EnglishFestivals - Cannes 2022: What to remember from the first day of the Festival
By Phillip Nakov, 17 may 2022
The first day of the fabulous, and oh so French, film festival kicked off in Cannes today as the world slowly returns to normal following a two-year shutdown of the festival everyone loves. In its 75th year, the festival returns with some staggering numbers of attendees from around the world.
Some 21 films will screen over the next 11 days all competing for the prestigious Palme d’Or. For a full list of films in competition at the 75th Festival de Cannes go to the official web site: here.
The opening ceremony took place today, at 7:00 pm local time and was broadcast live on France 2 in France and internationally on Brut.
All of the Festival’s events will also be available to all through their media partnership with France Télévision and Brut., which will offer a broad range of media coverage from the venues throughout Cannes. Red carpet arrivals, press conferences, photocalls and all the official events will be broadcast in both French and English on France.tv, Culturebox, Brut.Media. YouTube as well as on the Festival de Cannes’ official website.
And we’ve found one of the best ways to watch the LIVE streams of what’s happening in Cannes each day is on the official channel on YouTube: here. This is available world-wide. Some of the other selections above may not be available in every territory unless you have a VPN connection to connect to a territory which it is available.
TikTok has also popped up in the south of France as the Chinese-owned short video platform has signed on to be one of the official media partners for the world’s most prestigious film festivals. A recent article on CB NEWS talks about the strategy and the reasons why. With a humorous nod to Magritte, the campaign has launched numerous billboards throughout Cannes with the slogan: "Ceci n’est pas un film, c’est une video TikTok, translation, “This is not a film, it is a TikTok video". The platform wants to highlight the talent of its creators and continue to assert its positioning "as an essential entertainment platform.This rather controversial campaign has some shaking their heads in disbelief. What do you think? .” What do you think? Agree or disagree with TikTok being at Cannes this way?
The all-French opening ceremony (with no subtitles so if you didn’t speak French, tant pis, too bad!) was especially moving as Forest Whitaker received a special Palme which was accompanies by a series of clips from “Bird”, “Ghost Dog,” “The Color of Money” and “Panic Room” – that’s some line up! He was there on stage and humbly basked in the adoration and love and the extremely enthusiastic standing ovation from the whole audience at the Lumière. See him arriving on the Red Carpet: WATCH HERE Here he is at the press conference earlier today. WATCH HERE Here he mentions how the first time he came to the Cannes Film Fest with Bird, directed by Client Eastwood, some thirty-four years ago. He won Best Actor that year for that role.
The jury this year, they are the folks who select the winners of the Palme d’Or and the competition’s other awards, is headed this year by Vincent Lindon, whose incredible performance in last year’s Cannes Palme winner, “Titane” was one of the highlights of that film. The other jurors: Asghar Farhadi, who was here last year as the director of “A Hero”; British actress and director Rebecca Hall; Ladj Ly, who shared the jury prize in 2019 for directing a daring film called “Les Misérables” (not the musical and not about Victor Hugo); American director Jeff Nichols; Indian actress Deepika Padukone; Noomi Rapace, the star of the Swedish “Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”; Joachim Trier, who directed last year’s crowd-pleaser “The Worst Person in the World”; and the Italian actress and director Jasmine Trinca. They have a lot of films to see, 21 to be exact, in the next few weeks!
Another remarkable moment was the President of Ukraine, Volodmyr Zelensy, addressing the audience at the Lumiere live via satellite from his country as they continue to try and get support from around the globe to fight of the Russian invasion. He tied in his speech to one of the great films by Charlie Chaplin, The Great Dictator, “The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish,” Zelensky says. Bravo. He certainly knows his audience. Speaking to a film crowd, use a message they’ll understand and respond to! WATCH HERE
Following the message from Zelensky, Julianne Moore, the American actress known for such films as Still Alice, The Hunger Games, The Hours and many others then announced the 75th Cannes film Festival official open, speaking in French no less! WATCH HERE!
Immediately following the presentation, there was a short pause... so the stage can be struck. It is at this moment where many of the smokers in the auditorium make a dash for the exit to smoke a quick cigarette before the opening night film. And what a selection it is! COUPEZ (or Final Cut in English) from director Michel Hazanavicius. Following the one hour and fifty-minute run time (which many are saying was “way too long, and strained” then began the customary standing ovations. The director basked in all the applause and smiled. The “Final Cut” standing O lasted about four minutes. Not the longest stand O by any means. Some have done on far longer! In 2006, Pan’s Labyrith went on for 22 minutes! Captain Fantastic in 2016 went for 10 minutes and Inglorious Bastard went on for a full 11 minutes in 2009. We were there for that and it was excruciating. You don’t know what to do for all that time and your hands get sore! Here’s a fun article about why the applause is so long in Cannes and why 4 minutes is really not that great. READ HERE. Be sure to read out review when it comes out!
One of the more important screenings coming on Thursday, May 19, will be Mariupolis 2 by Lithianian filmmaker Mantas Kvedarvičius, who directed Barzakh (2011), Mariupolis (2016) and Parthenon (2019), was captured and murdered by the Russian army in Mariupol in early April 2022. His fiancée, Hanna Bilobrova, who was with him at the time, was able to bring back the footage filmed there and edited it with Mantas' editor Dounia Sichov. Mariupolis 2 will be screened on Thursday, May 19 in the Buñuel Theater at 11:30 am and on Friday, May 20 at 11:00 am in the Agnès Varda Theater for the press.
Stay with us for the next few weeks as we keep you in the know about what’s happening in Cannes through the 28th of May for the 75th Festival de Cannes. If you are in Cannes, send us your photos! We’d love to share them with our readers!
Thank you and as always, I’ll see you in line at the concession stand!