Cannes Diary #10: Au Revoir, Cannes!

Another round of applause, please, for Elisa Giudici for giving us such great on-the-ground Cannes coverage this year. She reviewed the entire Competition slate! Can you believe it? What follows are her last two reports, condensed into one - Editor

by Elisa Giudici

I will miss the French summer -- hot and breezy. Yes, it is time to say goodbye to the Cannes Film Festival. Already? Finally! A little bit of both. My first time here was incredible but I think I am quite close to the limit of my cinematic intake without compromising the ability to enjoy the films. After years of enviously reading reportage by friends and colleague, this was everything I thought it would be. I fear I was even spoiled. There were no infinite queues where I thought I might be shut out and (a little brag is coming, but please allow it) I was able to see the whole competition lineup despite having a yellow pass! Insanity.

It was amazing being able to write this diary every day and read the comments from such a passionate audience. I hope I was able to give you a little glimpe into the movies that are coming as well as the feeling of seeing them at this majestic Festival. It was all quite demanding (I covered the Festival for a couple of italian magazines, too) but I am incredibly happy as a completist that I never skipped a day's entry. A lot of these diary entries were written in the middle of the night or near dawn so a huge thank you to Nathaniel for the editing to make them comprehensible to you; After 2 AM my English tends to be even more convoluted than usual.

So final round. SEVEN movies! Ready?

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Cannes Wins: Tilda's pups win the Palm Dog. Plus Critics Week kudos.

by Nathaniel R

Tilda in dog collar

With Cannes wrapping up this weekend, the awards are now rolling out. Trust Tilda Swinton to bring inhuman glamour to the kick-off by accepting the Palm Dog award and wearing the coveted red collar herself!  Her three spaniels Rosie, Dora and Snowbear won for their roles in The Souvenir Part Two...

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Cannes Red Carpet, mid week edition

by Nathaniel R

Sharon Stone is at Cannes!

The sartorial splendor of closing weekend events is just ahead of us but let's catch up on recent Cannes fashion. If you missed the previous reports they are here (opening night) and here (first few days). Now let's take a look at the glamour of midweek. Who takes your best-dressed crown? You can click on any of the images to enlarge them...

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74th Cannes. Red Carpet from Days 1-3

by Nathaniel R

We already covered opening night fashion so let's check in on days 2 and 3. Unfortunately we can't be as comprehensive as we once were in previous years. We used to live on the site Zimbio when they released enormous day-by-day galleries including basically every celebrity, whether they were famous internationally or not and every red carpet shot, whether or not it was a particularly good one including non-glam people like old film directors. They've done away with that section and now you have to look for specific people (so you have to magically know who might have attended each screening). Otherwise you can only see highlights (like every other site) which means you see the same very famous celebrities over and over again. And you lose some of the coolest sightings of rising stars or obscure stars from various countries who are not that famous outside of their home country. Which sucks for internationally minded cinephiles like us...  Ah well. On to the red carpet premiere lewks we did see...

Who gets your vote for best dressed from the first few days?

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74th Cannes. The Competition Lineup!

by Nathaniel R

The official lineup for the 74th Cannes Film Festival has been announced. It's always an exciting time for cinephiles, doubly so this year since the festival had to be cancelled last season due to COVID-19. This year four actors have multiple films in contention: Tilda Swinton, Charlotte Rampling, Anders Danielsen Lie, and the probably queen of the festival France's Léa Seydoux who has three films in the main competition and another in Un Certain Regard!  We already know that Spike Lee will be presiding over the jury, since he was supposed to do that last year (though we don't know who will be on the jury with him yet).

Cannes has been criticized for years for their lack of gender parity in direction. They're likedly to be criticized again with only 4 of the 24 competition films from female auteurs but that's actually a huge improvement for the world's most famous film festival. As per usual French and English language films dominate though there are actually only three films from the USA in competition this year (Flag Day, The French Dispatch, and Red Rocket) Anyway let's look at the official lineup. More to come since there are other sections, too.

24 Official Competition Films
Who will win the Palme D'Or, Director, and Acting prizes. Care to place any bets?

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