Cannes’ Thierry Frémaux Talks Netflix, Pandemic Challenges in Pre-Festival Press Conference

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentWith the 74th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in the rearview mirror, Variety caught up with the festival’s chief and artistic director Thierry Fremaux to discuss the highlights and surprises of this year’s event.

Naman Ramachandran Now that the dust has settled on the Cannes Film Festival, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos is setting the record straight with festival artistic director Thierry Fremaux, who commented early on in the event that streaming platforms don’t discover talent in the same way.At a pre-festival press conference, Fremaux had praised Netflix productions like “Mank” and “The Irishman” and also lauded the work of Sarandos and Scott Stuber.

Jeff Bezos followed up his 11-minute flight to the edge of space with an extended press appearance in which he announced the gift of $100 million each to CNN political contributor Van Jones and chef Jose Andres.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentThe Venice Film Festival has unveiled its official poster by Italian illustrator and author Lorenzo Mattotti, and announced that a film by Venice native Andrea Segre looking at how the fest navigated COVID-19 last year will screen as its pre-opening event.Titled “La Biennale di Venezia: il cinema al tempo del Covid,” which translates to “The Venice Biennale: Cinema in the time of Covid,” the pre-opener will screen on Aug. 31.

Sign up to FREE email alerts from the Northern Agenda

Johnson is expected to announce measures to allow NHS staff in England who are double-jabbed to avoid isolation if they are alerted to a covid contact. But the focus is likely be on renewed questions over how the Prime Minister attempted to exempt himself from self-isolation after being identified as a close contact of UK Health Secretary Sajid Javid who has tested covid positive.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentThe Deauville American Film Festival is set to reteam with Cannes to showcase five movies that have played on the Croisette during its next edition and will launch a mini-strand dedicated to anticipated French movies.Cannes joined forces with Deauville last year following the cancellation of its physical edition due to the pandemic.

Rangers. The Israeli ace has checked into Parkhead after sealing a £3.5million move from Maccabi Petah Tikva as part of the massive recruitment drive in Glasgow's east end.

Meghan Markle is teaming up with Elton John’s husband David Furnish to create an animated series for Netflix. The Duchess of Sussex will serve as an executive producer alongside the Canadian filmmaker for a family series in development titled "Pearl" as a current working title, People magazine reported on Friday.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at LargeArchewell Productions, the Netflix-based shingle launched by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, is getting into the animation business.

Katie Price's latest round of plastic surgeries meant the star was unable to be with her daughter on her 14th birthday.The star, who shares Princess Andre with ex-husband Peter Andre, jetted off to red-list country Turkey on June 15 for a complete surgical makeover which included full body liposuction and a cat-eye facelift. Singer and presenter Peter, 48, took care of his and Katie's son, Junior, 16, as well as Princess while the former glamour model recovered from her operations.

Danielle Lloyd has raised her concerns for friend Katie Price and her ‘addiction’ to cosmetic surgery, according to the Mirror.The model recommended that Katie should seek therapy if she 'starts' to feel like she is becoming addicted to surgery following her latest procedure which has left her swollen and bruised.The mum-of-four, who has recently urged Coleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy to end their feud, is no stranger to a bit of cosmetic alterations when she revealed she had a range of

Manori Ravindran International EditorWes Anderson won’t be taking any questions in Cannes because “The French Dispatch” isn’t getting a press conference.Variety has confirmed with festival sources that the movie’s creative team won’t be made available to the press.

Matt Damon said he felt “a little overwhelmed” at yesterday’s Cannes premiere for his new film Stillwater.

Naman Ramachandran Indian filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, a regular at Cannes, is currently in post-production on his next feature “Dobaaraa,” a Hindi-language adaptation of Oriol Paulo’s 2018 Spanish-language film “Mirage.”Kashyap had read the script of “Mirage” before the film was made and was taken by it. This is the first time Kashyap has done a remake.

Cannes Film Festival in France on Wednesday. The French actress, 45, looked in good spirits at the event where she was also joined by director Leos after the film made its debut during the opening night of Cannes the previous evening.

At a Cannes Film Festival like no other, Leos Carax’s Annette may have been the perfect opening movie.

At a Cannes Film Festival like no other, Leos Carax’s Annette may have been the perfect opening movie.

Thierry Frémaux Asks Press to “Give Me a Name”The drama and back and forth between Cannes’ artistic director Thierry Frémaux and Netflix has been well documented, and in a press conference ahead of the festival on Monday, Frémaux put more fuel on the fire when he challenged journalists to name a single auteur director who has been discovered and emerged by a streaming platform. “Not yet,” Frémaux argued.

Don't miss a thing by getting the day's biggest stories sent direct to your inbox