Tag: Cannes

Options dwindle for postponed Cannes Film Festival

Cannes
Official Cannes 2018 Poster

 

The Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday abandoned plans for a postponed 2020 edition in June or July, but said it will still explore other options

The Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday abandoned plans for a postponed 2020 edition in June or July but declined to give up entirely, saying it will explore other options.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday extended France’s national lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, banning all public events until mid-July. That essentially dashed the hopes of Cannes organizers who last month said they would aim to move the annual May event a month or two.

“It is clearly difficult to assume that the Festival de Cannes could be held this year in its original form,” the festival said in a statement.

The film industry is increasingly expecting Cannes, the world’s largest film festival and movie market, will be canceled. But the festival on Tuesday said it’s still examining other possibilities that might allow Cannes to carry on in some fashion [ . . . ]

Continue at WASHINGTON POST: Options dwindle for postponed Cannes Film Festival – The Washington Post

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Now Streaming on Netflix: “I Lost My Body”

Don’t fret about missing out on the title everyone is talking about — I Lost My Body is available for streaming on Netflix starting from Friday, November 29! In a Parisian laboratory, a severed hand escapes its unhappy fate and sets out to reconnect with its body in this Cannes Critics’ Week selection. During a hair-raising escapade across the city, the extremity fends off pigeons and rats alike to reunite with pizza boy Naoufel. Its memories of Naoufel and his love for librarian Gabrielle may provide answers about what caused the hand’s separation, and a poetic backdrop for a possible reunion between the three. Based on the novel “Happy Hand” by Academy Award®  nominee Guillaume Laurant (Amelie).

Jérémy Clapin’s I Lost My Body claimed the Nespresso Grand Prize in Critics’ Week at Cannes as well as both the Cristal for Best Feature Film and the Audience Prize at Annecy. Additionally, the film also recently won the COLCOA 23rd edition’s Los Angeles Film Critics Association jury award and the audience award in Los Angeles!

Source: Now Streaming on Netflix: I Lost My Body | French Culture

Top 150 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2019: #12. Ahmed – Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne 

Ahmed – Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne

Top 150 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2019: Ahmed – Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne. 

Ahmed

The Dardenne Bros. turn their socially minded lens to religious extremism with their eleventh narrative feature, Ahmed. As usual, the Dardennes are collaborating with production company Les Films du Fleuve, returning to a template which saw them find early success by using a cast of unknowns. Having twice won the Palme d’Or (Rosetta, 1999; L’enfant, 2005), the duo are the most celebrated directors to have come from Belgium, making any of their projects of instant note. Besides their Palme wins, their offerings almost always leave Cannes with a major prize, including the Ecumenical Jury Prize for 2002’s Le fils, Best Screenplay for Lorna’s Silence in 2008, the Grand Jury Prize for 2011’s The Kid with a Bike, and again the Ecumenical Jury Prize for 2014’s Two Days, One Night (which also resulted in an Oscar nod for Marion Cotillard). Their 2016 feature The Unknown Girl (read review) was their only effort to leave the festival unrewarded.

The Dardennes turn to another topical issue with Ahmed, religious fundamentalism. While details are scarce, the plot concerns a young man who plots to kill his teacher following his extremist interpretation of the Quran. Early details are reminiscent of similar territory explored by Rachid Bouchareb in his 2016 Belgian set The Road to Istanbul, which explores a mother’s journey to search for her radicalized teenager.

Read about the Top 150 at: Top 150 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2019: #12. Ahmed – Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne – IONCINEMA.com

Cannes 2019: a week of criticism rich in first films

The Critics’ Week , a parallel section of the Cannes Film Festival, will take place from May 15 to 23, with a jury chaired by Colombian director Ciro Guerra ( Birds of Passage , currently on screen).

Devoted to the discovery of new talents, it presents only first and second films. Of the eleven selected, seven are in competition and four in special session.

Eight first films out of eleven selected

Among the eleven, appear eight first films, like Abu Leila of the Algerian Amin Sidi-Boumediene and the miracle of the unknown saint of the Moroccan Alaa Eddine Aljem. Two works that ” contrast with the type of productions that can be seen” in the Maghreb and are a reflection of “a new generation that comes from the short film” , according to Charles Tesson, General Delegate of the Week of Criticism.

The first deals with the civil war in Algeria, while the second is a fable about religious tourism.

Exploring other little-known regions of the 7th art, Critics’ Week has also selected first films from Costa Rica ( Sofia Quiros Ubeda’s Black Ash ) and Guatemala’s ( Nuestras Madres by César Diaz on the disappeared of the dictatorship). ).

The region will also be represented with the opening film, Litigante , second opus of the Colombian Franco Lolli ( Gente de bien ), presented as a portrait of a woman “in the vein of Pialat”.

French side, an animated film and two first films

France will be in competition with Jérémy Clapin’s animated film J’ai perdu mon corps , which explores many registers and tones: the fantastic, the poetic, the love story, almost the horror film, has underlined Charles Tesson.

In a special session, two first films complete the French contingent: The heroes never die of Aude Léa Rapin, with Adèle Haenel, who evokes the war in Bosnia by indirect routes (that of a possible reincarnation) and You deserve a love , first feature film by actress Hafsia Herzi, revealed by Kechiche, exploring the love relationships of young people.

Only feature-length film in the running, Vivarium , the second installment of the Irish Lorcan Finnegan, plunges a young couple (Jesse Eisenberg and Imogen Poots) in a fantastic camera.

In closing, will be the first film of Chinese Xiaogang Gu ( Dwelling in the Fuchun Mutains ), the first part of a trilogy and family saga to the rhythm of nature and the life of a river.

The jury will present three prizes including the Nespresso Grand Prix and an award for an actor considered a revelation, after rewarding last year Diamantino , pastiche on a football player in crisis, and Félix Maritaux for his interpretation of a prostitute in Wild .

Source: Cannes 2019: a week of criticism rich in first films