The 78th Cannes Film Festival opened Tuesday with expectations operating excessive for what could possibly be a banner version.
All of the elements — an absurd variety of stars, top-tier filmmakers, political intrigue — appear to be lined up for the French Riviera spectacular. Over the subsequent 12 days, Cannes will play host to megawatt premieres together with these of “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning,” Spike Lee’s “Highest 2 Lowest” and Ari Aster’s “Eddington.”
Things get underway Tuesday with a gap ceremony that drew Quentin Tarantino (who’ll pay tribute to Western filmmaker George Sherman on Wednesday), Eva Longoria, Heidi Klum and others to Cannes’ well-known crimson carpet.
The opening day festivities included an honorary Palme d’Or for Robert De Niro, the opening night time movie, Amélie Bonnin’s French romance “Leave One Day,” a three-film salute to Ukraine and the introduction of the jury that may determine the Palme d’Or, headed by Juliette Binoche.
Cannes is coming off a 2024 pageant that produced quite a lot of eventual Oscar contenders, together with “Emilia Pérez,” “The Substance,” “Flow” and the very best image winner, “Anora. That movie’s director, Sean Baker, returned Tuesday for the opening ceremony. (He’s a producer on a movie within the Cannes parallel part Critics Week.)
Asked if he is feeling the strain this time round, pageant director Thierry Frémaux mentioned the one sort of strain he believes in is in beer. (Beer on faucet in France is “bière à la pression.”)
“Indeed last year was a beautiful year,” Frémaux mentioned Monday. “But at the very time when I was with (journalists) as the festival started, we didn’t know if it was going to be a good year or not.”
Cannes is kicking off the identical day Gérard Depardieu, certainly one of France’s most well-known actors, was discovered responsible of getting sexually assaulted two girls on a 2021 movie set. In certainly one of France’s most outstanding #MeToo instances, Depardieu was given an 18-month suspended jail sentence. The 76-year-old has lengthy been an everyday presence at Cannes.
This yr’s Cannes Film Festival, the premier worldwide cinematic gathering, can be unspooling following U.S. President Donald Trump’s name for tariffs on motion pictures made abroad. While Frémaux expressed sympathy for the reason for strengthening native film manufacturing, he mentioned it was too quickly to touch upon the still-unformed plans.
“I don’t know what to say, really, about that,” Binoche advised reporters Tuesday when requested in regards to the tariffs. “We can see that he’s fighting and trying in many different ways to save America and save his ass.”
Along with Binoche, the opposite eight jurors embody Halle Berry and Jeremy Strong, who was unable to attend Cannes final yr for the premiere of his Trump movie “The Apprentice.” Strong referenced that movie, which led to his first Oscar nomination, in his feedback on the American president Tuesday.
“Truth is under assault,” mentioned Strong. “Specifically at this temple of film, the role of film is increasingly critical because it can combat those forces in the entropy of truth, and can communicate truths, individual truths, human truths, societal truths, and affirm and celebrate our shared humanity.”
Berry, responding to Cannes’ new protocols on apparel for the crimson carpet, mentioned she had “an amazing dress” with a protracted prepare for the opening ceremony however will put on one thing else as a substitute. Cannes has outlawed nudity and clothes with lengthy trains for its night premieres on the Palais.
“I had to make a pivot,” mentioned Berry. “But the nudity part, I do think is probably also a good rule.”
Cannes will comply with up Tuesday’s festivities with the return Wednesday of Tom Cruise. Three years after he introduced “Top Gun: Maverick” to the pageant, he’s again with the most recent “Mission: Impossible” film.
Twenty-two movies will vie for Cannes’ high prize, the Palme d’Or, to be introduced May 24. Those movies embody Wes Anderson’s “The Phoenician Scheme,” Richard Linklater’s “Nouvelle Vague,” Lynne Ramsay’s “Die, My Love,” Joachim Trier’s “Sentimental Value,” Kelly Reichardt’s “The Mastermind,” Oliver Hermanus’ “The History of Sound,” Julia Ducournau’s “Alpha” and Jafar Panahi’s “A Simple Accident.”
In Cannes’ Un Certain Regard part, three outstanding actors are making their directorial debuts: Harris Dickinson (“Urchin”), Kristen Stewart (“The Chronology of Water”) and Scarlett Johansson (“Eleanor the Great”).
Geopolitics are prone to play a starring position at Cannes, which is starting by screening three 2025 Ukraine documentaries: “Zelensky,” Bernard-Henri Lévy’s “Notre Guerre” and The Associated Press-Frontline coproduction “2000 Meters to Andriivka,” by “20 Days in Mariupol” Oscar winner Mstyslav Chernov.
“This ‘Ukraine Day’ is a reminder of the commitment of artists, authors and journalists to tell the story of this conflict in the heart of Europe,” the pageant mentioned in a press release.
On Tuesday, greater than 350 filmmakers, actors and others within the movie trade — together with Richard Gere, Pedro Almodovar, Javier Bardem, Viggo Mortensen and Mark Ruffalo, revealed an open letter within the French newspaper Libération and in Variety calling on cinema establishments to extra forcefully reply to what they known as “genocide in Gaza.”
ACID, a Cannes parallel part, consists of the documentary “Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk.” It’s about Fatma Hassona, a 25-year-old Palestinian photojournalist who was killed the day after the number of the documentary was introduced in April.
“Why is it that cinema, a breeding ground for socially committed works, seems to be so indifferent to the horror of reality and the oppression suffered by our sisters and brothers?” the letter learn.
© Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This materials will not be revealed, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed with out permission.