Cannes’ Un Certain Regard Jury Includes Valeria Golino, Édgar Ramírez, Joanna Kulig and More

Cannes Film Festival chief Thierry Frémaux took part in a ‘meet the press’ session with journalists in Cannes yesterday afternoon.

CANNES, France -- After a canceled 2020 edition and a scaled back gathering last year, the Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday rolled out the red carpet for what organizers hope will be a f ully resuscitated French Riviera spectacular.The 75th Cannes Film Festival is set to open Tuesday night with the premiere of Michel Hazanavicius' zombie comedy “Final Cut.” Over the next 12 days, 21 films will vie for the festival's prestigious top award, the Palme d'Or, while a handful of high-profile Hollywood titles — including “Top Gun: Maverick,” “Elvis” and “Three Thousand Years of Longing” — will also launch in Cannes.“This year, everyone wanted to come to Cannes,” said Thierry Frémaux, artistic director of the festival, ahead of the opening. “Everyone wanted to meet again.”This year's Cannes will officially begin Tuesday evening with an opening ceremony preceding the premier of “Final Cut," which was renamed from its original title, “Z,” after Ukrainian protesters noted that the letter Z to some symbolizes support for Russia’s war in Ukraine.The war in Ukraine is expected to be a regular presence in Cannes.

Ellise Shafer Cannes Film Festival has responded to complaints over the online press ticketing system, saying that the fest is currently working to resolve the issue.“The technical difficulties met this morning on the online ticketing service are very likely due to acts aimed at saturating the site with ticket requests, thus preventing festival-goers from accessing it,” Cannes’ official statement reads. “We are currently working on fixing the problem.”Many journalists and critics took to Twitter this morning to express their frustration at the ticketing site, which was not allowing them to access badges or book tickets for screenings.“It’s fair to say the Cannes online ticketing system is a shambles wrapped inside a clusterfuck wrapped inside an enigma,” critic Martyn Conterio wrote on Twitter.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentCannes Film Festival’s chief Thierry Fremaux didn’t just have to field questions about Russia and the dearth of female directors at the fest during his meeting with journalists on Monday afternoon. He also had to address a claim that the festival is attempting to censor the press — and confirmed that he has asked publications to revise his quotes.Reading his quotes before publication is just a “French tradition” and “not a big deal,” he told journalists.But Fremaux denies that he has asked to change what journalists have written or to remove certain questions.

CANNES, France -- After two years of pandemic, the 75th Cannes Film Festival is getting going with a familiar dose of controversy and some new snafus as it readies for its largest gathering on the French Riviera since the 2019 edition.Preparations were in full swing up and down the Croisette on Monday ahead of the festival's opening. The festival is set to open Tuesday with “The Artist” director Michel Hazanavicius' zombie film “Z."But before things even kicked off, the festival had already found plenty of commotion.

Ahead of its world premiere in Un Certain Regard section of Cannes, the Davy Chou directed and written feature All the People I’ll Never Be has been picked up by Sony Pictures Classics.

Long a bastion of artistic freedom, the Cannes Film Festival has a secret: it censors interviews with festival head Thierry Frémaux.

Manori Ravindran International EditorU.S. director Lotfy Nathan, best known for his acclaimed debut documentary “12 O’Clock Boys,” is making his feature directorial debut with “Harka.”Screening as part of the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard section, the film is set in Tunisia, in North Africa, and follows Ali (Adam Bessa), a young man in his twenties who makes a precarious living selling contraband gas on the streets.Ali dreams of a better life for himself, but his domestic responsibilities step up when his father’s sudden death leaves him in charge of his two young sisters. With the family facing impending eviction, Ali seeks steadier work and a stable life.

Actor Glenn Powell, best known for the hit series “This Is Us,” is quickly putting together quite the film career as the show is winding down. He plays a hot-shot pilot in Paramount’s “Top Gun: Maverick,” which is getting a lot of early buzz ahead of its May 27 release, and he’s sticking to military roles for the Korean War action-drama “Devotion” that also has Jonathan Majors (“Lovecraft Country“) leading it.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentPresiding over the 75th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, director Thierry Frémaux has assembled some serious Hollywood star power, world cinema auteurs amid indications that despite COVID, the film world is buzzing with anticipation for the films, the deals and most of all the glamour the fest brings.While Frémaux has been credited with expanding the horizons of the Cannes Film Festival since taking over the reins of its Official Selection in 2001, he’s also been praised for building relationships with American studios and filmmakers.This year, he’s lured them back in spite of the ongoing pandemic, with a lineup including James Gray’s “Armageddon Time,” David Cronenberg’s “Crimes of the Future,” Joseph Kosinski’s “Top Gun: Maverick,” Kelly Reichardt’s “Showing Up,” George Miller’s “Three Thousand Years of Longing” and Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis.” “My first red carpet was for ‘Moulin Rouge!’ with Baz Luhrmann and Nicole Kidman in 2001 and it will be engraved in my memory forever,” says Fremaux. “I’m happy to reunite with Baz this year.

Cannes Film Festival almost 35 years ago, I was still green and naïve enough to ask long-time Cannes attendees why the famed French fest held such a powerful place in the pecking order of international film gatherings. The late Richard Corliss, Time magazine’s peerless and beloved film critic, answered warmly and succinctly, with his own more worldly query: “Would you rather be in Germany in the winter or the South of France in the spring?”Corliss had a point, but in the decades since I’ve tucked my own couple of dozen Cannes fests under my belt, I’ve compiled my own list of reasons why Cannes remains the one film festival that people who’ve never been to a film festival have heard about and wish they could go to, and know that if a film has scored there, it must be worth their time.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorCondor has picked up French rights to Saim Sadiq’s drama “Joyland” ahead of its world premiere in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard. The title, the first Pakistani film to be selected in Cannes, will vie for the Caméra d’Or.Film Constellation is representing international sales rights.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentLes Films du Losange has unveiled the trailer for Lola Quivoron’s daring feature debut “Rodeo” ahead of its world premiere in Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival. Produced by Charles Gillibert (“Annette”) at CG Cinema, “Rodeo” follows a hot tempered and fiercely independent young woman who infiltrates an underground dirt bike community in France.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorNew Europe Film Sales has announced the first sales for Cannes Un Certain Regard-selected “Godland,” directed by Iceland’s Hlynur Pálmason.The film was picked up in France by Jour2Fete, and the movie was also acquired by three distributors that worked on Pálmason’s Cannes Critics’ Week title “A White, White Day” – Benelux rights were sold to Imagine, Poland was picked up by New Horizons Association and Australia/New Zealand was picked up by Palace.The film is set in the late 19th century, when a young Danish priest travels to a remote part of Iceland to build a church and photograph its people. But the deeper he goes into the unforgiving landscape, the more he strays from his purpose, the mission and morality.

Italian actor and director Valeria Golino has been set as jury president for the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival this year.

After what was rumored to be a long search, Thierry Fremaux has found his president for the 2022 Cannes Film Festival Jury. Legendary French actor Vincent Lindon, who starred in last year’s Palme d’Or winner, “Titane,” will take the mantle following Spike Lee‘s reign last year.

Cannes Film Festival section Un Certain Regard, part of the Official Selection, will open with Mathieu Vadepied’s World War One film Father & Soldier.

Naman Ramachandran “Father & Soldier” by Mathieu Vadepied, starring Omar Sy, Alassane Diong and Jonas Bloquet will open Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival on May 18.The Franco-Senegalese co-production, shot in France and Senegal, tells the story of Bakary Diallo, a father, who enlists in the French army in 1917 to join Thierno, his 17-year-old son, who was drafted by force. Sent to the front, father and son will have to face the war together.

Cannes has added a raft of movies to its lineup ahead of the festival next month.