Cannes: "Fjord" brings Cristian Mungiu back to the moral gray zone

by Elisa Giudici

FJORD from Cristian Mungiu

Cristian Mungiu has built an entire career around moral instability, yet Fjord feels particularly thorny. The Romanian filmmaker’s latest Cannes Competition entry begins as a family drama rooted in a real-life custody case before gradually revealing itself as something much larger and far more uncomfortable: a film about the impossibility of reconciling competing moral systems inside supposedly enlightened societies. The Palme d’Or-winning filmmaker has turned  a real-life custody case into a sprawling and deeply unsettling drama about multiculturalism, religion, and the limits of liberal tolerance.

Fjord reunites A Different Man stars Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve as a  Romanian father and his Norwegian wife (a deeply religious Catholic missionary)...

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Halfway done with the Best International Film list?

by Nathaniel R

Behind the scenes I've been updating the Best International Film submission charts daily. At this writing we have 43 titles, which means we're about halfway done. We still haven't heard which title will represent heavy-hitters like Denmark, France, Italy, Spain, or last year's winner Brazil (though we do have finalists lists for a few of those mainstays of the category). We also impatiently await the decisions from three countries (China, Hong Kong, India) with major cinema industry that voters strangely resist on the regular (sigh). So check out the three charts (A-G / H-N / P-Y) and the current finalist list predictions.  Yes, the other Oscar charts will get an update very soon. We'll start when TIFF announces their People's Choice prize.

Today i wanted to highlight four of the newer submissions that I'm excited to see if I ever get the opportunity...

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Three more Best International Film Contenders & Finalist Lists

by Nathaniel R

THREE KILOMETRES TO THE END OF THE WORLD © Vlad Dumitrescu

It's that time of year when countries are regularly announcing their Oscar submission. We started the week with 15 contenders but now we're at 18 and we have three new finalist lists, as well... 

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Cannes Diary: "Bird" from Andrea Arnold, "Oh Canada" from Paul Schrader, and more...

by Elisa Giudici

BIRD

A couple of renowned names in competition have presented less-than-perfect movies, while newcomers have showcased some convincing entries today at Cannes Film Festival.

BIRD by Andrea Arnold
Since Fish Tank, I've never quite rekindled my enthusiasm for Andrea Arnold's films. However, Bird came very close. Some may argue that it feels more like a feature-length attempt to mimic Arnold's style than an actual Arnold film, but I personally found it compelling...

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Cannes at Home: Day 4 – Guilt Trips

by Cláudio Alves

KINDS OF KINDNESS (2024) Yorgos Lanthimos

After the uproar Megalopolis caused, day four at the Cannes Film Festival was bound to pale in comparison. Nevertheless, it was a busy time at the Croisette, with three Main Competition films making their bows. First was Emanuel Pârvu's Three Miles to the End of the World, which was thought to be a strong contender for the Queer Palm before being met with tepid reviews. Next was Yorgos Lanthimos' Kinds of Kindness, an anthological reunion between the director and his erstwhile writing partner, Efthymis Filippou. The well-reviewed picture marks their first collaboration since 2017. Finally, beloved auteur and Facebook nuisance Paul Schrader presented Oh, Canada, ruminating on mortality and regret. 

Walking down memory lane into these directors' past work, let's consider a tryptic bound by themes of guilt. They're Pârvu's Mikado, Lanthimos' The Killing of a Sacred Deer, and Schrader's Light Sleeper…

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