Dormer.
The Festival also is a Pre-Cursor to some of the great Films we see at the Toronto International Film Festival and surely Toronto’s Film and Celebrity Watchers must be excited at the possibility of some of these being here this September!
Click here for more.
(Photo credit: Mr. Will Wong)
Running from May 15 through 26, 2013, the 66th annual Cannes Film Festival will roll out the Red Carpet to the Who’s Who of Cinema and just announced as the Opening Night Gala being that of long-awaited The Great Gatsby 3D. The Baz Luhrmann-directed Adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald ‘s Novel stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan, Tobey Maguire, Joel Edgerton, Isla Fisher and Elizabeth Debricki. To draw the connection, Luhrmann released a Statement explaining that Fitzgerald actually wrote “some of the most poignant and beautiful passages” in France, not far from Cannes.
Warner Bros. releases The Great Gatsby 3D on May 10, 2013.
(Photo/video credit: Warner Bros.)
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