While the Cannes Film Festival has always been the biggest film festival in the world, over the past decade it seems to have grown in stature and importance. Every year it seems at least four of the most acclaimed films end up premiering in Cannes. Nine films from the 2023 festival were nominated for Academy Awards, including “Zone of Interest,” “Anatomy of a Fall” and “Killers of the Flower Moon,” “May December,” and “Robot Dreams.” In previous years the festival gave “Triangle of Sadness” and “Parasite” the Palme d’Or before those films went on to Oscar glory.
While the lineup for the 77th edition of the event may not be held in similar regard, there were a few fewer titles that generated some positive buzz. Thankfully some of the best films did not go overlooked by the jury when it came time to hand out prizes. Multi-hyphenate Greta Gerwig headed up a jury that included actresses Lily Gladstone and Eva Green, Lebanese writer-director Nadine Labaki and Japanese director Kore-eda Hirokaz, among others.
They gave the Palme d’Or to Sean Baker’s “Anora,” a comedic-drama about a sex worker from Brooklyn who spontaneously marries one of her clients, the son of a Russian oligarch. The young groom’s parents show up to try and annul the marriage and in the process, high jinks ensue. “Anora” played incredibly well for audiences at the festival, which is good news for NEON since they will be distributing the film in the United States this October. In fact, it is the fifth year in a row that NEON has had the rights to the Palme d’Or winner, a truly stunning feat.
On a somewhat related note, this month NEON is also distributing the animated “Robot Dreams,” Pablo Berger’s wonderfully heartfelt movie about a lonely dog who assembles a robot as a companion. The film is so simple, yet so detailed and nuanced it is no wonder after premiering in Cannes last year it received critical raves and went on to be nominated for a Best Animated Feature Oscar. Hopefully this movie can breakout and gain some word-of-mouth traction with moviegoers this summer.
Back at this year’s Cannes another crowd favorite was “Emilia Perez,” which features Selena Gomez but you’d never know it was a supporting role based on all the hype she generated during the festival. Zoe Saldana and Karla Sofía Gascón star in French filmmaker Jacques Audiard’s Spanish language, Mexican-set movie about the leader of a drug cartel who wishes to transition into a woman and then raise his children as their aunt. Did I mention “Emilia Perez” is a musical? It sounds insane, but the movie works.
Unfortunately for cinema owners in the U.S. and United Kingdom, Audiard’s film may skip their theatres. I ran into the head of a specialty label at one of the major studios during the festival and he informed me Netflix had acquired the movie for those territories. Despite a few trade reports that the streamer was nearing a deal, none actually confirmed the purchase.
Speaking of acquisitions, the Marché du Film was rather hectic this year, with tons of festival and market titles getting picked up. These include Joachim Trier’s next project “Sentimental Value,” “The Entertainment System Is Down” from Palme d’Or winner Ruben Östlund and “Monsanto,” which will be helmed by John Lee Hancock and star Glen Powell. Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis” was picked up by distributors in at least 13 countries, though is still looking for North American distribution.
And finally, I know a lot happens simultaneously during the Cannes Film Festival each year that it’s impossible to keep track of everything, but I would have thought the news coming out of a talk with NBCUniversal chief Donna Langley would have made much bigger headlines than it did. In the first five minutes of her discussion Langley said the theatrical marketplace would never recover to 2019 levels. That’s the first time in our memory that a senior studio executive has ever gone on record with that viewpoint. If I’m wrong, feel free to let me know.
All of our coverage of the 2024 Cannes Film Festival can be found on Celluloid Junkie and I’m including excerpts of a few items below.
Film Festivals
Sean Baker’s “Anora” Wins Palme d’Or at 2024 Cannes Film Festival
With only his second film in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, Sean Baker won the Palme d’Or for “Anora” as the 77th annual event concluded on 25 May. The comedic-drama about a sex worker who marries the son of a Russian oligarch was one of the highlights at this year’s festival, receiving widespread critical acclaim. Baker’s film was acquired by NEON in November of 2023, making it the fifth year in a row one of the indie distributor’s titles has won the top prize in Cannes.
Reading from prepared remarks when accepting the award during the event’s closing ceremony, Baker wasn’t shy about letting audiences know he hoped they’d see his film. “I will continue to fight for cinema because right now, as filmmakers, we have to fight to keep cinema alive. This means making feature films intended for theatrical exhibition.”
The Grand Prix trophy, generally considered the runner-up prize in Cannes, was awarded to Indian filmmaker Payal Kapadia for “All We Imagine as Light.” This marks the first time in 30 years that an Indian film was selected by Cannes to appear in competition.
Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Pérez” earned two major prizes – the Jury Prize and Best Actress for the film’s ensemble cast including Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez and Adriana Paz. The musical drama follows a young lawyer who helps the head of a Mexican drug cartel transition to a woman and then care for her children by pretending to be their aunt. For a complete list of 2024 Cannes Film Festival winners, click HERE.
Source: Celluloid Junkie
Film Festivals
Universal’s Donna Langley Suggests Box Office Will Remain Down About 20%
Donna Langley, Chairman and Chief Content Officer of NBCUniversal Studio Group, was interviewed during one of Kering’s Women In Motion talks at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
The senior executive didn’t flinch when the first topic of discussion was the precarious current state of the theatrical business. “What we’re experiencing across the whole media landscape are trends that were really put in motion before the pandemic, but were accelerated,” she said. “So we’re seeing a shift in consumer behavior, which is driving a lot of rethinking and reshaping of our business.”
Without mincing words, Langley said, “Theatrically, the global marketplace is down about 20% from 2019 to now. And we don’t really think we’re going to recapture that. It’s okay. I think as an industry, we can withstand it.” This was not the pitch she made during CinemaCon in Las Vegas last April and may mark the first time a senior executive at a Hollywood studio has publicly put forth the idea box office will not return to 2019 levels.
Source: Celluloid Junkie
Film Festivals
Angel Studios Heads to the Marché Du Film in Cannes
Angel Studios, the distributor behind movies such as “His Only Son,” “Sound of Freedom” and “Cabrini” was at the Cannes Film Festival for meetings during the Marché du Film, a.k.a. Cannes Film Market. The event coincides with the festival each year and is where film buyers, sales agents producers, distributors other industry professionals gather to cut deals for movie projects in all stages of development or completion.
Unlike many distributors or production companies, Angel wasn’t in Cannes pitching a movie to international financiers or distributors. Nor did they hope to pick up titles during the market. Instead, Jared Geesey, Chief Distribution Officer of Angel Studios, said he was looking for distributors in territories around the world that the company could partner with to release all their films on an ongoing basis.
Geesey sat down with us for an hour as the market got underway, which in Cannes, where free time is scarce, was incredibly generous. In a wide ranging interview he filled us in on the Angel Guild, the means by which the company selects all its projects, how they crowdfund movies and how their Pay-It-Forward model is driving audiences to cinemas.
Source: Celluloid Junkie
Film Festivals
Francis Ford Coppola and Kevin Costner on Self-Financing Their Latest Films
Two of the most high profile selections at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival come from filmmakers with a lengthy and acclaimed history in Hollywood. Even so, neither Francis Ford Coppola or Kevin Costner could rely upon Hollywood and its usual cast of executives and financiers to help them make the films that brought them to Cannes. Instead, each took the unusual step of funding their film’s production out of their own fortunes.
Coppola’s passion project, “Megalopolis” stars an ensemble cast including Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Nathalie Emmanuel, Shia LaBeouf, Aubrey Plaza, Jason Schwartzman and Jon Voight, to name just a handful. To bankroll his ambitious movie, Coppola sold his Napa Valley winery and risked his personal fortune. However, the 85-year-old filmmaker said he has never really cared about money, “There’s so many people, when they die, they say, ‘Oh, I wish I had done this. I wish I had done that.’ But when I die, I’m gonna say ‘I got to do this. And I got to see my daughter win an Oscar. And I got to make wine. And I got to make every movie I wanted to make.’ And I’m gonna be so busy thinking of all the things that I got to do that when I die, I won’t notice it.”
Costner took a similar risk in funding the first two parts of his four-movie western, “Horizon: An American Saga,” the first chapter of which premiered out of competition in Cannes. “I’ve had good luck in my life and I’ve acquired some things, land, some homes that are important to me and they’re valuable, but I don’t need four homes, like anyone, so I will risk those homes to make my movies,” Costner said after mortgaging his properties to finance his film. “I wish I didn’t do it, because I want to leave those homes to my children. But my children will have to live their own life and if I have not made a mistake, they’ll still maybe have these four homes.”
Source: Celluloid Junkie
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