Cannes Film Festival Page 3

This weekend saw the announcement of Swedish art satire 'The Square' as this year's Palme d'Or prize winner at the 70th annual Cannes Film Festival. It came as quite the surprise for everyone, given that comedies such as this have rarely been winners of the top award.

Ruben Ostlund at the 2015 BIFA Awards

Directed and written by the genius that is the BAFTA nominated Ruben Östlund (who is following his 2014 masterpiece 'Force Majeure'), 'The Square' explores the boundaries of art and human nature following a manager of a modern art museum named named Christian (Claes Bang) who opens a new exhibiton with an installation that comprises of a square drawn on the floor whereby anyone who steps inside must recognise it as a 'sanctuary of trust and caring'.

Continue reading: Everything You Need To Know About Palme D'Or Winner 'The Square'

Will Smith has used his position on the jury of this year’s Cannes Film Festival to launch a passionate defence of streaming giant Netflix, in disagreement with the jury’s president, director Pedro Almodovar.

Smith was part of a four-strong jury that gave a press conference at the annual film festival in the south of France on Wednesday afternoon (May 17th), alongside president Almodovar, another director in the shape of Paolo Sorrentino and Hollywood A-lister Jessica Chastain.

The topic of discussion soon got onto the Netflix revolution, which is disrupting the conventional film industry because it distributes films often without giving them a theatrical release at all. Two of the films touted for the Palme d’Or this year didn’t get a French cinematic release until very recently (Okja and The Meyerowitz Stories), and it has made French distributors upset.

Continue reading: Will Smith Launches Defence Of Netflix At Cannes Film Festival

Cannes Film Festival 2017 kicks off this week and those officially selected for Competition are particularly exciting this year. The Palme d'Or nominees offer thrills, colour, mystery, poignant propositions as well as some of Hollywood's biggest stars. Here are nine of our most anticipated features.

Nicole Kidman stars in 'The Beguiled'

1. The Beguiled - For Academy Award winning Sofia Coppola's latest film, she adapts the Thomas P. Cullinan novel of the same name (originally called 'A Painted Devil') in a Western starring Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst and Elle Fanning. They play the residents of a small Virginia girls' school who take in a wounded Union soldier played by Colin Farrell. Sexual tensions arise, which only results in pure vengeance.

Continue reading: The Beguiled, Okja And Wonderstruck: The Best Palme D'Or Nominees For Cannes Film Festival 2017

British director Ken Loach has won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival for his latest film I, Daniel Blake. The drama, starring Dave Johns, focuses on a joiner from Newcastle who needs benefits for the first time after suffering a heart attack.

Ken Loach has won the Palme d'Or at Cannes.

Loach beat directors including Sean Penn, Jeff Nichols and Jim Jarmusch to take home the prestigious prize for the second time in his career. His first win was in 2006 for war drama The Wind That Shakes the Barley.

Continue reading: Ken Loach Wins Cannes Palme D'Or For 'I, Daniel Blake'

It’s only May, but critics already believe they have a frontrunner for next year’s Best Actress Oscar, Loving star Ruth Negga. The acclaimed drama debuted at the Cannes Film Festival yesterday (May 16th) and has already garnered plenty of Oscar buzz, especially for the Ethiopian-Irish actress.

Ruth Negga stars in Loving.

In the drama Negga stars opposite Joel Edgerton, as married interracial couple Mildred and Richard Loving, who battle against the supreme court for their right to live together as husband and wife, during a time when interracial marriage was illegal.

Continue reading: 'Loving' Star Ruth Negga Tipped For Oscar After Wowing Cannes

Cannes Film Festival 2016 kicks off tomorrow and there's way too much to look forward to both in and out of competition. The Grand Theatre Lumiere will be showing some major eagerly-anticipated blockbusters as well as some of the most exciting independent works of the year. We've listed 10 of the most watchable movies to make life a little easier.

Prepare for Cannes Film Festival 2016

1. Cafe Society - Opening the Festival de Cannes tomorrow (May 11th) is Woody Allen, with a 1930s romance set in Hollywood. Starring Steve Carell, Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart and Blake Lively, this is a movie laced with comedy, drama, love and societal honour.

Continue reading: Cafe Society, The Neon Demon, Loving: Ten Unmissable Films At Cannes Film Festival 2016

Looks like the 69th Cannes Film Festival is going to be a good one! There's plenty to look forward to in both the In Competition and Out Of Competition categories for 2016, not least with the opening title being Woody Allen's romantic drama 'Cafe Society' starring Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart.

The 69th Cannes Film Festival arrives in May

'Cafe Society' isn't the only movie from this year's Cannes line-up that Kristen Stewart will appear in either, because she also has the lead role in Olivier Assayas' fashion drama 'Personal Shopper' which will appear among the In Competition flicks. Xavier Dolan's 'Juste La Fin Du Monde' ('It's Only the End of the World') starring Léa Seydoux and Marion Cotillard is another French movie from that category.

Continue reading: The BFG, Money Monster, Cafe Society: Cannes Film Festival 2016 Is Looking Amazing

The 68th Cannes Film Festival kicked off on the French Riviera this week with acting icon Catherine Deneuve, who stars in the opening night film Standing Tall. She was joined on the red carpet by a glamorous line-up including Lupita Nyong'o, Julianne Moore, Natalie Portman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Naomi Watts, Sienna Miller and Jane Seymour.

Catherine Deneuve at Cannes Film Festival

More: See pictures from Cannes Film Festival

Continue reading: A Week In Movies: Cannes Kicks Off, Tomorrowland Premieres, Cameras Roll In Miami And Trailers Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Meryl Streep And Anne Hathaway

An intimate lesbian love story by Abdellatif Kechiche won the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival, the prestigious Palme d'Or on Sunday. La Vie d'Adele - Chapitre 1 & 2 (Blue is the Warmest Colour) was chosen by a jury headed by Steven Spielberg as the best movie showing in competition, despite some concerns about its length (3 hours) and content, specifically its explicit sex scenes.

According to Reuters, Spielberg said the award should be shared between Kechiche and his two lead actresses Adele Exarchopoulos and Lea Seydoux, such was the level of their performances in the film.  "I think it will get a lot of play ... I think this film carries a very strong message, a very positive message," Spielberg told journalists. "It was the perfect choice between those two actresses and this incredible very sensitive and observant filmmaker." Cannes director Thierry Fremaux said the hundreds of thousands of demonstrators who marched in Paris this week to protest the country's legalization of same-sex marriage should go watch Blue Is The Warmest Colour. "Everyone who is against same-sex marriage or love between two people of the same sex must see the film," he said.

Tunisian-born actor Kechiche made his directorial debut in 2000. He was virtually speechless upon accepting the award, dedicating it to the youth of France and Tunisia who "wanted only to live, speak and love freely" during the Arab spring. 

Continue reading: Lesbian Love Story Beats Coen Brothers To Palme D'Or At Cannes

Abdellatif Kechiche’s film about a lesbian romance has taken the Palm D’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. The Tunisian-born director dedicated his win to "the youth of France" and the Tunisian revolution, where "they have the aspiration to be free, to express themselves and love in full freedom."

Perhaps the film’s triumph is rooted in context. Gay marriage is slowly, and rightly, being written into law in most countries, and this film addresses a young couple struggling with a lesbian relationship. "I think it will get a lot of play ... I think this film carries a very strong message, a very positive message," Spielberg – head judge as this year’s festival -told journalists. "It was the perfect choice between those two actresses and this incredible very sensitive and observant filmmaker." Inside Llewyn Davis – the new film from The Coen Brothers – was considered to be the favourite, but Blue Is The Warmest Colour has taken the prize. "Everyone who is against same-sex marriage or love between two people of the same sex must see the film," he told Reuters.

Spielberg added: "It was an obvious conclusion that without Léa and Adèle, the synergy could not have happened. If the casting had been even slightly different, if anything had been a little left of centre, it wouldn't have worked. It was the perfect choice from a sensitive film-maker."

Continue reading: Blue Is The Warmest Colour Takes Palm D’Or At Cannes 2013

A man who looks slightly similar to Psy decided to don his fanciest tuxedo and most outlandish sunglasses to see if he could blag his way into the Cannes Film Festival this week. As ridiculous as that sounds, the man's plan worked like a charm, with the impostor Psy managing to blag his way into some of the glitziest events in the South of France and even managed to walk away with all manner of free gifts from companies looking to get their name out.

Although it sounds as though the story was taken straight from The Onion, the only reason the fake Psy was found out about was because the real South Korea K-Pop star caught wind of the impostor and alerted the press via his Twitter account. The real Psy, who is currently in Singapore, took to his Twitter page on Wednesday (May 22) to call out the fake Psy, writing; "seems like there's another ME at cannes...say Hi to him @scooterbraun lol #PSYinSINGAPORE."

What is particularly funny about this story, bar the fact that a man talked his way into Cannes, is that the impostor genuinely looks nothing like Psy. Still, that didn't stop the wannabe 'Gangnam Style' singer from mixing with the stars and posing for photos with fans, with just about everybody getting duped by the fake Psy. Even Skyfall actress Naomie Harris Tweeted a picture of herself with 'non-Psy' at a party on Tuesday (May 21), with many others falling for the act and posting pictures of the impostor online too. We're not sure if people were just being polite or stupid, but how a man whose only resemblance to Psy is his girth and ethnicity managed to fool so many people is beyond us.

Continue reading: Cheeky Psy Look-A-Like Manages To Blag His Way Into The Cannes Film Festival

Robert Redford used his press conference promoting new film, All Is Lost, at the Cannes Film Festival to address a different kind of lost; the loss of American values and its position as a respected industrial nation since the end of the Second World War.

The 76-year-old actor/writer/director was especially critical of the near-constant stream of political scandal that has plagued Capitol Hill since 1945, events that have caused average Americans and foreigners to shake their heads at Washington officials. Certain things have got lost," said Redford. "Our belief system had holes punched in it by scandals that occurred, whether it was Watergate, the quiz show scandal, or Iran-Contra; it's still going on…Beneath all the propaganda is a big grey area, another America that doesn't get any attention; I decided to make that the subject of my films."

Robert Redford has long been known for his political activism

Continue reading: Robert Redford Say That America Has Lost It's Way At Cannes Press Conference

End of the Night: Tributes were paid this week to Ray Manzarek, pioneering keyboardist with The Doors who died in Germany aged 74. He formed the band with lead singer Jim Morrison after a chance meeting in Venice Beach, Los Angeles, and the pair went on to create some of the finest rock music in history.

Yukkk! Taylor Swift inadvertently created internet gold this week after making a serious "Yukkkk!" face when her pal Selena Gomez embraced with ex-boyfriend Justin Bieber backstage at the Billboard Music Awards 2013. The whole thing was caught on camera - and it's hilarious.

Continue reading: A Week In News: Ray Manzarek Dies, Taylor Swift's Disgusted Reaction And Brad Pitt Talks Drugs

Cannes 2013 has thrown up another noteworthy film if the reviews are to be believed. Only God Forgives - directed by Nicolas Winding Refn and starring Ryan Gosling – has caused a stir with the critics.

Having already worked with Gosling on Drive, which was also reviewed positively, if not pulled up for plot holes, Winding Refn’s thriller is set among American criminal expatriates in Bangkok. “It is ultraviolent, creepy and scary, an enriched-uranium cake of pulp, with a neon sheen,” says The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw. “The first scenes made me think that Wong Kar-wai had made a new film called In the Mood for Fear or In the Mood for Hate.” Aside from The Guardian’s 5-star review, the reaction to Only God Forgives has been mixed. "Only God Forgives is a failure but a rather magnificent failure,” say Total Film. “It is a beautiful, hollow film, with the director's insistence that Julian is fighting God – and that the film is about existential crisis – needing to be taken at its word. For most, it simply comes down to this: it's no Drive." Empire called it a “hellish, dreamlike vision of purgatory that works better as an immersive experience than a narrative.”

Continue reading: Depending On The Critic, 'Only God Forgives' Is The Best, And Worst At Cannes

Joel and Ethan Coen, who go by the collective pseudonym of The Coen Brothers, seem to have struck gold with their latest film, Inside Llewyn Davis, which is emerging as a front-runner for the Palm D’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Described by The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw as "best so far at Cannes," the new Coen Brother’s flick caused quite a stir when it debuted at the prestigious film festival. “Cannes audiences just heard a clean, hard crack: the sound of the Coen brothers hitting one out of the park,” read Bradshaw's review. “Their new film is brilliantly written, terrifically acted, superbly designed and shot; it's a sweet, sad, funny picture about the lost world of folk music which effortlessly immerses us in the period.” The Atlantic go as far as to say Llewyn is “Fargo good,” adding in their review: “Their new movie ranks with their very best (Fargo, No Country for Old Men, A Serious Man) in its nearly pitch-perfect balance of biting satirical humour and deep reserves of feeling."

Continue reading: Coen Brother’s Inside Llewyn Davis - The ‘Best So Far At Cannes’?

The Cannes Film Festival is about glitz, glamour, celebrity and, above all, film. But this year’s event has been blighted some truly bizarre criminal acts.

First of all there was the million-dollar jewelry heist, then a crazed gunman, claiming he had a grenade, has people scuffling for safety. The scary events unfolded at a life TV event, at which Django Unchained star Christoph Waltz was appearing. "I was on a panel at the Studio Canal platform off the beach when a man produced a gun,” explained Waltz. "I think it was a pistol and he fired but luckily for me they were blanks. Then he shouted he had a grenade and again luckily for me there was no grenade. The police have him. They tackled him to the ground." The Cannes festival jury member, added: "I don't know who he was or where he came from or what his problem was." Witness Arthur Laiguesse said: "The bodyguards jumped over the barriers into the crowd and pulled him to the ground. The police arrived and told everyone to run because there was a grenade in his hand."

Continue reading: Gunman And Grenade Wielder At Cannes? Luckily, For Christoph Waltz, Not Quite

This year’s Cannes Film Festival is quickly turning into a hotbed of crime. First, more than a million dollars worth of jewellery was stolen in a heist, now people are screaming following suspected gunshots.

This kind of stuff usually happens only in the movies! The criminality is less impressive when host Michel Denisot said the noise had been caused by blanks, but for a brief time, the gun-wielding man/woman declared they had a grenade. Given that no one was hurt, we’re going to put this down as ‘exciting’ and, again, ‘only happens in the movies’. The other big story from Cannes was also crime related, as a jewellery heist put a dampener on the red-carpeted proceedings. Commander Bernard Mascarelli, a judicial police spokesman in Nice, said:"Numbers have been put forward that we're still trying to verify, but the figure of $1m ... we're in that range." He added: "Apparently this [hotel guest] was someone who was targeted because it wasn't someone who had been seeking attention...” talking of the Chopard employee, reportedly an American, who is being questioned. “There must have been either an inside complicity, or people who were in contact with this person and knew that the person had jewels," he said.

So overall, Cannes has been pretty exciting, but for all of the wrong reasons. Gatsby opened it, etc etc, it’s glamorous, etc etc, and there are other films. Okay fine, now we want to know more about the great Cannes Jewellery Heist of 2013. We’re also predicting a film by 2016.

Continue reading: Suspected Gunshots At Cannes - Christoph Waltz Rushed Off Stage

The 66th Cannes Film Festival kicked off this week with the glittering red carpet premiere of The Great Gatsby, attended by filmmaker Bas Luhrmann and cast members Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Carey Mulligan, Joel Edgerton and Isla Fisher. The film opened in America last Friday and in the UK this Thursday.

Mulligan also stars in another film in competition at Cannes: the Coen brothers' Inside Llewyn Davis is the story of a folk singer (Oscar Isaac) in 1960s New York. The eclectic, starry cast includes Justin Timberlake, Garrett Hedlund and John Goodman. And to go with the Cannes world premiere, the film launched its first trailer this week. It looks pretty unmissable, and is being released to target awards season.

Continue reading: A Week In Movies: Cannes Film Festival Kicks Off, Coen Brothers' & James Franco Are Potential Award Winners, Michael Douglas Portrays Liberace In Behind The Candelabra And Much More!

The Cannes Film Festival serves some of the hottest and most glamorous films; this year, the prestigious event opened with The Great Gatsby – an undoubtedly stylish film, albeit with some shortcomings.

But it’s also an important habitat for indie films to find an audience. One of the films to really make a splash, with its candid portrayal of modern-day Mexico and the poverty and corruption that plagues it. According to The Guardian, “It was served New Wave Mexican style: raw, gritty, and force fed by bandits who snap puppies' necks with one hand while recruiting underage sex slaves with the other.” The British paper were fans of the Amat Escalante-directed film, giving it a four-star review, in which they write: “Director Amat Escalante – a more explicitly political blood brother to Mexico's current king of neo-realist weirdness, Carlos Reygadas – has shot a damning indictment of contemporary Mexico, capturing its institutionalised corruption, its endemic cruelty."

Escalande at the 66th Cannes Film Festival

Continue reading: 'Heli' Reviews – Not For The Feint Hearted, But The Truth Needed To Be Told

Cara Delevingne is a model, and as such the expectations for her to impress on the red carpet at Cannes were as high as ever. Good thing she got the memo to dress to impress, as her plunging floor-length Burberry gown ensured that all eyes were squared directly on her when she arrive on the red carpet for the 2013 Cannes Film Festival Opening Ceremony on Wednesday (May 15) night.

The model did have some competition on the red carpet though, as fellow model Georgia May Jagger was on duty with another floor-length gown, this time impressing with a scarlet red number that accentuated all the same bits that Delevingne was flaunting. The pair rocked the full-length look as well as showing off their chests in their plunging gowns, although the lace detail put into Delevingne's dress just edges her ahead in the best dressed category.

Cara Delevingne when she arrived at Nice Airport

Continue reading: Cara Delevingne Sets The Cannes Fashion Standard With Floor-Length Dress

What it's like to sit on the jury at the Cannes Film Festival and have the power to present the director of the very best movie with the prestigious Palme d'Or? This year, Steven Spielberg, Ang Lee, Nicole Kidman and Christoph Waltz bring a touch of Hollywood A-list glamor to the event and will spent 10 days in darkened screening rooms debating each of the movies in competition.

British director Stephen Fears headed the jury in 2007, when he and his team chose Romanian movie 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days as the Palme d'Or winner ahead of the Coen's No Country For Old Men, David Fincher's Zodiac, Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof. "They were very anti-American, the jury. But I kept saying that American films are watched all over the world. This cut no ice with a few bolshy women on the jury," Frears told the BBC ahead of the Festival this week, "I don't know, you try and behave sensibly. I hear all those stories about people manipulating things, but there didn't seem to be any of that. There were no orders from above - nobody tried to interfere, but there were a few basic rules which you had to follow," he added.

Sitting in a darkened room and watching the very best movies of the year before anyone else sounds pretty fantastic right? "...you're terrified of is going to sleep," said Frears, "...so I had coffee brought to me to stay awake - it was manageable. I didn't write notes but I had a friend with me and she and I would discuss the film afterwards." On whether he still recognised that he had chosen the best movie in competition, Frears was unequivocal, saying, "Oh yes, it was a wonderful, original film. I'm sure it benefitted from winning, it was a very accessible film. I'm sure if you spoke to distributors, I'm sure they would say Michael Haneke's film [2012 Palme d'Or and Oscar-winner] Amour has done really well."

Continue reading: Dark Rooms, Bans And Bolshy Women: How The Cannes Jury Choose The Palme D'Or Winner

This years Cannes Film Festival will be heading back to the heady days of the Roarin' Twenties, a time of affluence, jazz, glitz and glamour and the setting of the newly release The Great Gatsby. The 3D film will be opening the festival in what should be an extravagant event, even by Cannes' standards, when things kick off this Wednesday (May 15).

Whilst the movie has already had it's premiere in the U.S., the grand stage of Cannes still makes it's European unveiling an exciting prospect, especially for all those involved, such as director Baz Luhrmann and stars Leonardo Di Caprio and Carey Mulligan, who will all be flying over the the south of France to attend the screening. Mulligan wont just be preoccupied by commitments to Gatsby either, as the star's next film is also being premiered at the festival too, the Coen Brother's latest effort Inside Llewyn Davis.

Carey Mulligan at the US premiere of Gatsby

Continue reading: Cannes Film Festival To Bring The Spirit Of The 20's With The Great Gatsby Opening The Festival

The 2013 Cannes Film Festival will open on Wednesday (May 15, 2013) with Baz Luhrmann's 3-D version of The Great Gatsby, a throwback to the roaring twenties adapted from F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic book of the same name. The announcement caused unrest earlier in the year given that Gatsby would already have been released in the U.S by the time Cannes came round (it was released last week) though there's a couple of other things to worry about.

The Great Gatsby opened in the United States to fairly lacklustre reviews, dampening the buzz surrounding the start of the 12 day Cannes Film Festival. The critics have already seen it. The critics didn't like it very much. "This dreadful film even derogates the artistry of Fitzgerald, who wrote "The Great Gatsby" while living on Long Island and in Europe," said the Wall Street Journal. It holds a score of 48% on Rotten Tomatoes. 

Nevertheless, champagne bottles will be popped, deals will be made and Harvey Weinstein will be wandering around deciding which movie to snap up as his next Oscar winner at this year's festival. Stars expected to attend include Michael Douglas, Matt Damon, Ryan Gosling, Emma Watson and the legendary Bollywood veteran Amitabh Bachan. "This is the hardest 10 days of the year for me. There are always three or four movies that are exceptional and you have to find them so it is a detective job," said Tom Bernard, co-president and co-founder of Sony Pictures Classics.

Continue reading: 'The Great Gatsby' Opening Cannes Doesn't Seem Like Such A Good Idea Anymore

Cinemas are now fully in the grip of blockbuster season, with Tom Cruise's Oblivion and Gerard Butler's Olympus Has Fallen expanding their reach into new countries this week. 

And next week sees Iron Man 3 begin its global assault. Stars Robert Downey Jr, Rebecca Hall, Ben Kingsley and Don Cheadle were in London this week for the film's premiere. Director Shane Black even took time out to do a stand-up routine with cowriter Drew Pearce to introduce the first UK press screening.

Continue reading: A Week In Movies: Cruise's Oblivion & Butler's Olympus Have Their Worldwide Release & The Lone Ranger, The Hunger Games & Man Of Steel Launch New Trailers

Chloe Sevigny has received strong backlash towards her recent film 'The Brown Bunny', after critics attacked her over an oral sex scene. The actress is upset by the critical response to the scene between her and Vincent Gallo, defending it as "romantic" and "beautiful", as opposed to gratuitous. 

Related: Watch Sevigny In The Trailer For 'Lovelace'

The star explained her reactions to the reviews from Cannes Film Festival, by discussing how natural and intimate the scene is. Furthermore, she expressed dismay to the controversy it sparked, arguing: "I'm really angry at the way everyone's trivialising it. It's a really intense romantic scene, really beautiful. It's not gratuitous, it's deep. I do it in everyday life. Everybody's done it, or had it done to them."

Continue reading: Chloe Sevigny Defends 'The Brown Bunny' Oral Sex Scene