Latest news with #Palmed'or
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
What Does The Cannes Film Festival Have Against Documentaries?
Cannes Film Festival chief Thierry Frémaux entered the room with a martial bearing, his square jaw tilted upwards in the manner of a man who need not doubt his significance. He came to the Salon des Ambassadeurs within the Palais to make a few remarks before the awarding of the annual l'Oeil d'or (Golden Eye) award for the festival's top documentary, as selected by a jury. Before an audience of perhaps a hundred or more nonfiction film lovers, he stated what must be considered unquestionable: More from Deadline 'Imago' Wins L'Oeil d'Or Prize For Top Documentary At Cannes; Julian Assange Film Wins Special Jury Prize For l'Oeil d'Or 10th Anniversary 'The Six Billion Dollar Man' Review: Timely Documentary Shows Julian Assange As Truth Teller Fighting Against Authoritarian Drift – Cannes Film Festival Patrick Wachsberger's 193 Locks Post-Cannes Deals On Multiple Pics Including 'Die My Love' & Colman Domingo's Directorial Debut 'Scandalous!' 'Documentaries are a minority within the Cannes Film Festival. There have been documentaries in the past, but very few,' Frémaux acknowledged, before adding, 'But it's true that over the past few years, there have been many more.' He went on to say, '[With] your minority status, you can always feel a little oppressed. You are not. I can reassure you right away that there is proof. The proof, this prize; the proof, this jury, these people who are here.' Those comforting sentiments aside, it's hard to argue with the evidence that Cannes sees documentary as secondary within the septième art, or 7th Art, as the French sometimes call cinema. Of the more than 20 films selected for official competition, not a single one was a documentary. Given that only films In Competition are eligible for the Palme d'or, that means nonfiction films came in with no chance of winning the festival's most coveted prize. (In Cannes history only two docs have won the Palme d'or – in 2004, for Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, which was probably awarded more for the film's political message than its cinematic qualities; and in 1956 for The Silent World, the oceanographic film directed by Jacques Cousteau and Louis Malle). Two years ago, it appeared Cannes might be turning a corner in its view of documentary as cinema – inviting not one but two nonfiction films to screen in Competition: Kaouther Ben Hania's Four Daughters and Wang Bing's Youth (Spring). But then last year it reverted to form, omitting any docs from Competition, a pattern repeated this year. Before 2023, it had been almost 20 years – the Fahrenheit 9/11 year – that Cannes had deigned to admit a documentary to Competition. Venice and Berlin, the two other most prestigious European festivals, have displayed much less tendency to segregate documentary from fictional cinema. Indeed, the Berlinale's Golden Bear has gone to a documentary three times in the last decade: Dahomey, directed by Mati Diop (2024); On the Adamant, directed by Nicolas Philibert (2023), and Fire at Sea, directed by Gianfranco Rosi (2016). Jafar Panahi's Taxi, sometimes described as docufiction, won the Golden Bear in 2015. In 2022, the Golden Lion – Venice's top prize – went to the documentary All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, directed by Laura Poitras. Going back to cinema's roots in the late 19th century, the first projected films were essentially documentaries – often referred to as 'actualities' back then. Among them were very brief shorts directed by the French Lumière Brothers – Auguste and Louis – 'Exiting the Lumière Factory in Lyon' (1895) and 'Fishing for Goldfish' (1895). Nanook of the North, the 1922 silent directed by Robert Flaherty, is considered the first documentary feature. Dziga Vertov's documentary Man with a Movie Camera (1929) has been voted one of the greatest movies of all time – nonfiction or fiction. Cannes' l'Oeil d'or prize has only been around for 10 years. This year, the honor went to Imago, directed by Chechen filmmaker Déni Oumar Pitsaev, a film that premiered in Critics Week (Semaine de la Critique) the unofficial Cannes sidebar. 'It's nice that there are more and more documentaries in Cannes,' Pitsaev told me after winning the l'Oeil d'or, 'but it's maybe time that we're not in the back room, but that it's considered just cinema. Wasn't cinema born in documentary as well?' Un Certain Regard, an official Cannes sidebar, likewise gave no love to docs. 'It's 20 films,' Pitsaev noted, 'and no documentaries.' The Critics Week jury, comprised of Oscar-winning actor Daniel Kaluuya and others, awarded the French Touch Prize to Imago, praising its subtlety: 'It observes but never insists, listens but never forces, captures but never encloses.' The film was edited by Laurent Sénéchal, the Oscar-nominated editor of Anatomy of a Fall, and fellow award winner Dounia Sichov. Pitsaev said he always meant the film to be cinematic (and thus worthy to be in the company of scripted films). 'The film was financed as a work of cinema, not just a documentary,' he said. 'The film was also helped by Arte Cinema, not just Television, but Arte Cinema. People typically ask me, 'When is it going to be on TV?' and I just remind them first it's going to be a theatrical release, so end of October it's going to be released in cinemas in France. We're more than happy that people can see the film on a big screen as it was planned. All the collective of the image and also sound, all the work we did, it's done for cinema, to have the full theatrical experience.' Cannes does have a section partly devoted to documentary films – Cannes Classics, which programs nonfiction films oriented towards cinema history, directors, and actors. This year's lineup included Welcome to Lynchland, a film about David Lynch directed by Stéphane Ghez; Bo Being Bo Widerberg, a doc about the Swedish filmmaker directed by Jon Asp and Mattias Nohrborg, and Slauson Rec, a film about Shai LaBeouf's free theater company in L.A. directed by Leo Lewis O'Neil. Cannes also slated a couple of documentaries in other sections. Orwell: 2 + 2 = 5, Raoul Peck's film about author George Orwell, bowed as a 'Cannes Premiere,' and The Six Billion Dollar Man, Eugene Jarecki's documentary about Julian Assange and Wikileaks, was slotted as a 'Special Screening.' The Six Billion Dollar Man won a Special Jury Prize in honor of the 10th anniversary of l'Oeil d'or. 'I do think this is a seismic development within the Cannes Film Festival, my movie aside,' Jarecki told me after winning the award. 'Just the fact that you can feel the festival leaning into documentary much more than ever before, leaning into the serious issues that are flying around the world right now. If you look at what showed at the festival this year, the dedication of the festival to Fatima [Hassouna, a Palestinian photojournalist killed in Gaza], there's extremely important stuff going on. And I think the way the psyche of the festival has shifted, we need that… We need more and more people to step up and get concerned and get engaged. And I came here not knowing what to expect of that, of how a festival of poetry and fantasy and romance would be dealing with a modern era where we all have such grave concerns, and they're leaning into it.' If Jarecki is right and Cannes takes a more serious turn in the direction of documentary, it can demonstrate that by selecting nonfiction films for Competition. We'll see if that happens in 2026. Comme disons les français, on verra. On the basis of past history, I would argue Cannes remains all about poetry, fantasy, and romance as embodied by the spectacle of the red carpet (le tapis rouge) and the stars ascending the stairs to the Palais, where they are typically greeted by Thierry Frémaux. That's the beating heart of Cannes. Documentaries, for the most part, lack the inherent glamour that constitutes Cannes' true identity. Best of Deadline Everything We Know About 'Stranger Things' Season 5 So Far 2025 TV Series Renewals: Photo Gallery 2025 TV Cancellations: Photo Gallery
LeMonde
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- LeMonde
Palme d'Or winner Jafar Panahi expresses support for Iranian trucker strike
Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi backed week-long nationwide strikes by truckers on Wednesday, March 28, as a "loud call" to the authorities, after arriving home from his triumph at the Cannes film festival. Truck drivers across Iran were striking for a seventh day on Wednesday in a stoppage rare in its length and magnitude, seeking better conditions in a sector crucial for the economy in the Islamic republic. After starting last week in the southwestern port city of Bandar Abbas, the strike action has spread across the country, according to reports by monitoring groups on social media and Persian-language media based outside Iran. The truck drivers are protesting a rise in insurance premiums, poor road security, high fuel prices and low freight rates, according to union statements cited by these media. "They are fed up. They have no choice but to go strike," Panahi wrote on Instagram, having returned to Iran on Monday after winning the Palme d'or for his latest film "It Was Just an Accident". "When thieves and illiterate people are put in charge, the result is this terrible situation: corruption and mismanagement in everything, from the economy and culture to the environment and politics," added Panahi. The acclaimed director was long banned from filmmaking and unable to leave Iran, having also spent time in prison due to his political stances. "This strike is a loud call to the government saying: 'Enough! Stop all this oppression and plunder'," he said. Persian-language television channels based outside Iran, including Iran International and Manoto, which are critical of the government, said the strike was continuing Wednesday, broadcasting images of deserted roads sent from inside Iran. Tankers carrying fuel from the major refinery in Abadan in western Iran have now joined the strike, Manoto said. It was not immediately possible to independently verify the images. The same outlets also indicated that there have been strikes in other sectors in Iran, notably by bakers who are angered by early morning power cuts when they are baking bread.
France 24
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- France 24
Iran Cannes winner Panahi backs trucker strikes
Panahi said people had had 'enough' Truck drivers across Iran were striking for a seventh day on Wednesday in a stoppage rare in its length and magnitude, seeking better conditions in a sector crucial for the economy in the Islamic republic. After starting last week in the southern port city of Bandar Abbas, the strike action has spread across the country, according to reports by monitoring groups on social media and Persian-language media based outside Iran. The truck drivers are protesting a rise in insurance premiums, poor road security, high fuel prices and low freight rates, according to union statements cited by these media. "They are fed up. They have no choice but to go strike," Panahi wrote on Instagram, having returned to Iran on Monday after winning the Palme d'or for his latest film "It Was Just an Accident". "When thieves and illiterate people are put in charge, the result is this terrible situation: corruption and mismanagement in everything, from the economy and culture to the environment and politics," added Panahi. The acclaimed director was long banned from filmmaking and unable to leave Iran, having also spent time in prison due to his political stances. "This strike is a loud call to the government saying: 'Enough! Stop all this oppression and plunder'," he said. Persian-language television channels based outside Iran, including Iran International and Manoto, which are critical of the government, said the strike was continuing Wednesday, broadcasting images of deserted roads sent from inside Iran as well as trucks parked up in cities including the central city of Isfahan. It was not immediately possible to independently verify the images. Tankers carrying fuel from the major refinery in Abadan in western Iran have now joined the strike, Manoto said. Iran International also said some participants had been arrested in the western city of Kermanshah, following arrests earlier this week in the southern city of Shiraz. The same outlets also indicated that there have been strikes in other sectors in Iran, notably by bakers who are angered by early morning power cuts when they are baking bread. © 2025 AFP
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First Post
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- First Post
78th Festival de Cannes: Who won what at the event? Here's the full list of winners
We had celebrities and influencers from all over the world to grace the festival and dazzle at the red carpet. But it's not just about fashion but films too read more The 78th Festival de Cannes that began from May 13 was a festival filled with razzmatazz. We had celebrities and influencers from all over the world to grace the festival and dazzle at the red carpet. But it's not just about fashion but films too. It is more about who made what than who wore what. Here's the list of winners for this year: Feature Films Palme d'or UN SIMPLE ACCIDENT Jafar PANAHI Grand Prix AFFEKSJONSVERDI (SENTIMENTAL VALUE) Joachim TRIER STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Joint Jury Prize SIRT Oliver LAXE SOUND OF FALLING Mascha SCHILINSKI Best Director Kleber MENDONÇA FILHO for O AGENTE SECRETO (THE SECRET AGENT) Best Screenplay Jean-Pierre DARDENNE & Luc DARDENNE for JEUNES MÈRES Best performance by an actress Nadia MELLITI in LA PETITE DERNIÈRE directed by Hafsia HERZI Best performance by an actor Wagner MOURA in O AGENTE SECRETO (THE SECRET AGENT) directed by Kleber MENDONÇA FILHO Special Award KUANG YE SHI DAI (RESURRECTION) Bi GAN Short Films Palme d'or I'M GLAD YOU'RE DEAD NOW Tawfeek BARHOM Special Mention ALI Adnan AL RAJEEV Un Certain Regard Un Certain Regard Prize LA MISTERIOSA MIRADA DEL FLAMENCO (THE MYSTERIOUS GAZE OF THE FLAMINGO) Diego CÉSPEDES 1st film Jury Prize UN POETA (A POET) Simón MESA SOTO Best Directing Arab & Tarzan NASSER for Once Upon a Time in Gaza Best Actor Frank DILLANE in Urchin directed by Harris Dickinson Best Actress Cleo DIÁRA in O Riso e a Faca (I Only Rest in the Storm) directed by Pedro Pinho Best Screenplay PILLION Harry LIGHTON 1st film Caméra d'or Caméra d'or Prize THE PRESIDENT'S CAKE Hasan HADI Directors' Fortnight Special Mention MY FATHER'S SHADOW Akinola DAVIES JR Un Certain Regard La Cinef First Prize FIRST SUMMER Heo GAYOUNG KAFA, South Korea Second Prize 12 MOMENTS BEFORE THE FLAG-RAISING CEREMONY QU Zhizheng Beijing Film Academy, China Joint Third Prize GINGER BOY Miki TANAKA ENBU Seminar, Japan WINTER IN MARCH Natalia MIRZOYAN Estonian Academy of Arts, Estonia
UPI
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- UPI
'Un Simple Accident' wins top prize at Cannes Film Festival
Left to right, Elle Fanning, Stellan Skarsgard, Joachim Trier, Anders Danielsen Lie, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas and Renate Reinsve attend the premiere of "Sentimental Value" at the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday. Photo by Rune Hellestad/ UPI | License Photo May 24 (UPI) -- Jafar Panahi's Un Simple Accident won the Palme d'or at the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday. Joachim Trier's Sentimental Value scored the Grand Prix, while Kieber Mendonca Filho won the Best Director trophy and Wagner Moura picked up the award for Best Actor for The Secret Agent. Nadia Melliti earned the Best Actress prize for La Petitie Derniere and the Best Screenplay title went to Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne for Jeunes Meres. Variety said there was a five-hour power outage across the South of France that was resolved shortly before the awards were announced t the festival's closing ceremony. Scarlett Johansson, Jodie Foster bring new films to Cannes Director Scarlett Johansson attends the photo call for her film "Eleanor the Great" at the 78th annual Cannes Film Festival in France on May 21, 2025. Photo by Rune Hellestad/ UPI | License Photo
