Jodie Foster has been announced as a special guest at the opening of the 74th Cannes Film Festival, where she will receive the honorary "Golden Palm". The festival is held as usual, 12 days, has an increased program and invites as many guests as possible, announcing a festival "with all the sights"
The famous French "Croisette" will be the first to pulsate completely in the sign of the film from July 6 to 17, announcing its return to full shine. Interestingly, the organizers of the Cannes Film Festival decided and announced that after the reopening of the cinemas, the Cannes Film Festival will be the second best news in the world of film. This year, Cannes will be held with all its famous luxury, like all the past seven decades. Despite adhering to the measures due to the still-present covid-pandemic, they are ready to go back so far, what did not reduce the program, but increased it.
In the first official announcement for the 74th edition of the festival, selector Thierry Fremaux and the president Pierre Lescure have already announced 64 films, yet they will announce films in parallel programs such as Critics' Week and Kenzen (Quinzaine des Réalisateurs), then the usual biggest blockbuster premiere, then jury members, guests, etc. The Festival opens with the musical romance "Annette" by Leos Carax, with which he returns to the French Riviera after 9 years, after the movie "Holy Motors". "Annette" is the story of a glamorous couple living in Los Angeles, comedian and famous singer, played by Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard, and their "mysterious girl".
This year, as well as many previous years, Cannes invites a number of established authors, but what is unusual is that the organizers decided to introduce a new program, "Cannes Premieres", with aim to provide a solemn premiere to the returnees to Cannes, like Oliver Stone or Cornel Mundruczó. And, how did Thierry Fremaux explain that? Namely, these are films that could have been in competition and they did not want to be shown elsewhere ...
However, this year in Cannes are returning to the main competition: American actor and director Sean Penn, Dutch controversial director Paul Verhoeven, Norwegian Joachim Trier, Russian theater and film author Kirill Srebrennikov, one of the most distinguished American directors Wes Anderson , the Iranian master of psychological film Asghar Farhadi, as well as the winners of the "Golden Palm", Nanni Moretti from Italy, Jacques Audiard, France and Apichatpong Weerasethakul from Thailand. Although for this edition is said to have a record number of women, still, in the main program, which includes 24 films in the race for the "Golden Palm", there are only four women-directors, three from France and Ildiko Enyedi from Hungary, which in 2017 won the “Golden Bear” in Berlin. Her new film "The Story of My Wife", made according to bestseller, which has been translated into 20 languages and nominated for the Nobel Prize, is now widely announced. Léa Seydoux and Louis Garrel play the roles in the film.
But, as it is said, there are many women-directors in other programs, including: Charlotte Gainsbourg, who debuted with a film dedicated to her mother, the famous actress Jane Birkin, and there is also Andrea Arnold, who has won even three awards of the jury in Cannes, but also the Bulgarians, Mina Mileva and Vesela Kazakova, with "Women do cry". This year, for the first time, the jury is headed by a black director, Spike Lee, while the honorary "Palm" will get American actress Jodie Foster, who has been to Cannes seven times as an actress and director. Unusually is that has already been announced that the June’s session of Berlinale opens with Jodie Foster's new film, "The Mauritanian," so it looks Jodie Foster is opening both Berlin and Cannes.
So far, 18.000 professionals and journalists have registered for the festival, and Cannes is inviting as many participants as possible. Despite the situation, a record 2.300 titles were submitted to the Cannes Film Festival. And, as Fremaux said, they expect the halls to be one hundred percent used, because the restrictions indoors should be lifted by then, there will be masks, but only inside, not on the red carpet, and for all guests the festival offers free tests. As he says, the films completely reflect the time, so they talk about lockdown and there has masks, about the "whistleblowers" and about who we are and what is happening to the world today.
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