The Cannes Film Festival rolls out the red carpet this Tuesday to celebrate its 75th anniversary, with the American Forest Whitaker as the first guest star and a humorous zombie movie to open the event.
The largest film festival in the world returns wanting to have fun and leave sanitary restrictions behind, but without forgetting the tragedy in Ukraine, a country that will have several opportunities to raise its voice.
Tom Cruise will once again climb the steps of Cannes to present a new installment of “Top Gun”, an emblematic film of the 1980s, director Baz Luhrman will reveal his vision of the king of rock’n’roll with “Elvis” and David Cronenberg will delight to lovers of bloody cinema with “Crimes of the future”.
The 21 films selected for the Palme d’Or are the reflection of a balance between commercial cinema and auteur cinema.
A much less obvious balance in terms of parity, with only five female directors competing for the award, a record for Cannes anyway.
“The instances of the Festival, its teams, the jury… everything is equal”, the general delegate of the festival, Thierry Frémaux, defended himself on Monday.
The jury, chaired by French actor Vincent Landon, will award the Palme d’Or on May 28.
Whitaker, Honorary Palme d’Or
Oscar-winning African-American actor Forest Whitaker will receive an honorary Palme d’Or at the age of 60.
Interpreter of such emblematic roles as “The Last King of Scotland” or “Bird” (with which he won the award for best performance at the 1988 Festival), Whitaker will receive the award after the opening ceremony, scheduled from 7:00 p.m. (5:00 p.m. GMT).
The film “Corten!”, by French director Michel Hazanavicius, about zombies, but with a humorous tone, will open this gala.
Wednesday will be the time to take off with “Top Gun: Maverick”, a sequel to a blockbuster movie that is delayed due to covid-19.
Cruise, who played a US Air Force pilot in the first installment (1986), returns to his role as a rebel character.
Then there will be a dozen movie days.
From the Russian Kirill Serebrennikov to the French Claire Denis, through the veteran Belgian brothers Dardenne, or the Spanish Albert Serra -the only representative of Ibero-American cinema in the race for the Palme d’Or-, the event will give a voice to the most singular.
The South Korean Park Chan-Wook competes alongside the Japanese Hirokazu Kore-eda, or the American James Gray.
American actor Tom Hanks plays Elvis Presley’s manager, Viggo Mortensen plays an artist who lets his guts open in the company of Léa Seydoux and Kristen Stewart and British actor Anthony Hopkins plays a tycoon in New York in the 1970s.
The Spanish actor Javier Bardem will also be present, who will participate in a meeting with the public.
All of them are expected to walk the famous red carpet, along with directors, producers, music stars, and even prominent figures of social networks.
Approach the young public
Cannes has announced new partners for its most glamorous events and talks with directors and actors.
Among those partners is the Chinese app TikTok, which is all the rage around the world. The idea is to approach a young audience, who prefer to use their mobile phones to film and be filmed.
Cannes also opens its doors to Ukrainian creators, a way of showing its solidarity with the country at war.
Lithuanian director Mantas Kvedaravicius was killed by Russian gunfire last month in Ukraine. His film “Mariupolis 2”, about that martyred city, will be premiered posthumously at Cannes.
The festival has a large film market, which will celebrate a day especially dedicated to this country.
Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa will present “The natural history of destruction,” about the Allied bombing of German cities during World War II.
And on the Ibero-American side, there will be, above all, the participation of young people, such as the Spanish Elena López Riera (“El agua”), the Colombians Andrés Ramírez Pulido (“La jauría”) and Fabián Hernández (“A man”), and the Chilean Manuela Martelli (“1976”).
