The curtains went up on the 79th Cannes Film Festival last night, with filmmakers from around the world vowing to fight for a better world through the power of art.
The who’s who of the global entertainment industry gathered at the French Riviera for the opening of the Cannes Film Festival, sending a strong metaphorical message of providing much-needed light through socially conscious cinema to remove the darkness of war and violence.
Calls for support for humanity resonated at the star-studded inauguration of the festival, held at the sprawling Grand Théâtre Lumière main venue and attended by representatives of filmmaking countries from across the world.
“To all of you who are trying to resist, here and elsewhere,” said French actress Eye Haïdara, who joined her compatriot and renowned violinist Miri Ben-Ari, the mistress of ceremonies, in welcoming artists and filmmakers attending the festival, which will screen new works by acclaimed directors in a 12-day high-profile event.
“We don’t make films to be cautious,” said Ben-Ari, quoting the famous French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard, as speakers at the opening ceremony reminded the audience about the power of storytelling that “sketches out all of humanity.”
French film The Electric Kiss by Pierre Salvadori opened the 79th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, where celebrated directors like Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar and Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi are vying for the prestigious Palme d’Or, the festival’s top prize, with their new works.
South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook heads the jury of the competition category, along with other jury members including American actor Demi Moore, Irish-Ethiopian actor Ruth Negga, Belgian director Laura Wandel, and Chinese filmmaker Chloé Zhao.
Indian cinema, the largest film-producing industry in the world, is represented at the Cannes Film Festival this year by two films—Shadows of the Moonless Nights by Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune alumnus Mehar Malhotra in the competition section for film schools from around the world, and the restored 1986 Malayalam film Amma Ariyan by John Abraham in the Cannes Classics section.
Mumbai-born filmmaker Payal Kapadia, who won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival two years ago for All We Imagine As Light, is the head of the Critics’ Week jury, a parallel selection of the festival, this year.
Among the highlights of the festival this year are ‘Bitter Christmas’ by Almodovar, ‘Parallel Tales’ by Farhadi, ‘Paper Tiger’ by acclaimed American director James Gray, ‘Sheep in the Box’ by Palme d’Or-winning Japanese director Hirokazu Koreeda, ‘Fjord’ by Romanian filmmaker Critian Mungiu, also a previous recipient of the Palme d’Or, and ‘Hope’ by South Korean director Na Hong-jin.
Other notable films in the official selection include the documentary ‘Che Guevara: The Last Companions’ by French director Christophe Dimitri Réveille, and ‘John Lennon: The Last Interview’, also a documentary, by American director Steven Soderbergh.
‘Elephants in the Fog’, a Nepali-Bhojpuri language film directed by Abinash Bikram Shah, is part of the festival’s Un Certain Regard section for fresh voices in world cinema. ‘Elephants in the Fog’ is the first-ever feature film from Nepal to be selected to the Cannes Film Festival.
Faizal Khan
