The Cannes Film Festival, until 2003 called the International Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around the world and is widely considered the most important festival in the world in terms of impact. As such, a five-part series on the Cannes Film Festival is underway with the publishing of Part I.
Since 1946, Cannes has hosted the 12-day International Film Festival, where a jury of international talent decides on the awards for the best films of the year. An official competition takes place in the heart of the famous Palais des Festivals and attracts the attention of the world during the opening ceremony and the presentation of the Palme d’Or.
The second first Festival in 1946
The International Film Festival was born in the heady atmosphere of the end of World War II, marking the beginning of a major episode in world cinema.
Hope in the first years after the war
Back in July of 1945, in a France devastated by the war, Philippe Erlanger – who was at the origin of the first, aborted initiative – put the idea forward again to the new director of French cinematography.
But the French State and the municipality of Cannes could no longer afford such an expense. The necessary funds were raised through a public subscription, making this first festival possible.
In September 1946, in a festive atmosphere and despite a series of technical problems, this first festival kicked off a long golden era that made Cannes and its festival the place to be for all filmmaking countries.
Discoveries and revelations in contemporary cinema
The first Cannes Film Festival introduced the entire world to Italian cinema and its neorealism.
The rise of a new generation of filmmakers was not to the liking of the people at the Ministry who were in charge of making the selections, but films by these young auteurs quickly gained ground.
The Festival contributed to the discovery of cinemas that were relatively unknown in Europe, although there were doubts as to the jury’s objectivity, given certain diplomatic agreements.
Stay tuned for the Cannes Film Festival and the Cold War!
Before 1939, Jean Zay, the French Minister for Education and Fine Arts had a desire to implement a cultural event in France to rival the Venice International Film Festival (Bienalle) after the jury members at the Biennale changed the award winners a few hours before announcing the official results in favor of a Nazi propaganda documentary under duress from pressures imposed by the Adolph Hitler and Benito Mussolini.
Shocked by these events, the French diplomat and historian, Philippe Erlanger, had already begun thinking about organizing a free festival, with no pressure and no constraints. The idea became official when he received approval from the French Ministry of Education at the time, Jean Zay.
France also wanted to do as well as Italy, giving its Festival an equally prestigious setting. Cannes and Biarritz were included in the list of some ten French cities. There were rumors that Cannes was going to win but, in a dramatic turn of events, it was announced on 9 May 1939 that Biarritz had been chosen as the Festival’s home. Cannes’s supporters got back to work and ended up winning the competition by offering to increase the municipality’s financial participation.
Thus, on 31 May 1939, the city of Cannes and the French government signed the International Film Festival’s official birth certificate. The International Film Festival opened in Cannes on 1 September 1939, at the same time as the Venice Film Festival. The first festival-goers arrived in August, taking part in sumptuous parties. The painter Jean-Gabriel Domergue produced the official poster for this first festival.
The originality aspect of the event was emphasized: each country would select a film to be proposed for the competition. France did not want to create further tensions and decided to invite all filmmaking nations, including Germany and Italy which turned down the invitation. Only nine countries agreed to take part in the first Festival as the looming crisis was building in the summer of 1939.
The first Festival was supposed to be held from 1 to 20 September 1939 in an auditorium at the Municipal Casino. The first festival-goers arrived in August, taking part in sumptuous parties. The painter Jean-Gabriel Domergue produced the official poster for this first festival.
But with the increasingly threatening clouds of war, they fled. On 1 September, German troops invaded Poland. The festival was postponed for 10 days, but the situation only worsened. War was declared on 3 September and general mobilization was declared, making it impossible for the festival to go on. A single screening was organized – privately – of the American film Quasimodo by William Dieterle, for whose promotion a cardboard replica of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris was built on the beach.
Iris Knobloch, elected next President of the Cannes Film Festival
During its meeting on March 23, 2022, the Board of Directors of the French Association of the International Film Festival, which brings together public authorities and professionals of the 7th art, renewed the presidency of the Festival.
In accordance with the statutes, an election was held by secret ballot. She brought to the presidency of the Festival Mrs. Iris Knobloch.
Iris Knobloch thus becomes the first woman to serve as President of the International Film Festival. She will take office on July 1 and her three-year term will cover the 2023, 2024 and 2025 editions.
Knobloch stated, “France is doing me a great honor by entrusting me with the Presidency of the Cannes Film Festival. Deeply European, having always defended the cinema in my career, in France and abroad, I am happy to be able to devote all my energy to the influence of this planetary event, a major meeting for the safeguarding of the cultural life of a world which feels, more than ever, the imperious need for it. The cinema film seen in theaters remains an essential artistic expression and the Cannes Film Festival, with its unique selection, shows the way each year. I look forward to conducting a collective reflection with the Board of Directors, Thierry Frémaux its General Delegate and all the players in the world of cinema in order to continue the work accomplished and to imagine the future history in the light of new challenges facing us. Finally, I would like to thank Pierre Lescure for the tremendous work accomplished at the service of the Festival for 8 years and, in advance, for the discussions that we will have in order to prepare for the transition over the coming months.”
“When I was re-elected in June 2020, I announced that I wanted to ensure my succession before the end of this 3rd term and that I wanted it to be entrusted to a woman. I am happy with the arrival of Iris Knobloch and I will be pleased to pass on my duties to her, the duties of which she will be able to carry out with vision and talent,” said current chairman, Pierre Lescure.
“With the teams, we are delighted to welcome Iris Knobloch among us. (T)His appointment will help strengthen the Festival’s desire to stay as close as possible to its convictions.The challenges are numerous, we will work together to guarantee the Festival and the cinema it embodies, the place they deserve, and strongly affirm their artistic and political necessity.”
Pierre Lescure will definitively leave his functions on June 30, 2022. The Board of Directors would like to express its gratitude to him for his invaluable contribution, for the way in which he led the work of the directors, consolidating the foundations of the Cannes Film Festival and allowing the manifestation of remaining the absolute artistic reference of world cinema.
Thierry Frémaux, Managing Director, and François Desrousseaux, Secretary General, will now work with Iris Knobloch as they did with Pierre Lescure.
About Iris Knobloch
A trilingual lawyer, trained on the benches of the Ludwig-Maximilians Universität in Munich and NYU in New York, Iris Knobloch likes to present herself as “a translator”, in that she has never ceased to accompany the Hollywood studio in his understanding of the particular challenges of the French cultural exception, and to defend the idea that creation and reason need each other.
After 25 years in various management positions within Warner, including more than 15 years as President of Warner Bros France, Iris Knobloch is expanding her role in 2020 by becoming President of WarnerMedia France, Benelux, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, within particular under his responsibility the development and execution of WarnerMedia’s strategy as well as the coordination of all the group’s sales and marketing activities in the region.
After her departure and with recognized expertise in entertainment and leisure and a solid international network, she co-founded I2PO in July 2021 the first European SPAC (special purpose acquisition company) dedicated to this sector.
During all her years at the head of Warner France, she brought and accompanied some of the greatest international authors to Cannes: Clint Eastwood for the 25th anniversary of the release of Impitoyable , Christopher Nolan who supervised the restoration of 2001, the Odyssey of Stanley Kubrick’s space , Steven Soderbergh for Che which earned Benicio Del Toro the interpretation prize, Woody Allen for Vicky, Cristina, Barcelona and You will meet a beautiful and dark stranger , Dámian Szifrón for The New Savages , produced by the Argentines of K&S and by Pedro Almodóvar, Baz Luhrmann for Gatsby the Magnificent , George Miller for Mad Max: Fury Road , etc.
Among them, a film symbolizes this requirement: The Artist , a French film by Michel Hazanavicius produced by Thomas Langmann, black and white and silent, which he had to explain and defend, like so many other films of French cinema, before he did not meet with the success that we know, notably with the interpretation prize awarded to Jean Dujardin. This is also one of the finest encounters between Iris Knobloch’s professional commitment and the Cannes Film Festival in the role it plays in helping great cinema emerge.
In 2008 she was named Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur.
As the world has been hit by a heavy crisis in which a part of Europe finds itself in a state of war, the Festival de Cannes wishes to extend all its support to the people of Ukraine and all those who are in its territory.
However modest as it is, we join our voices with those who oppose this unacceptable situation and denounce the attitude of Russia and its leaders.
Our thoughts go out in particular to the Ukrainian artists and film industry professionals, as well as their families whose lives are now in danger. There are those whom we’ve never met, and those whom we’ve come to know and welcomed to Cannes, who came with works that say much about Ukraine’s history and the present.
During this winter of 2022, the Festival de Cannes and the Marché du Film have entered their preparation phase. Unless the war of assault ends in conditions that will satisfy the Ukrainian people, it has been decided that we will not welcome official Russian delegations nor accept the presence of anyone linked to the Russian government.
However, we would like to salute the courage of all those in Russia who have taken risks to protest against the assault and invasion of Ukraine. Among them are artists and film professionals who have never ceased to fight against the contemporary regime, who cannot be associated with these unbearable actions, and those who are bombing Ukraine.
Loyal to its history that started in 1939 in resistance to the fascist and Nazi dictatorship, the Festival de Cannes will always serve artists and industry professionals that raise their voices to denounce violence, repression, and injustices, for the main purpose to defend peace and liberty.
In just four years, the Middleburg Film Festival has earned a place among such iconic film festivals as Sundance, Telluride, Tribeca, Toronto, Melbourne, Berlin, Venice and Cannes. The film festival’s quaint venues – a converted ballroom at Salamander Resort, a performing arts auditorium at an elementary school, a library-museum for horse enthusiasts, a spartan reception hall in Upperville and the barrel room of a local winery – differentiate the festival from the glitz and glamour of Hollywood’s showplaces.
Middleburg brings something more meaningful to the conversation about movies: an intimacy with the stories and the people of the movies.
The charming town tucked in Virginia hunt-and-horse country is more than just a setting for a cozy film festival. Middleburg is also a character in the movies shown there.
Over four postcard-perfect days, about 4,000 people traveled to what looks like a back lot for idyllic moviemaking. Film buffs took Route 50, the two-lane road that follows the rolling hills, stone fences and horse farms to the charming town in Loudoun’s southern tier. Nearing the town, two oversized Trump banners greeted visitors from a private parcel of land on the roadside – seemingly out of place and out of character in a setting known for its style and discretion.
The wearisome soundbites of the presidential campaign become a faint echo at Middleburg’s one stoplight, a few hundred feet down Route 50 where it becomes Washington Street. Make a right turn, or a left, and you are at an unexpected venue for a movie. Or you can follow scenic side roads to the festival’s more distant venues.
At this place, in this time, Middleburg is about movies. But something more, too.
In Loving,the quiet and courageous love story of Richard and Mildred Loving, the Virginia countryside is both prominent and familiar, enhancing the realism of rural racism in the commonwealth at the time. The movie follows the courtship and marriage of Mildred Jeter, a black woman, and Richard Loving, a white man, who are arrested and sentenced to prison in Virginia in 1958 because their interracial marriage violates the state’s anti-miscegenation laws. Exiled to Washington, they sue the Commonwealth of Virginia in a series of proceedings leading to the Supreme Court’s unanimous decision in Loving v. Virginia, which holds that laws prohibiting interracial marriage are unconstitutional.
The film, scheduled for release in the U.S. on Nov. 4, was shown at the new National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington on Monday. But at a discussion following the screening on Sunday, Virginians were able to better appreciate the continuing relevance of Loving as its British producer and former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder gave the story context. Following the program, dozens of attendees swarmed Holder, the first African American to serve as Attorney General (2009-2015).
Middleburg also had a brief role in the screening of Jackie, Natalie Portman’s riveting portrayal of Jacqueline Kennedy’s private grief as she coped with her public persona and the nation’s reaction to the assassination of her husband, President John F. Kennedy.
The movie would not have been screened in Middleburg but for a photograph of Jackie attending mass with JFK at the Middleburg Community Center, which now serves as the box office for the film festival. The distributors of Jackie had initially rejected the advance screening of the movie in Middleburg, a young festival with a relatively small audience in rural Virginia. But the photo provided a meaningful connection between Jackie Kennedy and Middleburg, where she spent private time away from Washington riding at her farm.
As Middleburg presented itself as a haven away from the front lines of the nation’s capitol 43 miles down the road, the film festival also provided a conversation that played to the politics of the moment. A conversation about presidents, politics and the movies quickly turned to “the elephant in the room,” as CNN political analyst David Gergen observed: Donald Trump.
Who would play Trump in the movie about the current presidential race? Alec Baldwin, of course, came the response to a joke that was apparently known to all in the audience. Film clips from movies about past presidents then left attendees to wonder whether art imitates life or life imitates art.
Middleburg’s messages echoed beyond. The Eagle Huntress followed Aisholpan, a 13-year-old girl who trains to become the first female in 12 generations of her Kazakh family to become an eagle hunter and rises to the pinnacle of a tradition that has been handed down from father to son for centuries. While there were many old Kazakh eagle hunters who vehemently rejected the idea of a female taking part in their ancient tradition, Aisholpan’s father, Nurgaiv, believed that a girl could do anything a boy can, as long as she was determined.
That idea brought cheers from the denizens in Virginia that included local Girl Scout troops that came to honor Aisholpan. The girl and her father traveled from Mongolia to Middleburg to acknowledge the cheers and to demonstrate how ordinary people could do extraordinary things. The cheers came again when it was announced that Aishholpan would become a character in a super-heroes cartoon.
So we come to superheros and the deeper meaning of the Middleburg Film Festival. In just four years, Sheila Johnson has exceeded her dream of turning her passion for cinema into a festive gathering of fellow film aficionados in the chic yet comfy venues of Northern Virginia’s horse country. The entrepreneur, philanthropist and film producer has made Middleburg a metaphor for creative endeavor with a social purpose. She has provided a lens to view the important films about our our culture, as well as perspective that is authentically Virginia.
But perhaps Johnson’s greatest gift is bringing together movies and people who make us think, feel and belong. Devoid of cynicism, these are the stories of our times. Johnson presents them as a kindred spirit in a place called Middleburg.
Filipino films have been garnering international recognition in recent years. “The Woman Who Left” by director Lav Diaz won the prestigious Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival last month.
In May, the Philippines’ Jaclyn Jose won best actress at the Cannes Film Festival.
CCTV’s Barnaby Lo reports this could be a new golden era in Philippine cinema.
It was a red carpet event, and rightly so. After its success in the international film festival circuit, “Ang Babaeng Humayo” or “The Woman Who Left” opened in the Philippines last week. The almost four-hour film about a woman seeking revenge for getting incarcerated for a crime she didn’t commit had won the prestigious Lion Award last month, the highest honor at the Venice Film Festival. But for its Filipino cast and filmmakers, it was both an exciting and nervous moment.
Today’s Filipino films have little to prove abroad, especially with the win of Lav Diaz’s latest epic at the Venice Film Festival. The real battle now is at home, where romantic comedies and commercial dramas still dominate the local movie industry.
While awards do not guarantee box office success, surely, they are a measure of where Filipino films are right now on the world stage.
Terry Gilliam‘s longtime passion projectThe Man Who Killed Don Quixote has been delayed again. The writer-director was going to start shooting the film (for the second time) next week, but another unexpected curveball has been thrown in this troubled project’s direction. Gilliam called the most recent delay of his fantastical adaptation of Miguel de Cervantes’ novel “slight.”
What’s preventing Don Quixote from going before cameras this time? Money.
While speaking with Jonathan Ross on the BBC Radio 2 talk show (via Indiewire), Gilliam explained the delay:
“I was supposed to start to be shooting it starting next Monday. It’s been slightly delayed. I had this producer, a Portuguese chap, who claimed he’d get all the money together in time. And a few weeks ago, he proved that he didn’t have the money. So we are still marching forward. It is not dead. I will be dead before the film is.”
Back in March, it was reported Gilliam would begin principal photography on October 4th. The film, which will star Adam Driver and Michael Palin– (Monty Python), was said to have an $18 million budget. The Man Who Killed Don Quixote started to appear genuinely close to happening, but that still sounds like the case, despite the new delay. As Gilliam said, they’re marching forward.
A few months ago, the director’s plan was to have the film finished in time for next year’s Cannes Film Festival. He told reporters at this year’s fest he’s ready to get this movie out of his head and into the world (Source: Indiewire):
“We should be here in Cannes next year with the finished film, and then you can ask me why I made such a mess of it or why I made such a wonderful film. I think it’s going to be great…It’s one of those dream nightmares that never leave you until you finish the thing. I want to get this film out of my life so that I can get on with the rest of my life.”
If this recent delay is only momentary, Gilliam can probably still reach that 2017 Cannes premiere he wants. The last we saw of the filmmaker he was scouting locations for The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, which is set to co-star Olga Kurylenko, Stellan Skarsgård, and Joana Ribeiro. After 20 years of waiting, Terry Gilliam will, sadly, just have to wait a little bit longer complete The Man Who Killed Don Quixote.
Arab film has become “more political and courageous” since the Arab Spring
The biggest growth area in cinema seems to be film festivals catering for Arab film. Just over a decade ago, Arab cinema was the runt of the world. Outside of Egypt, there were barely any films made, and those made in Egypt catered for the massive domestic market.
Now films from Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar are commonplace at the world’s biggest film festivals and with distributors hesitant to release foreign language films, an explosion of festivals has taken place, often providing the only opportunity for audiences to see some of the best award winning films of our times.
This week, the third Safar film festival takes place in London, and on the horizon is the Aan Korb BBC Arabic Film Festival. Across the globe, some of the main festivals include the Arab Film Festival taking place in America in October and in April is the Middle East Now Festival.
Earlier this year, the Directors Fortnight section of the Cannes Film Festival opened with Mohammad Diab’s Clash. Set in the aftermath of the ousting of Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi in June 2013, it will play in competition at the London Film Festival in October. The film sees protestors of all political hues arrested and thrown into the back of a police van, where most of the action takes place. The film explores the societal and political implications of the overthrow on the populace.
“The first step of every civil war is dehumanising people,” director Diab says. “The first step of solving that is humanising people. This is what the film is trying to do.”
And with Islamic fundamentalism, the Syrian refugee crisis and the fall out from wars in the Middle East continually dominating the news, audiences are turning to movies to find out more, and to hear an alternative version of events.
Those venturing out to see these new Arab films will find tales that are far from the social and political melodramas that the Arab states used to back – films that were designed to impart a positive social message. Now the movies are far more radical. “I think that since the Arab Spring and maybe a year or two before there has been a shift,” says Safar Film Festival curator Rasha Salti. “The films have become more political and courageous.”
Salti says of the shift, “It’s a result of the Arab Spring and also the burden of addressing the every day by making films with a didactic message has gone. I think that’s because in part social media allows you to be didactic. If you witness sexual harassment in Cairo then everybody can film it and put it on social media immediately and that has become a medium to show it. Filmmakers no longer feel that they have to make a film about that, as being the only place for that voice to be heard.”
This is also helped by the ability to find funds to make films that are not from the government. “There is less state help for films, thank God,” says Salti. “Because that comes with strings attached.”
Another reason for the plethora of film festivals is that Arab films do not get regular distribution. The market for foreign films has collapsed around the world. This month in the UK, Pedro Almodovar’s Julieta became the first subtitled film since the Raid in 2014 to break £1 million. With distributors not wanting to take a risk, films from the Arab world, as well as those from Africa and southern Europe have found themselves increasingly marginalised. The only place to see them on the big screen is at film festivals.
Those that go to see the films at SAFAR will be in for a surprise by the range of genres and the quality. As I Open My Eyes, by Leila Bouzid is a film about a Tunisian female rock singer, trying to make sense of her life, in the summer before the start of the Arab Spring. It’s a film with energy, verve and great music that recently won Best Film at the East End Film Festival.
Sélim Mourad’s This Little Father Obsession is a hybrid picture that blends fact and fiction, reminiscent of Italian realism. Salti enthused about Let them Come, a film that deals with the so-called ‘Years of terrorism’ in Algeria in the early 1990s. At the London Film Festival, there will be the world premiere of Emirati filmmaker Ali Mostafa’s dystopian sci-fi thriller The Worthy and the UK premiere of the raucous Saudi comedy Barakah Meets Barakah starring Internet sensation Hisham Fageeh.
What is also noteworthy about Arab cinema is the number of female filmmakers. At the forthcoming Arab Film Festival of America, 40 per cent of the 59 films that will be presented are made by female filmmakers. There are films from Mai Masri, Heidi Salman and Nadine Salib. On the horizon, exciting British Arab filmmaker Zeina Durra is working on her second film. One of the most anticipated films of 2017 is Marjoun and the Headscarf by the phenomenal Susan Youssef.
Yet the picture is not without dark clouds. Salti points out that as the world has moved to embraced Arabic film, the Arab world has started to be skeptical of the latest wave of filmmakers, especially those offering a critical eye on Arab dictatorships, or showing sex and prostitutes, as does Morocco’s Much Loved.
The biggest growth area in cinema seems to be film festivals catering for Arab film. Just over a decade ago, Arab cinema was the runt of the world. Outside of Egypt, there were barely any films made, and those made in Egypt catered for the massive domestic market.
Now films from Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar are commonplace at the world’s biggest film festivals and with distributors hesitant to release foreign language films, an explosion of festivals has taken place, often providing the only opportunity for audiences to see some of the best award winning films of our times.
This week, the third Safar film festival takes place in London, and on the horizon is the Aan Korb BBC Arabic Film Festival. Across the globe, some of the main festivals include the Arab Film Festival taking place in America in October and in April is the Middle East Now Festival.
Earlier this year, the Directors Fortnight section of the Cannes Film Festival opened with Mohammad Diab’s Clash. Set in the aftermath of the ousting of Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi in June 2013, it will play in competition at the London Film Festival in October. The film sees protestors of all political hues arrested and thrown into the back of a police van, where most of the action takes place. The film explores the societal and political implications of the overthrow on the populace.
“The first step of every civil war is dehumanising people,” director Diab says. “The first step of solving that is humanising people. This is what the film is trying to do.”
And with Islamic fundamentalism, the Syrian refugee crisis and the fall out from wars in the Middle East continually dominating the news, audiences are turning to movies to find out more, and to hear an alternative version of events.
Those venturing out to see these new Arab films will find tales that are far from the social and political melodramas that the Arab states used to back – films that were designed to impart a positive social message. Now the movies are far more radical. “I think that since the Arab Spring and maybe a year or two before there has been a shift,” says Safar Film Festival curator Rasha Salti. “The films have become more political and courageous.”
Salti says of the shift, “It’s a result of the Arab Spring and also the burden of addressing the every day by making films with a didactic message has gone. I think that’s because in part social media allows you to be didactic. If you witness sexual harassment in Cairo then everybody can film it and put it on social media immediately and that has become a medium to show it. Filmmakers no longer feel that they have to make a film about that, as being the only place for that voice to be heard.”
This is also helped by the ability to find funds to make films that are not from the government. “There is less state help for films, thank God,” says Salti. “Because that comes with strings attached.”
Another reason for the plethora of film festivals is that Arab films do not get regular distribution. The market for foreign films has collapsed around the world. This month in the UK, Pedro Almodovar’s Julieta became the first subtitled film since the Raid in 2014 to break £1 million. With distributors not wanting to take a risk, films from the Arab world, as well as those from Africa and southern Europe have found themselves increasingly marginalised. The only place to see them on the big screen is at film festivals.
Those that go to see the films at SAFAR will be in for a surprise by the range of genres and the quality. As I Open My Eyes, by Leila Bouzid is a film about a Tunisian female rock singer, trying to make sense of her life, in the summer before the start of the Arab Spring. It’s a film with energy, verve and great music that recently won Best Film at the East End Film Festival.
Sélim Mourad’s This Little Father Obsession is a hybrid picture that blends fact and fiction, reminiscent of Italian realism. Salti enthused about Let them Come, a film that deals with the so-called ‘Years of terrorism’ in Algeria in the early 1990s. At the London Film Festival, there will be the world premiere of Emirati filmmaker Ali Mostafa’s dystopian sci-fi thriller The Worthy and the UK premiere of the raucous Saudi comedy Barakah Meets Barakah starring Internet sensation Hisham Fageeh.
What is also noteworthy about Arab cinema is the number of female filmmakers. At the forthcoming Arab Film Festival of America, 40 per cent of the 59 films that will be presented are made by female filmmakers. There are films from Mai Masri, Heidi Salman and Nadine Salib. On the horizon, exciting British Arab filmmaker Zeina Durra is working on her second film. One of the most anticipated films of 2017 is Marjoun and the Headscarf by the phenomenal Susan Youssef.
Yet the picture is not without dark clouds. Salti points out that as the world has moved to embraced Arabic film, the Arab world has started to be skeptical of the latest wave of filmmakers, especially those offering a critical eye on Arab dictatorships, or showing sex and prostitutes, as does Morocco’s Much Loved.
“In the Arab world there are less film festivals than 10 years ago,” recognises Salti. “This is partly because film festivals are expensive to host, but also because they also require a modicum of freedom and in some countries the state of policing expression and exhibition is worse than before the Arab Spring.”
London Film Festival 5-16 October, Arab Film Festival (venues in California) Oct 7-16
3rd time 27-year-old filmmaker tapped as Canada’s Oscars pick
Canada is pinning Oscar hopes on Xavier Dolan’s latest film, It’s Only the End of the World.
The drama, about a terminally ill man returning home to his estranged family, will be Canada’s official submission to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences — the group behind the Oscars — for consideration in the best foreign-language film category at the upcoming awards.
The announcement was made Friday in Montreal, with 27-year-old Dolan chosen by a 23-member Telefilm Canada committee comprising government and film industry representatives from across the country.
“The film has already been a very rich experience,” Dolan told media gathered in Montreal. “It’s a gift.”
This is the third time Dolan has been tapped as Canada’s Oscar pick: he was earlier selected as the foreign-language film submission in 2009 for his startling debut I Killed My Mother and again in 2014 for Mommy.
“Back when Mommy was selected two years ago, we had the opportunity to talk about the film in many places and communities. It was such a journey and we’re ready to embark on that again,” Dolan said.
“There’s no doubt [this film] will move members of the academy as it has engaged thousands of movie-lovers to date,” Telefilm executive director Carolle Brabant said in a statement.
Known in French as Juste la fin du monde, Dolan’s drama is based on a play of the same name by the late French writer Jean-Luc Lagarce and features a star-studded cast of French actors, including Gaspard Ulliel, Léa Seydoux, Vincent Cassel, Nathalie Baye and Marion Cotillard.
The selection of Dolan is further vindication for the young filmmaker and the movie, which was panned by a host of American critics upon its debut at the Cannes Film Festival in May.
However, It’s the End of the World closed Cannes by winning two awards — the prestigious Grand Prix and a prize from Cannes Ecumenical Jury — and earned a spot at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this month.
“I don’t think today is an appropriate day to cry over spilled milk,” Dolan said Friday about past criticism.
“This is about what is next. Not what is gone already.”
Canada’s tradition of Francophone picks
Oscar organizers limit the foreign-language film category to non-American productions that primarily feature dialogue in languages other than English.
Hence, Canada’s choices have overwhelmingly been French, although we’ve also submitted Kim Nguyen’s French- and Lingala-language child-solder tale War Witch, Deepa Mehta’s Hindi-language romantic tragedy Water as well as Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner and The Necessities of Life, both starring main characters speaking Inuktituk.
Canada’s past three submissions for Oscar consideration were:
Félix et Meira, Maxime Giroux’s French and Yiddish-language drama about an unlikely romance
Mommy, Dolan’s celebrated French-language mother-son drama
Gabrielle, Louise Archambault’s French-language coming-of-age tale about a developmentally challenged woman.
Over the years, Canada has made the foreign-language film Oscar short list seven times, most recently in 2013 for Nguyen’s War Witch. Past contenders have also included Monsieur Lazhar (directed by Philippe Falardeau), Incendies (directed by Denis Villeneuve) and Mehta’s Water.
The country’s lone foreign-language Oscar winner, however, is Denys Arcand, who triumphed with 2003’s The Barbarian Invasions after having previously been a contender for his films The Decline of the American Empire and Jesus of Montreal.
Nominations for the 89th Academy Awards will be announced Jan. 24, 2017, with the awards gala to follow on Feb. 26.
Veteran British director Ken Loach won his second Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival Sunday for I, Daniel Blake — a stark portrayal of a disabled man’s struggle with the crushing benefits system in northern England.
The 79-year-old was presented the festival’s top prize by actor Mel Gibson at a ceremony on the French Riviera. Accepting the award, the silver-haired Loach punched his fists in the air in victory and said that he hoped his gritty, social realist movie would hold a mirror up to the impact of Europe’s policies of austerity on the poorest in society.
Director Ken Loach, centre, actor Mel Gibson, left and President of the Jury George Miller react after Roach is awarded the Palme d’or for the film I, Daniel Blake, during the awards ceremony at the 69th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Sunday, May 22, 2016. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
“We must give a message of hope, we must say another world is possible,” he said.
I, Daniel Blake chronicles a middle-aged widower from Newcastle who, after a heart attack, can neither work nor get government aid. It follows the sometimes comic, frequently painful frustrations as he winds his way through an archaic system that seems designed to bring him down.
Like many of Loach’s films, social politics is at the heart of I, Daniel Blake — which many critics have predicted could be his last.
“There is a conscious cruelty in the way that we are organizing our lives now, where the most vulnerable people are told that their poverty is their own fault,” Loach told reporters. “If you have no work it’s your fault you haven’t got a job. Never mind in Britain, there is mass unemployment throughout Europe.”
Loach has long brought his distinct portrayals of the British working class to Cannes — and is more a regular at Cannes than almost any filmmaker. He has had 12 films in competition at the festival over the years, including his Palme d’Or-winning The Wind That Shakes the Barley.
Canadian director Xavier Dolan picked up the runner-up Grand Prize, which has been seen by some critics as a vindication for him personally after his film, It’s Only The End Of The World, garnered lukewarm reviews and triggered a spat between him and certain film critics. The 27-year-old won the jury prize in 2014 for Mommy.
Director Xavier Dolan poses for photographers with his Grand Prix prize for the film, Juste La Fin du Monde (It’s Only The End OF the World), during the photo call following the awards ceremony at the 69th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Sunday, May 22, 2016. (AP Photo/Joel Ryan)
The jury of the 69th Cannes Film Festival was headed by Australian director George Miller who described the jury’s selection as “two words: rigorous and happy.”
The Cannes jury’s decisions are famously unpredictable, and take place behind doors closed to the press for the duration of the May 11-22 festival.
Despite mixed reviews, director Asghar Farhadi’s film, The Salesman, picked up several awards including best screenplay and best actor for Shahab Hosseini.
Romanian director Cristian Mungui, who was a favorite to win the Palme d’Or for Graduation, won the best director award, which he shared with French director Olivier Assayas for his paranormal thriller, Personal Shopper, starring former Twilight star Kristen Stewart.
Director Olivier Assayas poses for photographers after receiving the Best Director award for the film Personal Shopper, during the photo call following the awards ceremony at the 69th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Sunday, May 22, 2016. (AP Photo/Lionel Cironneau)