Cannes Festival Adds ‘Black Flies’ With Sean Penn, Catherine Corsini’s ‘Le Retour’ to 2023’s Official Selection

Download Festival has added 12 new names to its line-up and has announced its 2023 stage splits.Cancer Bats, Casey, Hundred Reasons, State Champs, Static Dress, Puscifer, Punk Rock Factory, Haken, Snayx, Redhook, Rituals and Cherry Bombs have been announced as the new bands to take the stage at this year’s festival.Download had previously announced the 2023 event would be headlined by Slipknot, Bring Me The Horizon and Metallica playing two completely different sets on two different nights.The likes of Ghost, Evanescence, The Distillers, Placebo and Architects were also confirmed to be appearing at Donington Park alongside 50 other acts.A post shared by Download Festival (@downloadfest)In addition, Download have also shared the stage splits. Stage times have yet to be announced but check out the festival’s stage breakdown below:THURSDAY, JUNE 8Apex StageMetallica Alter Bridge Halestorm, Jinjer Mammoth WVHOpus StageFive Finger Death Punch Puscifer, Hundred Reasons The Bronx Cancer Bats Cherry BombsThe Avalanche StageState Champs Mom Jeans Punk Rock Factory Fearless Vampire Killers TigressDogtooth StagePerturbator Haken A.A.

The 76th Festival de Cannes already had a jury president in two-time Palme d’Or winner Ruben Ostlünd. It now has eight more members to fill out its jury.

Brie Larson, Paul Dano and Julia Ducournau are among the eight people chosen to complete the main competition jury at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, Cannes organizers announced Thursday morning in Paris.Swedish director Ruben Ostlund, who won the Palme d’Or last year for “Triangle of Sadness,” was previously announced as president of the jury. The presence of Ducournau, who won the top award for “Titane” in 2021, means that the last two Palme winners will be part of the deliberations to determine who succeeds them this year.Other jurors will be Moroccan writer-director Maryam Touzani, who was in Cannes last year with “The Blue Caftan”; French actor Denis Menochet, who recently appeared in Ari Aster’s “Beau Is Afraid”; Zambian/British writer-director Rungano Nyoni, whose “I’m Not a Witch” premiered in Cannes; Afghan novelist and writer-director Atiq Rahimi, whose film work often adapts his own bestselling books; and Argentinian writer-director Damian Szifron, who landed an Oscar nomination for his 2014 Cannes film “Wild Tales.”The jury’s 5-to-4 split between men and women is typical for Cannes in recent years.

EXCLUSIVE: Tunisian-Egyptian actress Hend Sabry has signed with CAA for representation.

Playtime has unveiled a strong Cannes film market sales slate, which includes competition titles “About Dry Grasses” and “Homecoming.” “About Dry Grasses” is by Turkish auteur Nuri Bilge Ceylan, who won the Palme d’Or in 2014 for “Winter Sleep.” The film follows Samet, a young art teacher, who is finishing his fourth year of compulsory service in a remote village in Anatolia. After a turn of events he can hardly make sense of, he loses his hopes of escaping the grim life he seems to be stuck in, and hopes that his encounter with fellow teacher Nuray will help him overcome his angst. Deniz Celiloğlu, Merve Dizdar and Musab Ekici are among the cast.

Lise Pedersen As Switzerland’s international documentary film festival Visions du Réel is about to wrap up, its artistic director Emilie Bujès, who’s been running the show since 2017 and was part of the selection committee for several years before that, told Variety that packed theaters throughout the 10-day event are proof that the public is back. She was very pleased to note that many of the 163 screenings were packed – “even the retrospectives!” – and she was delighted to have two women filmmakers among her guests. “They were fantastic. Symbolically, to have two strong women who were so generous with the audience – it was paradise,” she said of Alice Rohrwacher, who will be in Cannes’ main competition with “La Chimera”, and acclaimed Argentinian filmmaker Lucrecia Martel, whose upcoming project, “Chocobar,” will be her first foray into feature-length non-fiction.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Prominent Paris-based producer Marianne Slot, who has been instrumental to bringing works by auteurs such as Lars Von Trier, Lucrecia Martel, and Argentina’s Lisandro Alonso to the big screen, is being honored by the Locarno Film Festival. Slot will receive the Swiss festival’s Raimondo Rezzonico prize for a producer who epitomizes the indie ethos. She will be bestowed with the award on Aug. 5 with a tribute that will include a screening of Icelandic director Benedikt Erlingsson’s environmental-themed black comedy “Woman At War,” followed by an on-stage conversation on Aug. 6. Born in Denmark, Slot set up the Paris-based production company Slot Machine in 1993. She has been Von Trier’s French producer since 1995, starting with “Breaking the Waves.” Over the years Slot has shepherded works by a slew of indie auteurs at various stages of their careers. Besides Martel and Erlingsson these include Bent Hamer, Małgorzata Szumowska, Paz Encina, Emma Dante, Marian Crişan, Juliette Garcia, Yeşim Ustaoğlu, Sergei Loznitsa, and Naomi Kawase.

Pharrell's annual music and culture festival Something In The Water is teaming up with Walmart and live-stream shopping platform NTWRK on a capsule collection as part of the retail giant's Black & Unlimited initiative.

French director Catherine Corsini and her producer Elisabeth Perez have published an open letter denying wrongdoing on the set of upcoming Cannes Palme d’Or contender Le Retour.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Catherine Corsini, the French director of “Le Retour,” which was added to the competition lineup for the 76th edition of Cannes on Monday, has addressed the reports in French media of alleged inappropriate incidents during production of the film. Corsini’s competition slot was on hold for nearly 10 days after Cannes’s administration board heard that a scene of a sexual nature involving the 15-year old female protagonist of the film was added to the script and allegedly filmed without the consent of the Commission des Enfants du Spectacle, a government-backed organization. French reports also said Corsini was allegedly being accused of harassment by crew members, while other members of the crew had been allegedly been accused of inappropriate acts against two female actors.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Blue Fox Entertainment has acquired U.S. rights to Cédric Klapisch’s (“The Spanish Apartment”) hit dance film “Rise” (“En corps”) from Studiocanal. One of 2022’s highest grossing French films, “Rise” sold nearly 1.3 million tickets in local theaters and was sold around the world. The movie tells the story of a young ballet dancer whose life is upended when she suffers a career-threatening injury and catches her  boyfriend cheating on her. As she begins her physical and emotional rehabilitation, she finds solace in friends, a new love, and a new contemporary dance troupe. Marion Barbeau, a dancer-turned-actor, delivers a breakthrough performance in the lead role, and stars opposite French stars, including François Civil (“Three Musketeers”), Pio Marmaï (“How I Became a Super Hero”), Denis Podalydès (“Anaïs in Love”), as well as Hofesh Shechter (“Send Me an Angel”).

COMPETITION“Black Flies” (Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire)“LE RETOUR“Le Retour” (Catherine Corsini)CANNES PREMIÈRE“Perdidos en la Noche” (Amat Escalante)“L’Amour et les Forets” (Valérie Donzelli)“Eureka” (Lisandro Alonso)OUT OF COMPETITION“L’abbe Pierre – Une Vie de Combats” (Frédéric Tellier)UN CERTAIN REGARD“Only the River Flows” (Wei Shujun)“Une Nuit” (Alex Lutz)The film will be screened Out of Competition – Closing Un Certain RegardSHORT FILM“Filles du Feu” (Pedro Costa)SPECIAL SCREENINGS“Little Girl Blue” (Mona Achache)“Bread and Roses” (Sahra Mani)“Le Theoreme de Marguerite” (Anna Novion)MIDNIGHT SCREENING“Hypnotic” (Robert Rodriguez)“Project Silence” (Kim Tae-gon)

A little under two weeks ago, the Cannes Film Festival unveiled its lineup for the upcoming event. However, as we know with film festivals, the initial lineup is far from complete and more films can be added at any time.

The Cannes Film Festival has announced a raft of new additions to the Official Selection of its 76th edition running May 16 to 27.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Vivendi, the parent company of French pay TV banner Canal+ Group,has sees revenues rise by 3.3% to €2.29 billion ($2.52 billion) during the first quarter of 2023. Vivendi attributes the growth to all its subsidiaries, in particular Studiocanal, the film and TV production and distribution company of Canal+, whose revenues went up by 13.6% compared with the first quarter of 2022 driven by the success of several films, including the comedy “Alibi.com 2” and “John Wick 4.” Among the several high profile deals signed by the company during the first quarter, Canal+ inked an agreement with French telco Orange to acquire all shares of its pay TV package OCS, as well as Orange Studio, the film and series co-production subsidiary.

Ed Meza @edmezavar Warner Bros. Intl. Television Prod. (WBITVP) has appointed former Fremantle exec Harry Gamsu as new VP, creative, for format, development and sales. He will report to Andrew Zein, SVP creative, for format development and sales and oversee relations between WBITVP’s international division and the WB’s U.S. TV production units Warner Horizon, Telepictures and Shed. Gamsu will also evaluate formats in WB’s catalogue for international exploitation and format sales to Canada. He succeeds Adam Steinman, who ankled WBITVP earlier this year. In his previous role as VP of non-scripted content acquisitions at Fremantle, Gamsu managed the U.S. content acquisition team and working on factual and entertainment series.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Pixar will be back at the Cannes Film Festival on closing night (May 27) with the world premiere of their new feature “Elemental.”   Presented Out of Competition, the film will be released in theaters on June 16 in the U.S. and on June 21 in France.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent French director Catherine Corsini was meant to be the seventh female director in competition at the 72nd edition of Cannes with her film “Le Retour” (The Return). But her competition slot is on hold for now after news broke about several alleged inappropriate incidents during filming. The night before the press conference on April 13, Cannes chief Thierry Fremaux confirmed to the director that she would have a competition slot, but shortly before the start of the announcement, the festival’s administration board decided to hold off on including the title as part of the lineup. The delay came after the board discovered that Corsini was allegedly being accused of harassment by crew members, while other members of the crew had been allegedly been accused of inappropriate acts against two female actors, according to French reports. Fremaux told Variety the “administration board wished to gather more information about the situation around the film before taking a decision on whether to include the film in its Official Selection.”

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent One of France’s most beloved and long-running TV hosts, Arthur Essebag, is preparing to take his leading unscripted production banner Satisfaction into English-language markets with top partners, ranging from James Corden, Leo Pearlman, Ben Winston, Benjamin, Gabriel Turner, Richard Bacon to Elisabeth Murdoch. A few days after announcing its stake in Yes Yes Media, the company founded by Richard Bacon alongside Elisabeth Murdoch’s Sister Media, Satisfaction has formed a joint venture with Fulwell 73, the U.K.-based production company behind “The Late Late Show With James Corden.” The London-based outfit was founded in 2005 by Winston, Pearlman and Benjamin and Gabriel Turner. Corden was appointed a director in the company in 2017. Although the banner is headquartered in the U.K., as much as 70% of its turnover in 2020 came from the U.S. where Winston has produced the Grammy Awards, among other shows.

Cannes Critics’ Week Artistic Director Ava Cahen has unveiled the line-up for the 62nd edition of the parallel sidebar focused on first and second films, running May 17 to 25.