Tag: cannes

Restored version of Shyam Benegal’s Manthan starring Smita Patil to premiere at Cannes Film Festival 2024 : Bollywood News – Bollywood Hungama

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Film Heritage Foundation, a not-for-profit organization founded by filmmaker and archivist Shivendra Singh Dungarpur has joined hands with Gujarat Milk Marketing Federation Ltd. to restore veteran Indian filmmaker Shyam Benegal’s national award-winning film Manthan which starred the late iconic film actress, Smita Patil. The 4K restoration of the 1976 film has been selected for the official red-carpet world premiere at the 77th Cannes Film Festival in May 2024. Noteworthily, Manthan is the only Indian film to be selected under the Cannes Classic section of the festival this year. The film premiere will be attended by Naseeruddin Shah, the family of the late Smita Patil, the producers of the film and Film Heritage Foundation’s Shivendra Singh Dungarpur.

Restored version of Shyam Benegal’s Manthan starring Smita Patil to premiere at Cannes Film Festival 2024

Restored version of Shyam Benegal’s Manthan starring Smita Patil to premiere at Cannes Film Festival 2024

Manthan, a fictionalized version of the beginnings of the extraordinary dairy cooperative movement that transformed India from a milk-deficient nation to the world’s largest milk producer inspired by Dr. Verghese Kurien, the father of the White Revolution, is also India’s first crowd-sourced film produced by 5,00,000 dairy farmers who contributed Rs. 2 each towards the production of the film. Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, Director, Film Heritage Foundation states, “I am so delighted that Film Heritage Foundation will have a red-carpet world premiere of another one of our restorations of an Indian cult classic at the Cannes Film Festival. The restoration of a Shyam Benegal film has been on the Film Heritage Foundation’s wish list for years as he is one of India’s most venerated filmmakers whose early films were iconic in India’s Parallel Cinema movement. The restoration process has been an incredible experience, especially working so closely with Shyam Benegal and Govind Nihalani to painstakingly bring the film back to life. Almost half a century later, the power of the narrative and the compelling performances of the actors, especially Smita Patil, remains undiminished. I wish she was here to see the beauty of the restoration.”

Shyam Benegal states, “I was absolutely delighted when Shivendra told me that Film Heritage Foundation was going to restore Manthan in collaboration with the Gujarat Milk Marketing Federation Ltd. Manthan is a film that is very close to my heart as 500,000 farmers funded it and was instrumental in the growth of an extraordinary cooperative movement that was aimed at breaking the shackles of economic inequality and caste discrimination whilst empowering the farmers. It will remind the world of the power of cinema as a vehicle of change and also the legacy of the great Verghese Kurien, the Father of the White Revolution. Govind Nihalani and I have been following the progress of the restoration closely and I am amazed by the meticulous approach to the restoration. It is wonderful to see the film come back to life almost like we made it yesterday. Film Heritage Foundation has been doing remarkable work in film restoration. Not only are they beautifully restoring films from every region of India, but bringing them back to the public at festivals and screenings around the world in a way that showcases our unique film heritage to contemporary global audiences.”

Naseeruddin Shah states, “I started my career as an actor with ‘Nishant’ followed by ‘Manthan’, both directed by Shyam Benegal. Manthan was a runaway success when it was released almost 50 years ago and it is a film that is remembered even today. I remember that during the shooting of ‘Manthan,’ I lived in the hut, learnt to make cow dung cakes and milk a buffalo. I would carry the buckets and serve the milk to the unit to get the physicality of the character. I am so glad that the Film Heritage Foundation has restored this remarkable film and that this small film made with the support of the farmers has been restored with so much love and care. It is thanks to the persistence, hard work and efforts of the Film Heritage Foundation that the film will be premiered in its second life, as it deserves to be, at the Cannes Film Festival and I am so glad that I will be there to present it myself.”

Govind Nihalani states, “It is remarkable that the Film Heritage Foundation is restoring Manthan nearly fifty years since it was made. Being involved in the restoration has been an emotional experience. It has taken me back to 1976 when the entire unit lived like a family in the village of Sanganva in Gujarat for 45 days during which the film was shot. The shooting was challenging because we had to use a patchwork of different film stock– Eastman and Gevacolor besides Kodak, 35 mm for the film and 16 mm for the film within the film. I began my career as a cinematographer with Shyam Benegal first shooting ad films and then his early feature films. We’ve had an immensely creatively satisfying relationship over the years as Shyam involves you as a partner in the creative process of the film and not just as a cameraman. I am so happy to hear that the restoration of the film will premiere at the Cannes Film Festival this year.”

Presenting at the Cannes Film Festival for the third time in a row, the Film Heritage Foundation has previously premiered Thamp̄ (2022) and Ishanou (2023) at the prestigious film festival.

Film Heritage Foundation used the best-surviving elements for the restoration – the original 35 mm original camera negative and the 35 mm release print preserved at the NFDC – NFAI. Unfortunately, the sound negative was not available. The sound was digitized from the 35 mm release print preserved at the Film Heritage Foundation. The film elements were repaired by the Film Heritage Foundation conservators and the scanning was done in Prasad Lab in Chennai. They found that due to the deterioration of the print, there were vertical green lines on many parts of the film. While the scanning and digital clean-up were done at Prasad under the supervision of L’Immagine Ritrovata in Bologna, the grading, sound restoration and mastering was done at the lab in Bologna. Both Shyam Benegal and Govind Nihalani, the cinematographer of the film, have been involved in the restoration of the film.

Restored by Film Heritage Foundation at Prasad Corporation Pvt. Ltd.’s Post – Studios, Chennai and L’Immagine Ritrovata Laboratory, in association with Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd., the cinematographer Govind Nihalani and the director Shyam Benegal. Funding supported by Gujarat Co-Operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd.

Released in 1976, Manthan (Hindi for “The Churning”) is a film by director Shyam Benegal that explores the challenges and triumphs of social change in rural India. Set against the backdrop of a village struggling with poverty and exploitation, the film chronicles the arrival of Dr. Rao (Girish Karnad), an idealistic veterinarian, who attempts to establish a milk cooperative movement.

The narrative unfolds in Sanganva, a village rife with social inequalities. The villagers, particularly the Dalit community (considered “untouchables” in the caste system), are forced to sell their milk at meagre prices to Mishraji (Amrish Puri), a local businessman with a monopoly on the dairy trade. The village headman (Kulbhushan Kharbanda), representing the upper caste, upholds the status quo, fearing a loss of power if the established social hierarchy is disrupted. Bhola (Naseeruddin Shah), the leader of the Dalit community, initially views Dr. Rao with suspicion, a sentiment echoed by Bindu (Smita Patil), a strong-willed milkmaid.

Dr. Rao’s vision is one of equitable distribution of profits, free from the exploitation of middlemen. This radical idea disrupts the existing power structures, sparking mistrust, anger, and resistance. The village headman and Mishraji, threatened by the potential loss of control, actively oppose the cooperative movement. Bhola’s initial scepticism gradually gives way to cautious support as Dr. Rao’s commitment to fair treatment becomes evident.

As Dr. Rao gains the trust of the villagers, particularly Bindu, Mishraji resorts to underhanded tactics. He exploits the existing social divisions, manipulating Bindu’s husband to fabricate a false accusation of rape against Dr. Rao. Devastated by the betrayal, Dr. Rao contemplates leaving the village. However, Bhola, inspired by Dr. Rao’s vision, steps forward to continue the cooperative’s development. With the villagers’ support, and Bindu’s eventual vindication, the cooperative flourishes, offering a glimmer of hope for a more just future.

Manthan is a richly layered film that transcends the boundaries of a mere social commentary. The stellar cast delivers powerful performances, bringing depth and complexity to their characters. The cinematography by Govind Nihalani captures the stark beauty of rural India, while the music by Vanraj Bhatia complements the narrative effectively.

ALSO READ: Nawazuddin Siddiqui applauds Smita Patil’s enduring beauty; says, “The West was drawn to her”

More Pages: Manthan Box Office Collection

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Cannes 2023: Molly Manning Walker on her breakthrough ‘How to Have Sex’

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Molly Manning Walker was still bleary-eyed from six months in the editing suite rushing to finish her first feature film when she arrived at the Cannes Film Festival. “It’s nice to have a deadline,” Walker, 29, said while sipping an espresso. “I work best with chaos.”

Six weeks earlier, Walker had just gotten off the Tube in London when her producer, a normally calm person, called her shouting: “Where have you been? We got into Cannes!” The news set off perhaps the most surreal six weeks of Walker’s life. A headlong sprint to finish the film began and didn’t stop until 48 hours before Walker stepped into Cannes with her feature debut, How to Have Sex. It premiered in the festival’s Un Certain Regard section and won its top honor on Friday.

Preparing for Cannes is rarely a relaxed process for even the most veteran filmmakers. More editing, sound mixing or other last-minute tweaks are often needed. Sales meetings need to be lined up. A battalion of international journalists needs prepping. And then there’s the looming pressure of one of the world’s most famous red carpets. “Every exec was like: ‘But what are you wearing?’” says Walker, chuckling. “I’m finishing the film!”

The whirlwind can be both discombobulating and thrilling for newcomers. As much as stars dominate the red carpet and renowned auteurs parade through the Palais, Cannes has, year after year, been arguably the biggest stage for new directing talents to emerge. Nearly 50 years ago, it was Martin Scorsese. Last year, Charlotte Wells (Aftersun) debuted as a major new voice.

This year, Walker is among the most promising new filmmakers in Cannes. How to Have Sex is a vivid, assured drama about 16-year-old Tara (Mia McKenna-Bruce, also a revelation) who travels with her best friends (Lara Peake, Enva Lewis) from England to Crete for a spring break-style vacation. Tara, like many male protagonists before her, wants to lose her virginity.

But while How to Have Sex details the hard-partying, EDM-thumping hedonism of teenagers on a European holiday, it approaches young sex far more honestly and disquietingly than any similar coming-of-age film. Little is black and white in Tara’s experiences, which are boozy, bewildering, isolating and devastating. For Walker, it’s a profoundly personal story that partly draws from her own experiences, about which she’s courageously frank. “I was assaulted when I was 16 while I was out drinking in London,” she says. “Part of why I made it was to talk about that and talk about how it doesn’t get talked about. It can suck the air out of a room but it shouldn’t. If so many people have experienced it, we should be talking about it openly.”

ALSO READ:Cannes 2023: What makes a standing ovation last 22 minutes at the festival?

Walker grew up in London and first fell into filmmaking by documenting her older brother’s punk band. Her parents both wanted to be filmmakers and are still at it. Watching their movies not get made, she says, gave her her hustle. “It’s my whole life,” Walker says of filmmaking. As a teenager, she went on trips like the one in How to Have Sex, to Majorca and Ibiza. While Walker remembers them fondly (“I’ve got some amazing pictures”), she began to question some of the things she saw. After her short Good Thanks, You? made it into Cannes’ Critics Week during the virtual 2020 edition of the festival, she wrote a 50-page script, leaving lots of room for improvisation.

Walker made authenticity a priority. Before filming, she held workshops around the U.K. with 16-year-old girls and slightly older guys to ask them about sex and their interpretations of what she had written. “Everything from what music are you into, what films are you watching to what’s your concept of consent?” Walker says. “We’d say, ‘Here’s a scene from the film. How does that read to you?’ And none of them recognized it as assault.”

After spending months raising money, Walker shot How to Have Sex in Greece. Some of the most challenging days were immediate. Day two required hundreds of extras. Walker was throwing up on set. “Day three, I decided either I’m going to make myself ill and be really anxious throughout the entire shoot, or I have to enjoy this process,” she says. “And I just managed to flip a switch in my head.”

“I honestly had the best time of my life,” Walker continues. “I don’t know if that’s a combination of factors. You’re on a Greek island, with a really young crew, in a party town. I don’t know if it’s that or whether it’s your first film. But I would do it again in a heartbeat.”

Cannes, in the South of France, is its own glamorous summer vacation destination, of course. How to Have Sex brought a group of 30 actors, crew members and producers who descended eager to party together again. Still, Walker had plenty of obligations to attend to. A day of interviews. Meetings with sales agents. A test screening at 1 a.m. the night before her premiere at the Debussy Theatre. Walker was worried about her just-completed sound mix, wondering what could possibly be done to change anything in the middle of the night.

“I was like ‘What if it’s not good? What if something’s wrong?” Walker says, laughing. “My mom was like, ‘Don’t worry, it’s not your problem.’ I was like, ‘I think it is my problem.’” But she was resolved, like in Greece, to enjoy the moment. “It might not come around again,” she shrugged.

The big day came on Friday: the premiere, a photo call, walking the red carpet. Inside the Debussy when the end credits rolled, there was warm applause but not the response Walker had hoped for. “I thought: Oh, they like it but they don’t love it,'” said Walker later that night. “Then the lights came up and everyone stood up.” For eight minutes the standing ovation continued. Festival director Thierry Fremaux turned to the gob-smacked Walker. “Look,” he said, gesturing at the crowd. “You did this.”

Walker had given herself the rule of not reading reviews until the next day. She didn’t need to worry, though; they were raves. Variety called it a “fresh, head-turning debut.” Before hitting the dance floor that night at a beachside party for the film, Walker took a moment to reflect on what she had been through. “The whole thing is really bizarre, to be honest, especially when you’ve been editing in a dark room for six months and then suddenly you’re thrown into this very strange world,” she said. “It kind of feels like I’ve been at 12 weddings in a row.”

At no point, though, had Walker seemed even slightly overwhelmed by the experience. She seemed fully ready and entirely present. Seeing women connect with the film, she said, had been gratifying. But the moment she felt the most emotional wasn’t in the celebration after. It was just before her movie played.

“I just felt like getting to that point was the real thing.”

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Cannes 2023: The 9 Films That Will Really Be Worth Watching

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A still from Killers of the Flower Moon.

The 2023 edition of the world’s premier film festival begins its 12-day run on May 16 with as many as five previous Palme d’Or winners in the Competition fray. But they aren’t the only filmmakers that we are excited over. Nine directors who have been away from the action for varying periods of time will be particular interest.

Cerrar Los Ojos 

Spanish auteur Victor Erice’s first film in 31 years

No director in cinema history has perhaps had the sort of impact on the medium, in their country and across the world, with as few films as Victor Erice, now 82. The Spanish director was in his early 50s when he made his previous film, The Quince Tree Sun (1992), which won a Jury Prize in Cannes. He is back 31 years later with Cerrar Los Ojos (Close Your Eyes). Included in Cannes Premiere, the film is about the disappearance of an actor while shooting a film. His body is never found and it is presumed he drowned. Several years later, a television programme reopens the case as it outlines the actor’s life, death and the final scenes of his last film shot by his close friend, the director himself. Erice, a former film critic, made his first film, The Spirit of the Beehive, in 1973, and followed that up with another critically acclaimed film, El Sur, a decade later. For most cineastes in Cannes, giving Cerra Los Ojos a miss would be a sacrilege.

Killers of the Flower Moon 

Martin Scorsese’s first film since The Irishman (2019)

Martin Scorsese’s first film in the Cannes official selection since 1986’s After Hours has both Robert de Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio in the cast. For that alone one could safely assume that Killers of the Flower Moon will be another absolute humdinger. The highly anticipated adaptation of the 2017 David Grann non-faction bestseller clocks in at three and a half hours. The length is hardly going to put people off given the memorable results that the director’s collaborations with DiCaprio and De Niro have consistently produced in the past. The sprawling epic centres on a series of murders of Native Americans in 1920s Oklahoma and the FBI investigation that followed. Paramount Pictures will release Killers of the Flower Moon later this year before it streams on Apple+. The film has Lily Gladstone (an actress of Native American descent), Jessie Plemons Brendan Fraser and John Lithgow in key roles.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny 

The adventurous archaeologist is back, 15 years on, for a last hurrah

Talking of long waits, Top Gun: Maverick, a follow-up to a smash hit from 1986, soared at the 75th Cannes Film Festival. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, the first Indiana Jones film not directed by Steven Spielberg, comes a decade and a half after the series’ fourth entry, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Will Harrison Ford, 80, be the sort of top gun that Tom Cruise turned out to be on the Croisette and beyond last year? Fans of the franchise and admirers of Ford – one isn’t sure which is numerically larger – are unlikely to have any reason to grumble at the opportunity to watch the enduring Hollywood star playing the intrepid archaeologist-adventure one last time. Add to that the fact that the cast has additions such as Antonio Banderas, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Mads Mikkelsen, destiny seems loaded in favour of the James Mangold-directed adventure drama that screens Out of Competition.

Last Summer 

Catherine’s Breillat’s first film in a decade

Septuagenarian French director Catherine Breillat’s first film since Abuse of Weakness (2013) has all the trappings of her provocative creative approach to the theme of women and desire. Last Summer, surprisingly only Breillat’s second film to compete for the Palme d’Or (The Last Mistress, in 2007, was the last), is about a brilliant and successful lawyer who lives happily in Paris with her husband and their two daughters. A teenage boy, her husband’s son from a past marriage, moves in with the family. The lawyer begins a passionate affair with the boy at the risk of destroying her family and ruining her career. A reworking of the Danish film Queen of Hearts (winner of the Audience Award at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival), Last Summer is expected to carry Breillat’s distinctive, envelope-pushing imprimatur.

Fallen Leaves 

Aki Kaurismaki’s 1980s proletariat trilogy gets an extension 33 years on

The Finnish master’s first film since The Other Side of Hope (2017) extends his three 1980s proletariat films – Shadows in Paradise (1986), Ariel (1988) and The Match Factory Girl (1990) – beyond a trilogy with another story of individuals languishing on the fringes of Helsinki. Fallen Leaves is Aki Kaurismaki’s fifth Cannes Competition selection after Drifting Clouds (1996), The Man Without a Past (2002 winner of the Cannes Grand Prix), Lights in the Dusk (2006) and Le Havre (2011). Fallen Leaves, characteristically minimalist and 81 minutes long, is about a single woman and supermarket worker who meets an alcoholic man who is as lonely as she is. The odds are stacked against the two making any sort of meaningful connection, but they labour on as people of their class must, if only not to keel over and collapse.

The Zone of Interest

 Jonathan Glazer of ‘Under the Skin’ ends 10-year hiatus

A period drama written and directed by Jonathan Glazer and featuring Toni Erdmann star Sandra Huller (also in another Competition title, Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall), The Zone of Interest is a period drama about the commandant of Auschwitz and his wife who seek to build a dream life for their small family in a house and garden next to the concentration camp. The film is loosely based on the 2014 novel of the same name by Martin Amis. Glazer filmed The Zone of Interest in Auschwitz in 2021. Knowing the director’s propensities for highlighting aspects of humanity that are anything but salutary, we expect the film to lay bare disquieting truths in a world that would be unremarkable without its superficial serenity and beauty.

The Book of Solutions 

Michel Gondry, absent for eight years, returns and looks for answers

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind director Michel Gondry made his last film eight years ago – Microbe & Gasoline (2015). He returns to the thick of the action with the self-reflexive The Book of Solutions (Le Livre des Solutions). It is a drama about a filmmaker constantly on the edge of despair owing to the interfering producers of a film he is making. With his editor as an accomplice, the filmmaker devices ways to save what he has shot. According to the synopsis, the film “alternates between the comic and the downright disturbing”. Sounds inviting enough! The Book of Solutions is in Directors Fortnight.

The Pot-au-feu 

Tran Ahn Hung stirs the pot after a seven-year sabbatical

Vietnamese-born French director Tran Anh Hung’s new film, which ends a seven-year sabbatical – his last film was 2016’s Eternity – returns to the festival where he won the Camera d’Or for The Scent of Green Papaya 30 years ago. The Pot-au-feu (French title: Le Passion de Dodin Bouffant), starring Juliette Binoche and Benoit Magimel, is set in 1985 and portrays a romance between a cook and the gourmet she works for. The Venice Golden Lion-winning director (for the Tony Leung starrer Cyclo, 1995) has modelled the character of the gourmet on Dodin-Bouffant, created by Marcel Rouff in a novel published in the 1920s. Films about food and epicureanism rarely fail to connect with audiences and this one is from a filmmaker who rarely goes wrong. The Pot au-feu has the look of an appetising cinematic dish.

About Dry Grasses 

Ceylan is back with his first film since 2018

Turkish screenwriter-director Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s first film since 2018’s The Wild Pear Tree, which also competed for the Palme d’Or, is back in the Cannes Competition with his latest work. About Dry Grasses, which like The Wild Pear Tree and the 2014 Palme d’Or-winning Winter Sleep, runs for more than three hours. Masterly framing, natural settings and sophisticated use of dialogue to create moods and a penchant for capturing the vagaries of life are Ceylan’s forte. We expect more of exactly that in About Dry Grasses, which Ceylan co-wrote with his wife Ebru Ceylan and Akin Aksu (the team that scripted his previous film too). It tells the story of an art teacher in rural eastern Anatolia whose hopes of moving to Istanbul after completing four years of compulsory service in a remote village are dashed when he is accused of harassment by two female students. About Dry Grasses could script another Cannes success story for Ceylan.

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Cannes Film Festival readies a blockbuster edition, with Indy, ‘Flower Moon,’ Depp and more

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The Cannes Film Festival, which will kick off Tuesday, is such a colossal extravaganza that taking measure of its ups and downs is notoriously difficult. It’s a showcase of the world’s best cinema. It’s a red-carpet spectacular. It’s a French Riviera hive of dealmaking.

But by at least some metrics, Cannes — following a cancelled 2020 festival, a much-diminished 2021 edition and a triumphant 2022 return — is finally all the way back.

“Let’s just say it’s gotten very hard to get restaurant reservations again,” says Christine Vachon, the veteran producer and longtime collaborator of Todd Haynes.

When the 76th Cannes Film Festival opens Tuesday with the premiere of Jeanne du Barry, a historical drama by Maïwenn starring Johnny Depp, the gleaming Cote d’Azur pageant can feel confident that it has weathered the storms of the pandemic and the perceived threat of streaming. (Netflix and Cannes remain at an impasse.)

Last year’s festival, a banner one by most judgments, produced three Oscar best-picture nominees (Top Gun: Maverick, Elvis and the Palme d’Or winner Triangle of Sadness ), again proving Cannes as the premiere global launching pad for films big and small.

A BLOCKBUSTER CANNES

This year’s festival is headlined by a pair of marquee premieres: Martin Scorsese’s Osage Nation 1920s epic Killers of the Flower Moon, with Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, and James Mangold’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, starring Harrison Ford in his final performance as the character.

But as blockbuster as Cannes can be, even those films suggest the wide spectrum of cinema on hand. Both Scorsese and Mangold were first in Cannes decades ago to premiere their early breakthrough films in the Directors Fortnight sidebar. Scorsese with 1973’s Mean Streets, Mangold with 1995’s Heavy. This time, though, they’ll debut much bigger films, sure to be the hottest tickets on the Croisette. Scorsese has his $200 million epic for Apple TV+. And Mangold will premiere, as he says, “a more splendiferous project” than his minimalist debut.

The “Indy” celebration will include a tribute to Ford. He, along with Michael Douglas, will be given honorary Palme d’Ors. To Mangold, it’s a chance for Ford to embrace the franchise’s international following. The “Indiana Jones” films’ essence, the director says, is rooted in golden-age cinema.

“These are things where you’re taking your guidance from the classics,” Mangold says. “That’s something that’s really appreciated by the French about American cinema. In many ways, they revere the old pictures more than even the audience in the United States do. That makes it a really wonderful platform.”

A RECORD HIGH FOR FEMALE FILMMAKERS

This year, 21 films are competing for the Palme d’Or, which will be decided by a jury led by last year’s winner, Swedish writer-director Ruben Östlund. Seven are directed by women, a new high for Cannes in its nearly eight decades of existence. Among the most anticipated is Italian filmmaker Alice Rohrwacher’s La Chimera, starring Josh O’Connor and Isabella Rossellini.

The festival, running through May 27, will unspool against the backdrop of labor unrest on both sides of the Atlantic. France has been beset in recent months by protests over pension reforms, including raising the retirement age. In the U.S., screenwriters are on strike to seek better pay in the streaming era.

The prospect of a prolonged work stoppage could potentially drive up prices for finished films at Cannes, the world’s top movie market. Among the titles seeking distribution is Haynes’ May December, which stars Natalie Portman as a journalist who embeds with a couple (Julianne Moore, Charles Melton) once renown for their age discrepancy.

Though arthouses have struggled to match the box-office recovery at multiplexes, Vachon, a producer on May December, says her company, Killer Films, and the indie stalwart Haynes are accustomed to “pivoting endlessly and finding opportunities no matter what the sea winds bring.”

AUTEURS AND A-LISTERS

As usual, this year’s competition lineup returns plenty of Cannes heavyweights, including Hirokazu Kore-eda, Wim Wenders, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Ken Loach and Nanny Moretti.

Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest, shot in Auschwitz, is one of the festival’s most eagerly awaited films. It’s his first since 2013’s Under the Skin. Pedro Almodóvar will premiere the short Strange Way of Life, with Pedro Pascal and Ethan Hawke. Wes Anderson, flanked by another starry ensemble, will debut Asteroid City.

There’s also the upcoming HBO series The Idol, from Euphoria filmmaker Sam Levinson starring the Weeknd and Lily-Rose Depp; Firebrand with Alicia Vikander as Catherine Parr and Judd Law as Tudor King Henry VIII; and the Pixar movie Elemental, which closes the festival.

Steve McQueen, the 12 Years of Slave filmmaker, will debut the longest film playing at Cannes and one of its most thought-provoking. Occupied City, which McQueen made with his wife, Dutch author Bianca Stigter, is a four-hour-plus documentary that combines narration detailing violent incidents across Amsterdam during the Nazi occupation with present-day footage from those locations.

McQueen, too, began his feature filmmaking career at Cannes. His 2008 debut, Hunger, won the Camera d’Or, a prize for best first film. “It’s never as good as the first time,” McQueen says.

“But it’s the most important film festival,” continues McQueen. “Our film is asking questions. This is where you want to premiere films that challenge and films that ask questions. You’re right on the front line.”

POTENTIAL BREAKTHROUGHS

While many eyes will be on reactions to the new Scorsese or Asteroid City, Cannes will, as it does every year, bring new directors to wider film audiences. Senegalese filmmaker Ramata-Toulaye Sy’s Banel & Adama is the rare first feature in Palme competition.

Argentine filmmaker Rodrigo Moreno, 50, will be making his first trip to Cannes with The Delinquents, a heist drama sprinkled with existentialism and cinematic flourishes. It’s one of the highlights of the Un Certain Regard section.

The film took Moreno five years to make, partially because of the pandemic. But its Cannes selection is a long time coming in another way. Moreno’s first feature as a solo director was invited to both Un Certain Regard and main competition at Berlin. The producers chose Berlin.

“At this point of my career. I’m focused on: If this allows me to keep on working and make the next film, to me, that’s OK. It’s the only thing I really want,” says Moreno.

“The shooting of this film spanned almost five years, which is crazy,” he adds. “But the nice side of that is that every year, I had to shoot. The one thing I knew was that a new year began, and I had to shoot. And the following, I had to shoot.”

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