Citing “a real vitality of cinema,” Cannes Film Festival’s Thierry Fremaux said the selection committee watched almost 3,000 films this year.
“Everyone wants to make movies,” he said at the end of this year’s press conference. “People said cinema was dead during the pandemic, but it is very much alive.”
With a record 2,909 feature submissions this year from some 156 countries, Fremaux cited a “universality of both thinking and in terms of geography, Egyptian films, Brazilian films, Ukrainian films, Asian films. These movies depict the world that artists want to show, a world that is not only difficult, filled with tension and violence, but also a world that they want to see emerge.”
“That is in a way the opposite of what social media is,” he suggested. “A post on Instagram, a video, may use the language of cinema, but it isn’t cinema. Cinema means going to the movies and it means creating films that give filmmakers the obligations to take responsibility and in this year’s selection we have filmmakers who are taking responsibility in terms of their depiction of the world.”
Fremaux acknowledged the large presence of US films and stars headed to the Croisette this year including directors Richard Linklater with France-set Nouvelle Vague, Kelly Reichardt with The Mastermind, Ari Aster with Eddington and Wes Anderson with The Phoenician Scheme in competition, plus Christopher McQuarrie’s Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning playing out of competition and a bevy of talent interspersed in international titles including Jodie Foster in Rebecca Zlotowski’s French-language Vie Privée.
“The US cinema that we show is still auteur cinema,” he pointed out.
“The red carpet will be a brigade of big stars,” he continued. “Not just actors, but directors as well…Today, big stars are also born in series and streamers. I am a man of cinema, but it is a new way to find a new generation of filmmakers and writers.”
When asked about launching this year’s festival during a particularly tense time for geopolitics. Fremaux responded: “As we always say, Cannes isn’t political, the artists are political, but when they are political, we become political with them.
“The Cannes Film festival is not a response to anything. We are a cultural event. We know culture is also on the agenda of some presidents, but we are not here to make any statement. We let filmmakers, screenwriters and producers say what they want to say.
“I can show films I am not necessarily a fan of, but know they are important because they say something about what cinema is today. It’s important to show that cinema isn’t only about love, it’s about fighting for something and this selection is focused on that. This year’s films show there is another possible world, another possible world right now. This selection is today’s filmmakers, artists of cinema, who want to show another way.”
He added: “We don’t select the films – the films select us.”
Late night
Fremaux said, per tradition, he and his selection committee completed their selection at 1am the night before and decided on festival opener, Amelie Bonnin’s Partir Un Jour, at the 11th hour. “It is filled with songs, French songs in particular, and it is a first feature from a female director, a film that blends Paris and the provinces and talks about roots and youth and family,” he said.
As for the films not announced at Thursday’s press conference, Fremaux remained silent. “I won’t talk about the films that aren’t here,” he said, before adding, “Or that aren’t here yet.”
The competition currently features 19 films, but Fremaux said the selection was still a work in progress and more titles will be added in the days ahead.
He pointed out: “Cannes is also a market. We have to launch a movie and we want to give it the best opportunity possible. Every producer wants their film in competition, but sometimes a film can have a better destiny in another section. Cannes is the entire selection of 60 films, not just the competition.”
He cited the success of Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance and said it was important to the selection team that the film premiere in competition instead of a more obvious midnight screening slot. “What happened to The Substance was incredible. It demonstrates the power of Cannes. We know we have some power and we give this power to each artist. It’s not just about the art, it’s about how it is received, which is more important than ever before.”
He explained that one year ago, he could not have predicted the subsequent success of award-winning festival titles like The Substance, All We Imagine As Light and Flow, but hopes for similar success for the 2025 line-up.
“It’s why this game is wonderful. You never know.”
The Cannes Film Festival will take place from May 13-24 in France.
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