Cristian Mungiu’s drama, "Fjord" won the Palme d’Or at the conclusion of the 79th annual Cannes Film Festival. The Romanian director, who previously received the festival’s prize for his film, "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days" in 2007, becomes the tenth director to win the coveted award twice. Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve star as a conservative couple who decide to move to the remote village in Norway where the wife was born with their children. But their new life does not go as planned when they come up against a couple who become concerned about how they're raising their family. And theatrical distributor, Neon (which will release "Fjord") continued to make history at Cannes with its seventh straight Palme d’Or winner with Bong Joon Ho’s 2019 film, "Parasite" and Sean Baker's 2024 feature, "Anora" both going on to win the Best Picture Oscar.
Russian director Andreï Zviaguintsev’s "Minotaur" went on to receive the Grand Prize which is the runner-up. Based on the 1969 French film "The Unfaithful Wife" by Claude Chabrol, "Minotaur" is set in a Russian small town and follows business executive on the verge of laying off his employees when he discovers his wife is having an affair.
This year's jury, lead by Park Chan-Wook, seemed to have great difficulty narrowing down just one winner as there our multiple films sharing prizes. The directorial duo, Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi for "La Bola Negra" and Paweł Pawlikowski of "Fatherland" both won the Best Director award. Virginie Efira and Tao Okamot jointly received the Best Actress award for their performances in "All Of A Sudden" while Emmanuel Macchia and Valentin Campagneshare, the stars of Lukas Dhont’s World War I drama, "Coward", shared the Best Actor Award.
Here is the list of winners of the 2026 Cannes Film Festival:
Palme d’Or: "Fjord"
Grand Prize: "Минотавр (Minotaur)"
Jury Prize: "Das Geträumte Abenteuer (The Dreamed Adventure)"
Best Director: Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, "La Bola Negra (The Black Ball)" and Paweł Pawlikowski, "Fatherland" (Tie)
Best Screenplay: Emmanuel Marre, "Notre Salut (A Man of His Time)"
Best Actress: Virginie Efira and Tao Okamo, "Soudain (All Of A Sudden)"
Best Actor: Emmanuel Macchia and Valentin Campagneshare for "Coward"
Camera d’Or: "Ben’Imana"
Short Film Palme d’Or: "Para los contrincantes (For The Opponents)"
Honorary Palme d’Or: John Travolta and Barbra Streisand
The 79th annual Cannes Film Festivalis set to begin with the glamourous star-studded event will run from May 12-23 on the French riviera. This international celebration of cinema will be the first opportunity to see some of the exciting new works that will reach screens throughout the rest of the year and beyond. The poster for this year's fest features the image of Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon as "Thelma & Louise" in Ridley Scott's 1991 road-trip drama that made it's world premiere at Cannes going on to become a critical and commercial success.
The festival opens with the world premiere of "La Vénus électrique (the Electric Kiss)" from Pierre Salvadori which will be screened Out of Competition. The film stars Pio Marmaï as Antoine Balestro, a painter in 1920's Paris who has been unable to work since the death of his wife, Irène (Vimala Pons), much to the frustration of his gallery owner, Armand (Gilles Lellouche) who goes through some drastic measures to try and get him in front of an easel.
Korean writer/director Park Chan-Wook will serve as this year's jury president. He will be joined by American actress, Demi Moore; Swedish actor, Stellan Skarsgård; Irish actress, Ruth Negga; Ivorian-French actor, Isaach De Bankolé; Chinese writer/director Chloé Zhao; Chilean writer/director Diego Céspedes; Belgian writer/director, Laura Wandel and Britsh screenwriter Paul Laverty to select the winners of the top prizes.
There have been twenty-two films selected for Competition that will feature an impressive collection of films by a wide range of international filmmakers. Some of the movies will include new works by acclaimed directors, Andrey Zvyagintsev ("Минотавр (Minotaur)"), Pawel Pawlikowski ("Fatherland"), Lazlo Nemes ("Moulin"), Cristian Mungiu ("Fjiord"), Hirokazu Kore-eda ("箱の中の羊 (Sheep in the Box)"), Lukas Dhont ("Coward"), Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi ("La Bola Negra (The Black Ball)"), Marie Kreutzer ("Gentle Monster"), Asghar Farhadi ("Histoires Parallèles (Parallel Stories)") and Pedro Almodóvar ("Amarga Navidad (Bitter Christmas)"). This year will be very slight in regards to an American film presence at Cannes with only Ira Sachs' "The Man I Love", a musical fantasia set during the AIDS crisis and the recent addition of James Gray's "Paper Tiger", a crime-drama featuring Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson, as the only movies from the US selected for competition.
In the Un Certain Regard section, which presents a lineup which recognizes emerging talent and innovative cinema, will feature the latest film from Jane Schoenbrun with "Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma" which will be the opening film; American actor/comedian, Jordan Firstman's directorial debut, "Club Kid"; "A Girl’s Story" the debut feature directed by French actress, Judith Godrèche and Greek director Konstantina Kotzamani’s "Titanic Ocean" about a special school in Japan that trains teenage girls into being professional mermaids.
Some intriguing films that will be shown out of competition includes the return of the Danish filmmaker, Nicolas Winding Refn with his horror-thriller, "Her Private Hell", his first feature film in ten years. The actor, Andy Garcia will premiere his second film as a director with "Diamond", a crime-drama that stars Garcia, Vicky Krieps, Brendan Fraser, Bill Murray and Dustin Hoffman. Steven Soderbergh will screen his documentary, "John Lennon: The Last Interview", the controversial film that will combine AI visual elements with the audio of the former Beatle's final interview with Rolling Stone magazine and Ron Howard will debut his documentary "Avedon" about the life and career of the famed photographer, Richard Avedon.
And Peter Jackson, the New Zealand filmmaker best known for his work on the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, will be presented this year with an honorary Palme d’Or. The Academy Award winning director will also participate in the fest's Talks program along with fellow Oscar-winners, Cate Blanchett and Tilda Swinton for separate onstage conversations.
2025 was a year filled with some great movies. Unfortunately not everything I saw managed to leave a deep, memorable impression upon me. Here are a few films that really did not work for me:
"DIE MY LOVE"
First, let me state that I think Lynne Ramsay is one of our more provocative filmmakers working today, a compelling artist with an uncompromising vision which has regrettably lead to her having made only five feature films to date since her acclaimed debut, "Ratcatcher" back in 1999. The latest from Ramsay, "Die My Love", based on the novel by Ariana Harwicz, deals with a new mother who begins to suffer from postpartum depression and psychosis, has moments that are magnificently performed and visually stunning, thanks to the camerawork by Seamus McGarvey, reteaming for the first time with Ramsay since "We Need to Talk About Kevin". Yet this heavily stylized drama fails to generate much of an emotional connection. Jennifer Lawrence, in an amazingly raw and feral performance, plays Grace who we meet with her boyfriend, Jackson (Robert Pattinson) as they explore a rundown ranch in Montana that he inherited from an uncle. With Grace pregnant, they decide to move in to start their new life. As their relationship was happy and playful, it begins to change not long after their baby's birth. Grace's behavior becomes progressively more erratic, manic and highly unpredictable, deeply concerning Jackson and his recently widowed mother (Sissy Spacek). As we watch Grace spiral out of control, lost in mental collapse and the trauma of parenthood, it becomes more unbearable as we are never given a clear understanding of what exactly is happening to her. Unfortunately, "Die My Love" stays too much on the surface, never really digging deep enough to actually make us feel Grace's anguish, desires and pain.
"HONEY DON'T!"
In the second of their planned lesbian B-movie trilogy, director, Ethan Coen and co-writer, Tricia Cooke have delivered "Honey Don't!", another black comedy, this time involving a private investigator in Northern California trying to solve a series of mysterious deaths. I found this poorly conceived, joke deprived, comedic thriller in even worse shape than their last endeavor, "Drive-Away Dolls". Margaret Qualley returns this time to play Honey O'Donahue, a sexy detective in a tight skirt and click-clack heels. She gets wrapped up in this case when a potential client (Kara Petersen) contacted her, afraid and looking for help, and ends up murdered the next day. A local homicide detective (Charlie Day) is more interested in trying to get a date with Honey than investigating so she'll have to do the heavy lifting to figure out what happened. She's soon on the trail to the Four-Way Temple where the Reverend Drew Devlin (Chris Evans) is far more interested in bedding his female parishioners than leading them to salvation. More death, a French femme fatale (Lera Abova) and a horny police officer (Aubrey Plaza) all crosses Honey's path on the way to her trying to unravel this mystery. Slight and lazy in plot and style, "Honey Don't" is a repellent modern noir filled with unsavory characters and not nearly enough laughs to make this even remotely palatable.
"SNOW WHITE"
I, for one, am tired of the live-action versions of the Disney animated classics that the studio keeps forcing upon us. Each one tries to expand upon the beautiful simplicity of these cartoons, adding nothing creative or visually inspired and only offering pointless and inept recreations. The latest, "Snow White", based on Disney's first full-length animated feature film, might possibly be the worst of them all. Named for a snowstorm on the day of her birth, Snow White (played by Emilia Faucher as a child) is a princess born to the good King (Hadley Fraser) and Queen (Lorena Andrea) of an enchanted land. After the Queen dies from an illness, the King remarries a new Queen (a bland Gal Gadot) but he disappears following sailing off to fight in a conflict. The new Queen turns out to be a beauty obsessed, evil sorceress, allowing the kingdom to fall into financial ruin and forcing Snow White (now played by Rachel Zegler) to become a maid. The Queen, angered after she frees Jonathan (Andrew Burnap) who was imprisoned for stealing food and being named "the fairest of them all" by the Magic Mirror (voiced by Patrick Page), orders the huntsman (Ansu Kabia) to kill Snow White. Unable to commit the act, he has her flee into the forest. A frightened Snow White stumbles upon a seemingly abandoned cottage but the home actually belongs to seven "miners" (generated by CGI) who allow her to stay for her safety. This version, directed by Marc Webb, is an artless affair with dreary, banal visuals which includes unpleasantly creepy looking dwarfs. In an effort to give this German fairytale a modernized spin, the screenplay by Erin Cressida Wilson has made an empowered Snow White who eventually fights back against the evil Queen. But having Jonathan to not be a prince yet awakens her from the spell of the poisoned apple with a kiss and then fights by Snow White's side just feels even more awkward. And since this is a musical, the new songs written by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul fail to enhance these dour proceedings. Yet thankfully they did use four of the beloved songs from the original film. Despite the silly claims that several of the controversies surrounding this film had derailed its potential success, "Snow White" managed to be awful and forgettable all on its own.
"THE WOMAN IN CABIN 10"
"The Woman in Cabin 10" is a polished looking, psychological thriller, directed by Simon Stone and Farhan Rana Rajpoot, that offers nothing we haven't seen before yet executed in a way that building a compelling mystery or offering some logical thrills are never considered. British investigative reporter, Laura Blacklock (Keira Knightley), who goes by "Lo", has been trying to recover following seeing one of her sources murdered and realizes the best way for her to truly mend is to get back to work. She's given a puff piece to write about a new charitable foundation by an ill, billionaire Anne Bullmer (Lisa Loven Kongsli) with a fundraising gala on her luxury yacht sailing to Norway. Also on board are Bullmer's husband, Richard (Guy Pearce), a gaggle of wealthy "friends" (which includes Kaya Scodelario, Daniel Ings and Hannah Waddingham) and Ben (David Ajala), Lo's former boyfriend who just happens to be a photographer for the Bullmers. One night, Lo is awakened by a woman's scream and sees someone go overboard from the cabin next door. After informing the crew, she's told that everyone on the ship is accounted for and there was no one assigned to that room. Lo insists, having personally spoken to this woman, but no one believes her. She begins her own investigation, leading to her becoming a target. This film is based on a book by Ruth Ware and the screenplay by Stone, Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse veers wildly from this source material with added action sequences and odd situations that only manages to create more confusion to this story. It's nice to see Knightley back in a leading film role but her time as well as the rest of the solid cast are completely wasted in this muddled whodunit. "The Woman in Cabin 10" is simply implausible from the stumbling beginning to the over-the-top, ridiculous ending.
The Juliette Binoche-led Main Competition jury has selected Jafar Panahi's "It Was Just an Accident" for the top prize of the Palme d'Or at the close of the2025 Cannes Film Festival. The Iranian filmmaker is currently in exile from his home country and has used his cinema to bring voice to opposition to the Islamic Republic. This, in turn, has effectively gotten him "banned" from making films in Iran and previously imprisoned several times. This thriller, shot in secret, tells the story of five Iranian protestors who deal with a moral dilemma about whether or not to murder their former torturer. Following winning the Golden Bear at Berlin for "Taxi" in 2015 and the Golden Lion at Venice for "The Circle" in 2000, Pahahi becomes only the fourth filmmaker to win top honors at all three festivals (the previous three are Henri-Georges Clouzot, Michelangelo Antonioni, and Robert Altman). And the film distributer, Neon has won bragging rights with Panahi's win as they will release the film and have acquired the Palme d’Or winners for six years in a row.
The runner-up winner or Grand Prix went to the latest from Joachim Trier, "Affeksjonsverdi (Sentimental Value)". The last time the Norwegian director was at the fest, he had won the Palme d'Or for "Verdens verste menneske (The Worst Person in the World)" back in 2021. Renate Reinsve (who won Best Actress for her role in the 2021 film) stars in this family drama centered on the estranged relationship between a father and his two daughters. The Jury Prize was a tie with "Sirât", Óliver Coro's drama about a father's search for his missing daughter in the deserts of southern Morocco and "Sound of Falling" from Mascha Schilinski with this German-set drama following four girls from different historical periods whose lives are interconnected, sharing the award.
The Brazilian filmmaker, Kleber Mendonça Filho received Best Director for his film, "The Secret Agent" and the star of this drama, Wagner Moura won Best Actor. Set in 1977, a teacher is caught in the political turmoil of the final years of the Brazilian military dictatorship.
Here are the winners of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival:
Palme d'Or: "یک تصادف ساده (It Was Just an Accident)"
Grand Prix: "Affeksjonsverdi (Sentimental Value)"
Jury Prize: (TIE) "Sirât" and "In die Sonne schauen (Sound of Falling)"
Best Director: Kleber Mendonça Filho, "O Agente Secreto (The Secret Agent)"
Best Screenplay: Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, "Jeunes Mères (Young Mothers)"
Best Actress: Nadia Melliti, "La Petite Dernière (The Little Sister)"
Best Actor: Wagner Moura, "O Agente Secreto (The Secret Agent)"
Camera d’Or: Hasan Hadi, "The President’s Cake"
Camera d’Or (Special Mention): Akinola Davies Jr., "My Father’s Shadow"
Special Award: Bi Gan, "狂野时代 (Resurrection)"
The 78th annual Cannes Film Festival, the first of the major fests to premiere important new works of cinema by some of the world's most prestigious filmmakers, will be held this year on May 13th through 24th. Cannes will open this year with "Leave One Day", a comedy by French filmmaker, Amelie Bonnin. This is the first time a debut feature film has been selected to open the festival. "Leave One Day" tells the story of a young woman who leaves behind her hometown to start a new life but must return due to a family emergency.
The Oscar-winning, French actress Juliette Binoche will serve as this year's President of the Jury who will select the winners of various prizes. Her fellow jurors are American actress, Halle Berry; Congolese filmmaker, Dieudo Hamadi; South Korean filmmaker, Hong Sang-soo; Indian filmmaker, Payal Kapadia; Mexican filmmaker, Carlos Reygadas; Italian actress, Alba Rohrwacher; Moroccan writer, Leïla Slimani and American actor, Jeremy Strong.
Some of the films in the Main Competition include new works by acclaimed international filmmakers: Wes Anderson ("The Phoenician Scheme"); Richard Linklater ("Nouvelle Vague"); Ari Aster ("Eddington"); Jochim Trier ("Affeksjonsverdi (Sentimental Value)"); Kelly Reichardt ("The Mastermind"); Dominik Moll ("Dossier 137"); Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne ("Jeunes mères (The Young Mothers Home)"); Mario Martone ("Fuori"); Jafar Panahi ("It Was Just an Accident"); Lynne Ramsay ("Die, My Love") and Julia Ducournau ("Alpha").
Some highlights playing out of competition are Spike Lee's latest, "Highest 2 Lowest", which will make it's world premiere, and stars Denzel Washington (his fifth cinematic collaboration with Lee) in a revision of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 crime thriller "High and Low". Tom Cruise and his possible last time as IMF agent, Ethan Hunt in "Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning" will also screen at Cannes. Ethan Coen's second feature as a solo filmmaker, "Honey Don't!" will screen during the fest and the latest from Rebecca Zlotowski, "Vie privée (A Private Life)", a French psychological thriller which is notable for starring American actress, Jodie Foster who will appear only speaking the language. There is also a special screening of "Bono: Stories of Surrender", a documentary by Andrew Dominik about the lead vocalist of the Irish rock band, U2.
In Cannes Classics, which will screen restored prints, world cinema, tributes and documentaries on cinema, a restored 4K version of Charlie Chaplin's classic silent comedy, "The Gold Rush" will open this section, celebrating one hundred years since its release, while Stanley Kubrick's 1974 historical epic drama, "Barry Lyndon", also restored in 4K, will close.
The official double poster for the festival features Anouk Aimée on one and Jean-Louis Trintignant on the other from the movie, "A Man and a Woman" by Claude Lelouch, the winner of the Palme d'Or at the 19th Cannes Film Festival in 1966. And Robert De Niro will receive the festival’s Honorary Palme d’Or during the opening-night ceremony.
When the year of 2024 began, the outlook was not particularly optimistic for the movies. The Hollywood labor strikes had created major production delays, meaning that there would be fewer wide releases available and the films that were released throughout the beginning of the year were pretty much ignored. But the summer turned things around with several blockbuster hits, followed by a string of more box-office successes into the fall and winter. Ultimately, it was another solid year for cinema with revenue down only 3% from the previous year. And despite the apparent limited supply, I found there to be many exciting and stimulating movies released over the course of the year that I thoroughly enjoyed. Here is my list of favorite films of 2024 I saw in alphabetical order:
"ANORA"
Who could have imagined that a dark, romantic screwball comedy involving a New York sex worker and the son of a Russian oligarch would be charming, witty, poignant and laugh-out-loud funny? Yet in the hands of writer/director, Sean Baker, who has made a career of creating impressive, indie works about the lives of marginalized people, has brilliantly achieved this feat with "Anora". In a breakout performance, Mickey Madison plays Anora (who prefers to go by "Ani"), a twenty-three year old stripper trying to make a living by getting men to pay for lap dances. One night, Vanya Zakharov (Mark Eydelshteyn) comes to the club and they make a connection. After later having her come to his lavish mansion in Brooklyn and paying her for sex, Vanya offers Ani $15K to spend the week with him. They pass the time by having fun, lots of sex and a trip to Las Vegas with his entourage. At the end of the week, Vanya decides he doesn't want to go back to Russia to work for his father and asks Ani to marry him in order to stay. Ani is obviously skeptical yet after Vanya tells her he's in love, she choses to believe him. The couple are quickly married and begin a domesticated life. However, when word gets back to Vanya's parents (Aleksei Serebryakov, Darya Ekamasova), they summon Toros (Karren Karagulian), a handler hired to watch after their wild child son, to bring an end to this marriage. Like he has with most of his films, Baker takes us on a wild, unpredictable ride, this time by bringing a contemporary spin to the wacky comedy style of early Hollywood. "Anora" is singularly odd, delightfully funny and absolutely one of my favorite films of last year.
"CONCLAVE"
Who would have thought that the selection of a new Catholic pope could be filled with intrigue, deception and danger? With "Conclave", the first English-language feature from the Oscar nominated German filmmaker, Edward Berger, we are taken behind the scenes into the secret meetings involving the search for a pope that manages to be genuinely thrilling and surprisingly intense. After the current pope dies from a heart attack, the process begins to elect his successor. Cardinal Thomas Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) is the Dean of the Sacred College of Cardinals, set about organizing the papal conclave in Rome. There are four main candidates, each with different political views involving which direction to take the church, ranging from more liberal, social conservative and staunch traditionalist. No candidate receives the required two-thirds majority following the first ballot, although the conservative Joshua Adeyemi of Nigeria has a slight edge while Aldo Bellini (Stanley Tucci) from the US and the British Lawrence split the liberal vote. The unexpected arrival of Vincent Benitez (Carlos Diehz) from Mexico, who had been secretly named cardinal only one year earlier, creates a bit of a stir. As they continue the voting, dark secrets are revealed involving candidates, Cardinal Joseph Tremblay (John Lithgow) and Adeyemi, causing them to gradually lose their ranking while Benitez begins to slowly yet steadily gain votes. Based on a novel by Robert Harris and with a sturdy screenplay by Peter Straughan, Berger has crafted a beautifully staged, contemplative mystery that offers a nuanced exploration into the Catholic Church's internal politics. The entire cast is exceptionally good, particularly Fiennes as a soothing voice of calm and reason during the complicated proceedings, expertly holding the film together with his compelling performance. With a twist ending that some found shocking while others dismissed as silly, "Conclave" is a thought-provoking melodrama that also manages to be a perfect escapist entertainment.
"EMILIA PÉREZ"
"Emilia Pérez" , the latest from the revered French filmmaker, Jacques Audiard, is difficult to categorize because of it's shifting tones and astonishing mix of genres. Yet because of the divergency, this Spanish-language, dramatic-comedy, musical fantasia is one of the most brilliantly audacious and deliciously twisted films of the year. Based on an opera written by Audiard (and loosely adapted from Boris Razon's 2018 novel "Écoute"), the film tells the story of a young attorney (Zoe Saldaña) who is lured into helping a cruel drug cartel leader (Karla Sofía Gascón) transition into a woman. There is no question that "Emilia Pérez" is polarizing with the film being savagely criticized due to some strongly objecting in their view to the filmmaker's cultural misrepresentation, stereotypes, poor Spanish dialogue, and song lyrics. And while I can certainly understand why some viewers might feel this way, I do not belive that was at all the intention of this film. Audiard (who does not actually speak Spanish) unapologetically dares to challenge with his artistry, boldly delving into a world of dark themes and provocative ideas that was intended to make some members of the audience uncomfortable.
"HARD TRUTHS"
The British filmmaker, Mike Leigh has reteamed with Marianne Jean-Baptiste, the star of his 1996 drama, "Secret & Lies" twenty-eight years later in "Hard Truths", a masterful work about an extremely anxious woman and the complications this creates in the relationships with her family. Depressed and mad at the world, Patsy (Jean-Baptiste) seems to go out of her way to make sure that everyone she encounters ends up as unhappy and miserable as herself. But those who are forced to continuously endure her wraith are Patsy's mild-mannered husband, Curtley (David Webber) and their unmotivated adult son, Moses (Tuwaine Barrett) who both tend to just shut down in her hostile presence. The only one who can remotely reach through to Patsy is her good-natured sister, Chantelle (Michele Austin) by trying to remain patient and understanding during her suffering sibling's irrational rants. The eighty-one year old Leigh has made his impressive career by using lengthy rehearsals and improvisation techniques with his actors to help build characters and the narrative for each of his films. With "Hard Truths" (which could possibly be Leigh's final feature), the director has crafted another vivid character study with monumental performances that manages to be reflective, deeply moving and surprisingly hilarious.
"HIS THREE DAUGHTERS"
Azazel Jacobs' "His Three Daughters" is an arduous yet profoundly affecting drama involving three sisters trying to cope with the impending loss of their dying father which in turn forces to the surface their own buried, prickly relationship with each other. As their father, Vincent (Jay O. Sanders) is in hospice care at home nearing the end of his battle with cancer, his daughters, Katie (Carrie Coon) and Christina (Elizabeth Olsen) arrive from their homes out of state to his small apartment in New York. They have come to offer support during his final days to their step-sister, Rachel (Natasha Lyonne) who has been living with him for years. It begins with the eldest and controlling, Katie complaining about Rachel smoking weed in the house, insisting she smoke outside, and the lack of food in the house. Then she becomes concerned with Rachel taking over the ownership of the family's longtime rent-controlled apartment once their father is gone. The more earthy, passive-aggressive Christina just wants to maintain peace and calm between each other during this difficult time while Rachel prefers to simply retreat to her room and remain stoned most of the day. Lead by extraordinary performances by the three actresses, Jacobs brilliantly captures the complications of family dynamics, particularly during a time of crisis and grieving, in a way that's heartfelt and emotionally compelling.
"HIT MAN"
The actor Glen Powell had been paying his dues by doing the work, slowly rising up the ranks over the years by making an impression with various supporting roles in television and film. His first breakout moment came playing astronaut, John Glenn in "Hidden Figures" back in 2016. Then he had an even bigger moment seven years later with a significant part in the mega-hit sequel, "Top Gun: Maverick". Powell would go to star in the sleeper hit romantic-comedy, "Anyone But You" and in another successful sequel, "Twisters". But it was the charismatic actor connecting with fellow Texan, filmmaker Richard Linklater when he was cast as part of an ensemble cast in his 2016 comedy, "Everybody Wants Some" that led to the fantastic romantic-thriller, "Hit Man" which Powell not only stars but co-wrote the screenplay with Linklater. Based on a magazine article by Skip Hollandsworth, Powell plays Gary Johnson, an unassuming professor of psychology. Aiding the police department with their sting operations, Gary unexpectedly gets pulled into duty to play a fake hitman to prevent a murder-for-hire plot after the undercover cop assigned gets suspended. He does well and given the job, using his skills to research suspects in advance in order to create the perfect hitman persona for each case. This leads to Gary becoming more confident in his personal life. But he runs into a big conflict-of-interest when he meets Madison (Adria Arjona), a wife looking for someone to kill her abusive husband. Unwisely, Gary begins an affair with the beautiful woman without revealing who he really is, leading to a messy and further complicated situation. Darkly comedic and thoroughly entertaining, "Hit Man" is a perfect showcase for Powell, revealing that he has the beguiling charm and solid acting chops to become the next major movie star.
"MARIA"
With the third film of Pablo Larraín's trilogy of important 20th-century women, "Maria" examines Maria Callas, considered by many to be the world's greatest opera singer, during the final week of her life while she was living in Paris. A spectacular Angelina Jolie plays Callas who at this point has been in declining health, abusing sedatives and has lost much of her tremendous singing voice. She spends her days isolated in her apartment with devoted employees, Ferruccio (Pierfrancesco Favino), the butler and housemaid, Bruna (Alba Rohrwacher) who both struggle to get her to take care of herself and see a doctor. Callas announces to them that she has a reporter (Kodi Smit-McPhee) coming to the house to interview her yet it's unclear if it's factual or she's only hallucinating due to the medication. But she is secretly meeting with a conductor (Stephen Ashfield) for private lessons to know if she can ever perform again. Thanks to Jolie's fully committed, regal performance and Edward Lachman's immaculate camerawork, I think "Maria" is the best of Larrain's films of three incredibly fascinating women. And despite the tragedy of the impending end of a great talent, the director manages to keep you fully engaged with a subdued yet thrilling drama that will haunt you long after seeing the film.
"NICKEL BOYS"
The filmmaker RaMell Ross has taken Colson Whitehead's harrowing, Pulitzer prize-winning novel, "Nickel Boys" and expectedly made a somber, deeply moving drama. Yet Ross has elevated this story by unexpectedly crafting an experimental film with a highly inventive visual style. Told with a nonlinear narrative and shot primarily from a first person perspective (with remarkable camerawork by Jomo Fray), the story follows Elwood (Ethan Herisse), a bright young man with a promising future, who ends up at a notorious Florida reform school after being falsely accused of a crime. Since this is the Jim Crow-era of the 1960's, the Nickel Academy is segregated with the White students are treated well and have clean accommodations while the Black students live in harsh conditions and are regularly abused. And instead of educating these boys, the school makes money off of them by sending them out as forced labor. While at the Academy, Elwood befriends Turner (Brandon Wilson), a fellow student who is well aware that this school is extremely dangerous, questioning if they will make it out alive. With an outstanding cast (particularly Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor playing Elwood's grandmother), what "Nickel Boys" does quite effectively is to have the audience feel like they are living through someone else's experiences.
"PROBLEMISTA"
Julio Torres began his professional career being hired to write for "Saturday Night Live" back in 2016, working with the team for four years. That led to the Salvadoran born comedian developing a Spanish-language comedy series for HBO, "Los Espookys" along with former "SNL" cast member, Fred Armisen which lasted two seasons. And last year Torres released his feature film directorial debut, "Problemista", a wonderfully weird comedy he also wrote that cleverly takes on the struggles of an immigrant trying to achieve the American dream. Torres plays Alejandro, a young man from El Salvador who has come to New York City in pursuit of becoming a toy designer. Failing to get a desired internship, Alejandro must find a sponsor before his work visa expires. Enter Elizabeth (a hilariously scary, Tilda Swinton), an art critic who meets him during a brief time that he worked under-the-table at a cryogenic freezing lab where her artist husband (the rapper, RZA) is being stored. She dangles over Alejandro the possibility of sponsoring him if he will work (unpaid) to assist her putting together a show of her husband's art. However, Elizabeth is a complete nightmare: demanding, unreasonable and most certainly, a bit insane. In between the whimsically, surreal imagery and strange, offbeat characters, Torres has something meaningful to say about the confounding bureaucracy and economic hardships that immigrants face trying to succeed in this country. The inspired blending of timely, social commentary and playful, absurdist humor makes "Problemista" one of my favorite recent comedies.
"A REAL PAIN"
Besides his acclaimed work as an actor, Jesse Eisenberg has had other creative outlets. He has written several plays, a couple of podcasts and made his feature film directorial debut two years ago. The indie drama, "When You Finish Saving the World" was met with modest reviews with critics appreciating his abilities as a storyteller yet finding some of the characters too broad and overbearing. With his latest work behind the camera, the offbeat yet endearing "A Real Pain", Eisenberg has found a winning balance between his idiosyncratic tendencies and a wider commercial appeal. Eisenberg (who also wrote the screenplay) stars as David Kaplan who plans a visit to Poland with a heritage tour group. While there, he'll visit the childhood home of his late grandmother, hoping to experience a deeper connection with his Jewish ancestry. David invites his cousin, Benji (Kieran Culkin) along on the trip. They were very close as children yet recently there has been some distance and estrangement between them with David hoping this excursion will provide a road to reconnection. But they are two very different types of people with David more neurotic and reserved while Benji is free-spirited and outspoken. This story may be filled with pain and trauma yet Eisenberg expertly crafted an ingenious way to make "A Real Pain" poignant and hilariously funny.
Honorable Mention: "As We Imagine As Light", "Blitz", "The Brutalist", "Civil War" , "A Complete Unknown" , "Femme", "I'm Still Here", "Kinds of Kindness", "Love Lies Bleeding", "Nightbitch", "The Order", "The Piano Lesson", "September 5", "The Wild Robot"
Where & When: Landmark Theatres Sunset, West Hollywood, CA. September 20, 2024 8:15 PM
"The Substance", the sophomore feature from French filmmaker Coralie Fargeat, is a hyper-stylized, pitch-black feminist satire on aging and the low value placed on maturing women in society. But Fargeat pumps up her engaging film by utilizing body horror to convey the extremes that women will go through to maintain their youth and beauty. Between the blood and mayhem, the director has something quite intriguing to say. And while the message is clearly understood, it tends to get a little too muddled through all of the excessive gross-out carnage.
Demi Moore, in her first prominent starring role in some time, plays Elizabeth Sparkle, an award-winning actress in Los Angeles that has been reduced to having to appear as a host of a television fitness show called, "Sparkle Your Life". But following a taping on her fiftieth birthday, Elizabeth is informed by Harvey (Dennis Quaid), a boorish studio executive, that it's time for her to move on, making it clear he's looking for someone younger to host. Devastated by this news, a distracted Elizabeth ends up getting into a car crash. She is uninjured but while getting checked out, a young male nurse, sensing what she's going through, slips a flash drive and phone number into her pocket.
What is discreetly being offered is an experimental drug called, "The Substance" which promises to create a younger and more "perfect" version of yourself. Elizabeth initially rejects the idea but as she spends her newly free time wallowing in booze and her increasing anxiety, she decides to get her hands on this serum. After injecting herself, a fully formed, young being (played by Margaret Qualley) emerges from Elizabeth's cracked open back, leaving the host unconscious while the other is left to sew Elizabeth's body shut. This new form calls herself "Sue", enjoying her youthful body and successfully getting hired back as the host of the exercise program.
But there are strict rules that must be followed: each body can only be out for seven days before exchanging places so that their bodily fluids can recalibrate, they must feed each other intravenously; a "stabilizer" is to be withdrawn from Elizabeth's spine and injected into Sue in order to keep her balanced and most importantly, they must remember that while they are two separate bodies, they are still only one person.
Fargeat was first recognized for her 2017 debut feature film, "Revenge", about a young woman who is sexually attacked by three men and left for dead but she survives and seeks bloody retribution. While it was difficult to sit through at times, I still greatly admired the director's brutal yet razor-sharp cinematic statement. And with her follow-up, Fargeat continues to have no interest in subtlety, preferring to batter viewers severely over the head with her gruesome, surrealistic vision and unsettling themes. She is clearly inspired by fellow filmmakers who embrace the provocative and experimental (Kubrick, Cronenberg, Lynch, Haneke) and with "The Substance", Fargeat liberally borrows visual cues from some of these esteemed directors while still managing to forge ahead with her own distinctively ferocious style. The flashy camerawork by Benjamin Kracun is designed to keep you feeling unsteady, offering full-screen close-ups of eyes and mouths, darting down long narrow hallways, entering vast spare rooms and one particularly unpleasant moment of watching Quaid eating crawfish.
Moore's career took off when she became part of the ensemble of the daytime soap-opera, "General Hospital" in 1982. The following year, she moved on to movie roles, becoming a member of the Brat Pack after her appearances in "St. Elmo's Fire" and "About Last Night...". But it was Moore's tear soaked, moving turn in the 1990 supernatural romance, "Ghost" that helped make her a movie star. She became part of a Hollywood power couple when she married Bruce Willis, starred in several box-office hits and went on to become the highest paid female actor (receiving over twelve million dollars) in 1996 to appear in the movie, "Striptease". But this black comedy was a critical and box-office failure and her marriage to Willis came to an end not long after with Moore largely retreating from the spotlight. She would make the occasional film appearance over the following years, mostly in indie and arthouse fare.
With "The Substance", Moore delivers a bold and fearless performance, revealing herself completely emotionally and physically. She doesn't have much dialogue yet the actress rises to the challenge of expressing all of the anguish, fear and intense desires of Elizabeth, even through moments later in the film when she's no longer recognizable as her former self. And as her other half, Qualley is a compelling presence, a sweetly smiling, malevolent version of Elizabeth with a dark-edged soul. Elizabeth and "Sue" might share the same body however they display vastly different personality traits. While this variance might possibly be due to their age-gap yet over time this conflict leads to complications. Being young and impulsive, Sue begins to abuse the seven day rule, extending her time awake, at first just a few days and then later by weeks, which causes Elizabeth's actual body to age more rapidly.
I will admit that by the time we reach the final act, with the introduction of a third being called "Monstro Elisasue" which leads to an explosive shower of blood, gore and body parts flying in all directions from a stage onto an audience, it felt a little too much, becoming even more silly and excessive. But that's okay. This doesn't take away from "The Substance" being one of the most thrilling, adventurous and uncompromising films I've seen so far this year.
I can also say with complete certainty that no US filmmaker, male or female, would have made "The Substance", at least not in a way that wasn't far more cautious and focused on appealing to the widest audience possible. Fargeat (who actually shot the film in Paris) has made a clever, biting and humorous commentary on the horrors of America's obsession with eternal youth and the emotional torture this causes, especially for women. "The Substance" is absolutely insane and twisted. Yet the film also reveals Fargeat to be a true visionary, a modern filmmaker who respects the historical artform of cinema with no interest in making films that are easily digestible and a strong desire to challenge viewers to open their minds to unexpected and outrageous possibilities.
The summer movie season did not begin promising with the event films released over the Memorial Day weekend, "The Fall Guy" and "Furiosa", failing to generate much excitement or box-office. But as the season progressed, the fortunes managed to bounce back, largely thanks to the sequels and animated movies helping to lure audiences back into theaters. While it fell short from last year, this year's US summer box-office take will be about 3.6 billion dollars which is still quite impressive.
Now we are approaching the fall season that will wrap up this year. The movie output will be effected much like the summer due to two strikes over the previous year that brought production to a standstill with far fewer films to release in theaters in 2024. But there are some intriguing movies on the way and here are a few that have captured my attention:
All dates are subject to change:
"THE SUBSTANCE"
Release date: September 20, 2024
The French filmmaker, Coralie Fargeat is finally delivering a follow-up to her 2017 breakthrough debut, the action-thriller, "Revenge". With "The Substance" (which Fargeat was recognized for the Best Screenplay prize at this year's Cannes), the film is a feminist critique on aging and beauty told through a deranged, body-horror black comedy. Demi Moore stars as a long-time host of a popular aerobics program who is unceremoniously dropped from the show by her crass boss (Dennis Quaid) solely due to her age. After excepting an experimental black market drug, she is transformed into a younger version of herself (played by Margaret Qualley), getting her old job back as a new girl named "Sue". Yet there are also some unexpected side-effects which creates havoc to her mind and body.
"MEGALOPOLIS"
Release date: September 27, 2024
There has been a lot of chatter about Francis Ford Coppola's self-financed new film, "Megalopolis". After making it's world premiere at Cannes, the critical reviews have been decidedly mixed to downright panned, in addition to disturbing reports about Coppola's behavior on set. Yet there is no denying that the filmmaker's longtime passion project certainly appears to be very intriguing and you can see the reported one hundred million dollar budget on the screen. As far as the story, "Megalopolis" is set in the distant future with Adam Driver playing an architect who clashes with a corrupt mayor (Giancarlo Esposito) over how to rebuild the city of New Rome after a devastating disaster. I'm certain Coppola had little difficulty attracting this starry cast which includes Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne and Dustin Hoffman.
"ANORA"
Release date: October 18, 2024
Sean Baker, the indie director behind "Tangerine", "The Florida Project" and "Red Rocket", is one of the most thrillingly subversive filmmakers working today, tackling subjects in his films which involve struggling, marginalized people, typically sex workers. Yet Baker is never exploitive, delicately revealing their lives with compassion and humanity. With "Anora" (which won the top prize of the Palme d'Or at this year's Cannes Film Festival), Mikey Madison plays Ani who works in a New York City strip club going by the name, "Anora". Since she can speak some Russian, Anora is set up with clients who speak the language. She meets a young man named Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn) and they fall in love. In order not to be deported, Vanya and Anora get married. But Vanya belongs to a very wealthy Russian family who are not happy about his new bride and will do whatever they have to do to end this relationship.
"A REAL PAIN"
Release date: November 1, 2024
Actor, Jesse Eisenberg moves behind the camera again for the second time as a writer and director with "A Real Pain". This comedy-drama follows two cousins (played by Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin) who take a trip to Poland to honor their beloved grandmother. But the more time they spend together, the more problems resurface between them, particularly around their family history.
"THE PIANO LESSON"
Release date: November 8, 2024
Based on August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize winning play, "The Piano Lesson" examines the bitter conflict in a family regarding a treasured heirloom: a piano which is decorated with designs carved by an enslaved ancestor. The arguments are between a brother, Boy Willie (John David Washington) and his sister, Berniece (Danielle Deadwyler) who have very different viewpoints on what should be done with this piano. The film marks the feature directorial debut of Malcolm Washington, son of Denzel and brother to star, John David. Corey Hawkins, Ray Fisher, Erykah Badu and Samuel L. Jackson also star.
"GLADIATOR 2"
Release date: November 22, 2024
I will be the first to admit I groaned loudly when I heard a sequel was being made of "Gladiator", Ridley Scott's swords and sandals Roman epic that improbably became the Best Picture Oscar winner in 2000. Now twenty-four years later, "Gladiator 2" will soon be on the big screen with an eighty-six year old Scott back in the director's chair. I will also admit I was won over by the trailer and the cast which features Paul Mescal as our new gladiator along with Pedro Pascal and Denzel Washington in prominent roles. The plot doesn't seem to stray too far from the original film with betrayal, revenge and bloody battles in an arena to be the driving force of this story. Yet it still does help make this new "Gladiator" very compelling. And I love the calculated attempt to try and recreate a "Barbenheimer" phenomenon with "Gladiator 2" being released on the same day as the long-awaited, highly anticipated movie version of the Broadway musical, "Wicked". "Wickiator", perhaps?
Shelley Duvall, one of the alluring talents to emerge during the New Hollywood era of the 1970's, has passed away on July 10th at the age of seventy five. The filmmaker Robert Altman was the first to recognize her unique presence, casting Duvall in her first film and going on to have a thriving acting career where she memorably captured on screen the inner lives of offbeat and alienated characters.
Born on July 7th in Fort Worth, TX, Duvall stumbled into a movie career purely by chance. Altman was in Houston filming scenes for his wacky, black comedy, "Brewster McCloud", his follow-up to his hit film, "M*A*S*H*", when he noticed a twenty-one year old Duvall, living in the city at the time, at a party. Fascinated by her striking appearance, kooky style and gregarious personality, the director offered her a role as the love interest to the title character, played by Bud Cort.
This would began their long professional relationship with Duvall performing in several of Altman's films which include "McCabe & Mrs. Miller", "Thieves Like Us", "Nashville" and "Buffalo Bill & The Indians or Sitting Bull's History Lesson". He gave Duvall one of her first major lead roles in "3 Women" with Sissy Spacek in 1977. This psychological drama earned her the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival and a nomination from BAFTA. She would appear in one final film with Altman in "Popeye", the live-action, musical-comedy based on the animated, spinach loving sailor man (played by Robin Williams) with Duvall appearing in the role she seemed born to play: Popeye's long suffering girlfriend, Olive Oyl.
Duvall would follow this up with one of roles she is probably best known for due to her solid performance and all of hardship she endured during the filming; Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Stephen King's novel, "The Shining". It is well documented that this year long shoot was extremely difficult for Duvall, particularly dealing with the mercurial Kubrick who apparently seemed to get pleasure from antagonizing the actress. Yet despite this, Duvall has since been praised for her work in "The Shining" as the suffering wife of a writer (played by Jack Nicholson) who loses a grip on reality and has been viewed as the heart of this horror film.
She would continue to work as an actress but she decided she wanted to get more involved behind the scenes in creating a project. In 1982, Duvall put together with the new cable channel at the time, Showtime, a children's television program called "Faerie Tale Theatre" where she hosted, narrated each episode, occasionally performed and executive produced the show. This popular series, which ran for six years, brought to life classic fairy tales which featured many well-known actors of the day performing in these short live-action episodes.
Over the later years, Duvall had begun to struggle with some mental illness and other health issues including diabetes. She had left Los Angeles and moved to the small community of Blanco, TX in 1994 following the Northridge earthquake. She would retire from acting seven years later but had recently returned to perform in the indie horror film, "The Forrest Hills" two years ago.
The winner of the Palme d'Or at the close of the 77th Cannes Film Festivalis "Anora", the latest from American indie filmmaker, Sean Baker. Baker's entire filmography has been focused on marginalized outcasts, in particular sex workers, with the films, "Starlet", "Tangerine" and "Red Rocket" and now with "Anora", the story revolves around a stripper (Mikey Madison) who meets and falls in love with the son (Mark Eidelstein) of a Russian oligarch. But when his parents finds out about her past, they are not pleased and try to end their relationship.
The runner-up Grand Prize went to "All We Imagine as Light" from Payal Kapadia. This feature film debut, which is the first selection for competition from India in many years, follows a couple of nurses in Mumbai who are both having troubled relationships. A road trip they go on together to a beach town opens their minds to other possibilities.
The third place winner of the Jury Prize was awarded to "Emilia Pérez", a Spanish-language musical-comedy from acclaimed French filmmaker, Jacques Audiard, the two-time Palme d'Or winner for "Rust and Bone" and "Dheepan". This film is about a drug cartel leader (Édgar Ramírez) who decides to change the direction of his life and his gender. The four female leads in "Emilia Pérez": Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón, Adriana Paz and Selena Gomez, all share the Best Actress prize.
Best Director went to Miguel Gomes for his work in "Grand Tour", a period drama set in Rangoon, Burma (now known as Myanmar) involving a Civil servant who takes off and abandons his fiancée on their wedding day. However, she is determined to be married and begins a quest to track him down. And Jesse Plemons won Best Actor for his performance in Yorgos Lanthimos' upcoming absurdist dark comedy, "Kinds of Kindness" where he plays three different roles.
And one of the buzziest films at the fest was "The Substance", Coralie Fargeat's social satire, horror-comedy that features Demi Moore (in a very welcome comeback) as a long-time television host who is fired from her job for being too "old", taking extreme measures in the form of a drug that transforms her into her "best self" which becomes the form of Margaret Qualley. The French director won the Best Screenplay award for this film.
Here is the list of winners of the 2024 Cannes Film Festival:
Palme d’Or: "Anora"
Grand Prize: "All We Imagine as Light"
Jury Prize: "Emilia Perez"
Best Director: Miguel Gomes, "Grand Tour"
Best Screenplay: Coralie Fargeat, "The Substance"
Special Prize: Mohammad Rasoulof, "The Seed of the Sacred Fig"
Best Actor: Jesse Plemons, "Kinds of Kindness"
Best Actress: Adriana Paz, Zoe Saldana, Karla Sofia Gascon and Selena Gomez, "Emilia Perez"
Camera d’Or: "Armand"
Special Mention: Chiang Wei Liang, "Mongrel"
Short Film Palme d’Or: "The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent"
Special Mention: Daniel Soares, "Bad For a Moment"
The 2024 Cannes Film Festival is on the way, a celebration of new, exciting works of cinema from across the globe running from May 14th to 25th. The poster for the 77th edition of this fest features a screen image from Akira Kurosawa's 1991 feature, "Rhapsody in August" to honor the legendary Japanese filmmaker. A 4K restoration of Kurosawa's "The Seven Samurai" will be screened during the festival to celebrate the 70th anniversary of his illustrious classic.
Cannes will open this year with Quentin Dupieux‘s French-language comedy, "Le Deuxième Acte (The Second Act)", which stars Léa Seydoux, Vincent Lindon, Louis Garrel and Raphaël Quenard, making it's world premiere out of competition.
Greta Gerwig, the director of last year's box-office phenomenon, "Barbie", will be the President of the Main Competition Jury that will select the winners of prizes. The American actress/filmmaker will be joined by fellow jurors Turkish screenwriter, Ebru Ceylan; American actress Lily Gladstone; French actress Eva Green; Lebanese director/screenwriter Nadine Labaki; Spanish director J.A. Bayona; Italian actor Pierfrancisco Favino; Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda and French actor Omar Sy.
Some of the films selected for the Main Competition include new feature films by acclaimed international creators Ali Abbasi ("The Apprentice"), Karim Aïnouz ("Motel Destino"), Andrea Arnold ("Bird"), Jacques Audiard ("Emilia Perez"), Sean Baker ("Anora"), David Cronenberg ("The Shrouds"), Michel Hazanavicius ("The Most Precious of Cargoes"), Christophe Honoré ("Marcello Mio"), Jia Zhang-Ke ("Feng Liu Yi Dai (Caught by the Tides)"), Yorgos Lanthimos ("Kinds of Kindness"), Paul Schrader ("Oh, Canada"), Paolo Sorrentino ("Parthenope") and Francis Ford Coppola with his first film in fourteen years, the self-financed, one hundred million dollar, sci-fi drama, "Megalopolis".
New this year, Cannes will be looking into the future by launching a competitive immersive section featuring works of virtual and augmented reality. In the Cannes Classics section, there is an impressive line-up of restored films. In addition to "The Seven Samurai", we have a 4K restoration of Wim Wenders' 1984 Palme d'Or winner, "Paris, Texas"; the 1964 Palme d'Or winner, "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg", the enchanting musical by Jacques Demy who will be featured in a new documentary, "Jacques Demy: Le Rose et Le Noir" by Florence Platarets that will make it's premiere during the fest; "Gilda", the classic 1946 film starring Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford, which this 4K restoration will help celebrate the 100th anniversary of Columbia Pictures and "The Sugarland Express", Steven Spielberg's early breakthrough will have a 50th anniversary restoration screening.
"Napoleon", the groundbreaking, seven hour silent film by French filmmaker, Abel Gance, will finally be screened again after sixteen years of extensive restoration work. After premiering at the Paris Opera on April 27, 1927, the film was hacked-up by various entities over the years with twenty-two different known versions appearing to date and has not been seen in it's proper, original form since the premiere. "Napoleon" will be screened first in two parts before being shown in it's entirety with a 250 piece, live orchestra before heading to Netflix in France.
New, intriguing documentaries on celebrated actors, Faye Dunaway and Elizabeth Taylor (which utilizes newly discovered recordings); French filmmaker, François Truffaut, music composer, Michel Legrand and "Muppets" creator Jim Henson (in a film directed by Ron Howard) will be presented. And "Scénario", a 18-minute film by Jean-Luc Godard, will be the final new project by the iconic French filmmaker to be screened at the fest, completed the day before his voluntary death in 2022 at the age of ninety-one.
And the Honorary Palme d'Or this year will go to three extraordinary artists: George Lucas, the filmmaker behind the "Star Wars" franchise and "American Graffiti"; Studio Ghibli, the Japanese animation studio founded by Hayao Miyazaki and Toshio Suzuki (which is the first time this award has been given to a collective) and the American acting legend and two-time Oscar winner, Meryl Streep.
