Overview
- The 79th Festival de Cannes, which opens Tuesday night, begins ten days of screenings with 22 films competing for the Palme d’Or under a jury led by Park Chan-wook that includes Demi Moore and Chloé Zhao.
- The opening ceremony will award an honorary Palme d’Or to filmmaker Peter Jackson, and Pierre Salvadori’s La Vénus électrique screens hors‑compétition as the opening film.
- Organizers report that 34% of the directors in the official selection are women, while the 50/50 collective criticizes the Thelma and Louise poster as “feminism washing” given only five women are in the main competition.
- Roughly 600 film professionals signed a Libération op-ed warning about Vincent Bolloré’s growing sway over cinema through Canal+, which has taken 34% of exhibitor UGC with a view to full ownership by 2028.
- Major Hollywood studios are absent this year, with no summer blockbusters unveiled on the Croisette.