The Festival & Awards Ceremony
This year’s festival commences on Tuesday May 8th to Saturday, May 19, the evening when the jury reveals the winners of its prize list during the closing ceremony. An event orchestrated by the master of ceremony, French actor Edouard Baer.
The opening night will witness the premiere of Everybody Knows (Todos Lo Saben) film by Asghar Farhadi. Which means you could expect to see the power Latino couple Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem walk up the red carpet to the Grand Théâtre Lumière of the Palais des Festivals in Cannes. The Man Who Killed Don Quixote by Terry Gilliam will then close the festival.
On May 19 the films participating in the competition will be aiming for the The Palme d'Or, known to be the most prestigious award in the film industry and the star prize of the Cannes Film Festival.
The awards list includes: the Grand Prix (Grand Prize of the Festival), Prix du Jury (Jury Prize), Palme d'Or du court métrage (Best Short Film), Prix d'interprétation feminine (Best Actress), Prix d'interprétation masculine (Best Actor), Prix de la mise en scène (Best Director) and Prix du scénario (Best Screenplay).
Other sections concern the Un Certain Regard Prix for young talent, innovative and audacious works, Cinéfondation prizes for student films and the Caméra d'Or for best first feature film.
The Poster
The poster of the Cannes Film Festival is taken from Jean-Luc Godard’s Pierrot Le Fou starring Anna Karina and Jean-Paul Belmondo in 1965. It’s inspired by the work of Georges Pierre, an immense still photographer, who immortalized the shooting of over a hundred films in a 30-year career that began in 1960.
The Jury
The jury of the main competition is headed by the A-list actress and producer, Cate Blanchett and composed of: Chang Chen (Chinese Actor), Ava DuVernay (American writer, director, producer), Robert Guédiguian (French director, writer, producer), Khadja Nin (Burundian songwriter, composer, singer), Léa Seydoux (French actress), Kristen Stewart (American actress), Denis Villeneuve (Canadian director, writer) and Andrey Zvyagintsev (Russian director, writer).
Other jury presidents include: Benicio del Toro (Puerto Rican actor) for Un Certain Regard, Ursula Meier (Swiss film director) for Camera d'Or, and Bertrand Bonello (French film director) for the Cinéfondation and short films.
The Films
This year’s competition brings together 21 films (including two of which belong to Arab directors). So Abu Bakr Shawky and Nadine Labaki, we are definitely rooting for you!
Everybody Knows (by Asghar Farhadi)
At War (by Stéphane Brizé)
The Wild Pear Tree (by Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
Ayka (by Sergei Dvortsevoy)
Dogman (by Matteo Garrone)
Le Livre d’Image (by Jean-Luc Godard)
Knife + Heart (by Yann Gonzalez)
Asako I & II (by Ryusuke Hamaguchi)
Sorry Angel (by Christophe Honoré)
Girls of the Sun (by Eva Husson)
Ash Is Purest White (by Jia Zhang-Ke)
Shoplifters (by Hirokazu Kore-eda)
Capernaum (by Nadine Labaki)
Burning (by Lee Chang-Dong)
BlacKkKlansman (by Spike Lee)
Under the Silver Lake (by David Robert Mitchell)
Three Faces (by Jafar Panahi)
Cold War (by Pawel Pawlikowski)
Lazzaro Felice (by Alice Rohrwacher)
Yomeddine (by Abu Bakr Shawky)
Leto (by Kirill Serebrennikov)
Films selected for the short films and the Cinéfondation competitions are found here.
The Palme d’Or by Maison Chopard
Redesigned in 1998 by Caroline Scheufele, the Palme d’Or has since become a radiant symbol of a love story uniting Chopard with the most glamorous film festival in the world. In addition to the Palme d’Or and its two miniature versions awarded for Best Actor and Best Actress, this year the Maison’s ateliers will be producing, for the very first time, five mini-Palmes intended for the recipients of the: Grand Prix, Best Director, Best Screenplay, the Jury Prize and Short Film Palme d’Or.The Palme d’Or, whose motif is a direct nod to the palm trees lining the famous Croisette and to the Cannes coat-of-arms evoking the famous legend of Saint Honorat, is made with 118 grams of Fairmined-certified ethical 18-carat yellow gold. The Palme d’Or rests on a dainty rock crystal cushion shaped like an emerald-cut diamond. An ultimate detail making each trophy unique, crafted by five Chopard artisans who devote no less than 40 hours to hand-crafting the Festival’s most coveted treasure.
For the full festival live and backstage coverage, keep your eyes on Arabian Moda's Instagram here.
Article by G.N.