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Cannes festival 2018: what a decent filmmaker needs to know

Every year anyone who is a part of the film industry or is only dreaming of becoming one is moving towards the French Riviera in May to attend one of the biggest and most prestigious film festivals in the world. In 2018, it is the 71st edition of the Cannes Film Festival. This event encompasses the glory and glitter of the red-carpet events and haute-couture dresses together with the exhausting meetings, networking, and screening.

Gary Collins from Red Rock Entertainment says that most people in the world, see only the beauty part of the festival with the fancy dress code and big smiles not getting into the festival’s inner world. Read below about the mysterious and non-famous folks who can become the Scorseses and Hitchcocks of the 21st century and get the complete picture of this year’s biggest film festival.

What is Cannes festival and when is it held?

The Cannes Film Festival is an event that was first organized back in 1946 in Cannes, and since that time it hasn’t changed its location. This annual event showcases new films from a wide variety of genres and countries. The first Cannes’ Festival aimed to boost France’s image in the world and promote film industry. Today this prestigious festival introduces the no-names to the film industry and reaffirms the fame and acknowledgment of the actors, directors, screenwriters, composers, and other members of the world film industry.

What is going on in Cannes this year?

Each year, no more than 50 films are selected for screening at the festival, and while Red Rock Entertainment, Archer Gray, Seattle Film Group LLC are all aiming at being spoken about at the Cannes, not all have got through the entrance gates this year. The traditional nominations for this festival are “in competition”, “un certain regard”, “out of competition”, and “cinéfondation”.

The Competition features 20 nominees who are competing for the top prize: the Palme d’Or (“golden palm”).

Un Certain Regard are the films with an “original aim and aesthetic” that will likely have limited theatrical distribution but are seeking international recognition.

Out of Competition is a category of films that are worth credit, but didn’t meet some selection criteria.

Cinéfondation offers films of students who are enrolled in film school; these reels can’t exceed one-hour length limit.

Besides the nominations there are also Midnight Screenings, Special Screenings, Tributes, and a vast variety of other social screenings that are not competing for the main prize, yet earned the honor of being played during the festival.

Each category has its special jury. This year’s Feature Films jury president is Cate Blanchett who presides over other selected jurors, namely actors Chang Chen, Kristen Stewart, and Lea Seydoux; directors Ava DuVernay, Andrey Zvyagintsev, Denis Villeneuve, and Robert Guediguian; and singer-songwriter Khadja Nin. Benicio del Toro this year is presiding over a jury in the Un Certain Regard nomination.

Why Cannes festival has so much influence on the world of film?

It’s already been said that the Cannes Film Festival is if not the most then one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world. The power and exclusiveness of the festival mainly come from its history because, in the beginning, one couldn’t get inside without an invitation. Besides that, the festival has opened many big names to the world, such as Quentin Tarantino or Steven Soderbergh.

But Red Rock Entertainment producers explain that while promoting the idea of openness by letting anyone to special screenings, the Cannes still preserve their exclusive by programming a very limited number of films and by forming the jurors’ board of the most well-known and accepted members of the film industry.

At the Cannes getting an award is undoubtedly an influential element of the festival, however not always is it the most important one. Winning a prize never guarantees the commercial or critical success of the film in the future and vice versa. For example, the famous Taxi Driver by Martin Scorsese or Pulp Fiction by Quentin Tarantino were booed at the festival in 1976 and 1994 respectively but received world’s acceptance and eternal love afterward while 2015 Palme d’Or winner Dheepan by Jacques Audiard isn’t that famous in the world. The fact of being chosen to be screened and recognized by the jurors is what matters more. Very often films selected for the Cannes later win Oscars and BAFTAs the following year. The classy example of such a case is The Artist that premiered at Cannes in 2011 and then won five Oscars; the picture became the first French film ever to win Oscar for Best Picture.

Besides the recognition, the awards and screenings at the Cannes affect the effect a film would have on the audiences. For example, the Marché du Film (which is one of the world’s busiest movie markets) happens during the Festival. Red Rock Entertainment film investment company team explains that this is the best place to get in touch with the “specialty distributors” whose job is to find distribution ways for arthouse, foreign, and other small niche films. The most prominent and most important film deals of the year are made precisely during the Marché du Film.

What are the projections on the Cannes 2018 winners?

Each and every publisher and film expert or critic has a particular order of the nominees depending on their tastes and preferences. For now, there are no bookmakers’ bets, Everybody Knows (Todos lo Saben) by Asghar Farhadi and Three Faces by Jafar Panahi are the leaders of the race. Happy as Lazzaro by Alice Rohrwacher is close to the previous two pictures according to the publicity and the most well-known publishers, such as the Guardian. Regardless of what film will win the Palm d’Or, every single picture highlighted at this year’s festival is worth your attention. For this reason here are complete lists of films in two main categories. The rest can be found here.

Competition

• Asako I & II (by Ryusuke Hamaguchi)
• Ash Is Purest White (by Jia Zhang-Ke)
• At War (by Stéphane Brizé)
• Ayka (by Sergei Dvortsevoy)
• BlacKkKlansman (by Spike Lee)
• Burning (by Lee Chang-Dong)
• Capernaum (by Nadine Labaki)
• Cold War (by Pawel Pawlikowski)
• Dogman (by Matteo Garrone)
• Everybody Knows (by Asghar Farhadi)
• Girls of the Sun (by Eva Husson)
• Knife + Heart (by Yann Gonzalez)
• Lazzaro Felice (by Alice Rohrwacher)
• Le Livre d’Image (by Jean-Luc Godard)
• Leto (L’Été) (by Kirill Serebrennikov)
• Shoplifters (by Hirokazu Kore-eda)
• Sorry Angel (by Christophe Honoré)
• The Wild Pear Tree (by Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
• Three Faces (by Jafar Panahi)
• Under the Silver Lake (by David Robert Mitchell)
• Yomeddine (by AB Shawky)

Un Certain Regard

• Angel Face (by Vanessa Filho)
• Border (by Ali Abbasi)
• Donbass (by Sergei Loznitsa)
• El Angel (by Luis Ortega)
• Euphoria (by Valeria Golino)
• Friend (by Wanuri Kahiu)
• Girl (by Lukas Dhont)
• In My Room (by Ulrich Köhler)
• Little Tickles (by Andréa Bescond & Eric Métayer)
• Muere, Monstruo, Muere (by Alejandro Fadel)
• My Favorite Fabric (by Gaya Jiji)
• On Your Knees, Guys (Sextape) (by Antoine Desrosières)
• Sofia (by Meyem Benm’Barek)
• The Dead and the Others (by João Salaviza & Renée Nader Messora)
• The Gentle Indifference of the World (by Adilkhan Yerzhanov)
• The Harvesters (by Etienne Kallos)

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Rachel Wise .