Anaïs Demoustier To Preside Over Cannes Caméra D’Or Jury For Best First Film

Ukraine war and the momentous burst of rebellion against the Iranian regime prompted by the death of Mahsa Amini are reverberating profoundly at the Cannes Film Festival. At the festival’s opening ceremony on Tuesday night, legendary French actress Catherine Deneuve paid tribute to the war’s victims by reciting a poem from Ukrainian poet Lessia Oukraïnka, solemnly declaring: “I no longer have either happiness or freedom, only one hope remains to me: to return one day to my beautiful Ukraine.” One year ago, Cannes got off to an emotional start with remarks from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Halle Bailey delivered a mesmerizing performance of “Part of your World” as she sang “The Little Mermaid” track live for the first time post-production.

EXCLUSIVE: Tye Sheridan is launching his new production company, Dogwood Pictures with its debut film, Black Flies, is set to play in competition at the 76th Annual Cannes Film Festival. Directed by Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire, the pic reunites Sheridan with Sean Penn after over a decade since Malick’s The Tree of Life. Sheridan first became involved with the film in 2018 and continued on throughout the film’s execution and release.

EXCLUSIVE: New Europe Film Sales has unveiled fresh deals for Danish director Ulaa Salim’s sci-fi drama Eternal.

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International Ten years after winning the Camera d’Or in Cannes for “Ilo Ilo,” director Anthony Chen is back with “The Breaking Ice.” The film, which premieres in Un Certain Regard on May 21, is set in Yanji, a border city in north China, and follows a budding relationship between three 20-somethings as they spend a few days together. Nour Films has acquired the pic for France, while Rediance are handling worldwide sales. Chen became the first Singaporean to win an award at Cannes with his short film “Ah Ma” in 2007. In 2013, he won the Camera d’Or for his debut feature “Ilo Ilo.” His sophomore film “Wet Season” was nominated for the Platform Prize at Toronto. Chen made his English-language debut with “Drift,” starring Cynthia Erivo, which premiered at Sundance in January.

Mark Schilling Japan Correspondent    The current president of Johnny & Associates, possibly Japan’s most fearsome talent agency, has formally apologized for sexual abuses allegedly committed by her uncle and agency founder, Johnny Kitagawa, against young male talents.   Kitagawa died in 2019, age 87. But an expose aired by the BBC in March this year and personal testimony by former Johnny’s talent Okamoto Kauan at a Tokyo press conference last month, brought matters into the public eye. Okamoto alleged that Kitagawa had repeatedly abused him and others.Japanese media, which had maintained a general, if not universal, silence about Kitagawa’s alleged abuses for decades, has recently been stirred up by the accusations.  

All types of demonstrations and gatherings have been banned on the public highway for the duration of the Cannes Film Festival by the region’s Alpes-Maritimes Prefecture governing body.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Paris-based distributor ARP Sélection has snapped up the timely Sudanese drama “Goodbye Julia” for French distribution ahead of its Cannes Un Certain Regard premiere next week. The film, which is Sudanese director Mohamed Kordofani’s feature debut, marks the first feature from Sudan to bow from the Croisette and takes place just before the 2011 secession of South Sudan. In “Goodbye Julia,” two women — one from the North, the other from the South — are brought together by fate in a complex relationship that attempts to reconcile differences between northern and southern Sudanese communities. in an interview with Variety, Kordofani expressed the hope that his film “Can be the start of a movement for reconciliation between all the Sudanese people” in the war-ravaged country.

SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher joined members of her guild marching in solidarity with Writers Guild of America members Monday on the picket lines in front of the entrance to Paramount Pictures’ backlot.Amid this display of solidarity, Drescher is preparing with SAG-AFTRA to begin talks on their own new contract, and she is signaling that actors need major change in Hollywood just as much as writers.“We can’t keep building on a contract that was developed in the 1980s,” Drescher told TheWrap. “I’m hoping that we go in with a new perspective, a different portal to enter the conversation just as we did with other talks that we were successful in resolving.

Kim Kardashian celebrated her and Kanye West's youngest child's birthday with a firefighter-themed celebration. Kim, 42, took to Instagram to share an inside look at the lavish celebrations. In a since-deleted video, star gave her followers a look inside the entry way of her home, which featured fire-shaped balloons and a balloon statue of the birthday boy.Inside the party, there was more firefighter-themed decorations including a Dalmatian-themed sweets table, a pizza station, a macaroni table and a station for personalized drinks.There was also a room where guests could get personalized fire suits and stitched shirts.Kim shared multiple pictures of the birthday boy, who was dressed in red and white for the occasion.

Nicolas Cage (Renfield) and writer-director Andrew Niccol (Anon) will reteam with Vendôme Pictures, the Academy Award winning studio behind CODA, on Lords of War — a sequel to the 2005 crime thriller Lord of War, which starred Cage as Yuri Orlov, a composite character based on numerous arms dealers.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Sudanese director Mohamed Kordofani will soon be in Cannes with “Goodbye Julia,” a drama that he says reflects the “systematic racism” that led to the secession of South Sudan in 2011 and is, albeit indirectly, closely connected with the conflict that erupted in the country in April.  The powerful film, which is premiering in Un Certain Regard, marks the first Sudanese feature to bow from the Croisette. But there is an even greater historic significance to “Goodbye Julia,” in which two women – one from the North, the other from the South – are brought together by fate in a complex relationship that attempts to reconcile differences between northern and southern Sudanese communities. It’s the hope that “it can be the start of a movement for reconciliation between all the Sudanese people,” Kordofani says.

Damien Chazelle has been announced as the international jury president for the main competition of the 80th Venice International Film Festival, running Aug 30 — Sep 9.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Damien Chazelle will preside over the competition jury of the upcoming Venice Film Festival. The U.S. director is a Venice regular, having opened the Lido event on two occasions, in 2016 with “La La Land” and in 2018 with “First Man.” Damien Chazelle, welcoming Venice’s proposal stated: “For ten days each year this city of the arts, of Tintoretto and Titian and Veronese, becomes a city of cinema, and I am humbled and delighted to be invited to lead this year’s jury. I can’t wait to discover a new crop of great films at the 80th Venice Film Festival.”

Cannes film festival. He will be joined by French director and screenwriter Alice Winocour, German actress Paula Beer, French-Cambodian director and producer Davy Chou and Belgian actress Émilie Dequenne.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor U.S. actor John C. Reilly will serve as president of the jury of the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes Film Festival. “Salem,” directed by Jean-Bernard Marlin, has been added to the lineup. The other members of the jury will be French director and screenwriter Alice Winocour, German actor Paula Beer, French-Cambodian director and producer Davy Chou, and Belgian actor Émilie Dequenne. The Un Certain Regard section showcases art and discovery films by young auteurs. In a statement, Reilly said: “I have had so many life changing moments at the Festival de Cannes (from my miraculous first trip with Paul Thomas Anderson to celebrating my 50th birthday from the Palais stage!) so to be chosen as the president of Un Certain Regard jury is truly such an incredible honor.”

John C. Reilly will preside over the Un Certain Regard Jury at the upcoming Cannes Film Festival, running May 16-27.

Will the forthcoming Indiana Jones film “Dial of Destiny” be the last time we ever see the intrepid archaeologist on screen? Harrison Ford seems to think so.

2023 Cannes Film Festival. The Caméra d’Or prize is presented to one debut feature film that is entered in Cannes’ Official Selection or a parallel category.

Steven Spielberg was originally set to direct Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.