Few film soirées hold a candle to the festivities of Cannes, writes Darragh Leen.
On its 79th birthday, the world renowned 'temple of cinema' delivered on its promises once more: more drama, more delectable red carpet clobber, protracted standing ovations and the kind of cinema to restore faith in the industry. Here are the talking points from this year's edition.
Blockbusters? Who needs ‘em?
Despite its reputation for harboring the finest in independent international cinema, Cannes has always opened its arms to the megabudget blockbuster. Think fighter jets fizzing overhead as Top Gun: Maverick premiered in 2022 or Mad Max: Fury Road roaring onto the Croisette in 2015.
(Pic: Andreas Rentz/Getty)
This year the blockbuster brigade were conspicuous by their absence on the sands of the French Riviera. Festival Director Thierry Fremaux attributed it to scheduling issues and industry turbulence but the whispers suggest major studios aren’t as willing to have their precious pictures mercilessly devoured by critics before they’ve had a chance to be seen by the masses. With profits on the line, that sort of mauling is simply becoming harder and harder for studios to justify. Ominous signs for the festival at large, perhaps. And while Fremaux opined about his hopes for a return of the juggernaut, the festival hasn’t suffered. Much.
The Croisette was just as busy with record numbers in attendance, the cream of the crop still received thunderous applause (exhaustingly so) and the cinephiles pouring out of the Lumiere Theatre assured us cinema isn’t just alive but kicking violently.
That said, from an optics standpoint, something was missing. Fewer blockbusters inevitably meant fewer megastars, and the red carpet lacked some of that gravitational pull that has long defined the world’s most prestigious film festival.
Oscar hopefuls emerge
Cannes has a knack for planting seeds for awards season discourse, especially since Parasite went all the way back in 2019/2020. This year fresh Oscar hopefuls emerged from the Mediterranean Sea, with Pawel Pawlikowski’s Fatherland proving to be the festival’s piece de resistance.
The Jury, headed up by South Korean maestro Park Chan-Wook, awarded the Palme d’Or to Fjord, catapulting it into the Best Picture conversation for next year’s Academy Awards.
Elsewhere, Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Minotaur, Los Javis’ La Bola Negra, indie charmer Club Kid (which was quickly snapped up by suitors A24) and Ryasuke Hamaguchi’s All of a Sudden all put their name in the hat.
Neon continue Palme d’Or domination
All you can do is stand and applaud. Neon aren’t even a decade old but the distributor has become synonymous with Cannes and, frankly, has every other competitor chasing shadows. Having picked up the last six (yes six) Palme d’Ors, the omniscient Neon made it seven on the bounce at the 79th edition with Fjord claiming the top prize. An extraordinary streak bordering on absurdity. Their aptitude for spotting films that ‘are the moment’ is unparalleled.
Romanian director Mingiu joins elite club
Upon picking up his second Palme d’Or, Raul Mingiu joined esteemed company by becoming only the tenth person to win two golden palms - a list that also includes double laureates Francis Ford Coppola, Ken Loach, Ruben Ostlund and Michael Haneke. Challenging and emotionally bruising, Mingiu’s Fjord is hardly a crowd-pleaser, tackling some prickly themes to say the least. However, this uncompromising nature paired with stellar performances clearly resonated with the Cannes jury.
Demi Moore claims fighting AI a ‘losing battle’
The dreaded two-letter abbreviation sending tremors across the Hollywood landscape... Last year's hot topic was film tariffs, this year it's a little more…apocalyptic.
Thierry Fremaux exclaimed "we stand with the artists, we stand with the screenwriters, and we stand with everyone in these professions, with actors and voice actors alike".
However, that flew in the face of the eventual direction the festival would take, signing a multi-year sponsorship deal with Meta before the red carpet was even rolled out.
amongst them Ruth Negga (third from left) ((Pic: Gisela Schober/Getty)
Steven Soderbergh - one of the flagbearers of the 90’s American independent cinema movement - recently signed a deal with Meta allowing him to use generative AI for his latest film John and Yoko: The Last Interview, which screened at Cannes to a resoundingly negative response.
Demi Moore claimed fighting AI is a ‘losing battle’, with the Cannes jury member (and Oscar nominee) going on to suggest the industry needs to ‘find ways in which we can work with it’.
To put it plainly, it felt like a watershed moment for the industry. Love it or loath it, the consensus is that AI isn’t going anywhere for now.
Refn returns to cinema after a decade (and death)
Danish provocateur Nicolas Winding Refn hasn’t been seen or heard of on the feature film circuit since his fame fable The Neon Demon polarised audiences a decade ago.
His latest, Her Private Hell, confounded equally, though there were less walkouts this time. Commerciality: a concept the Dane still refuses to entertain.
Yet the film almost came second to the man behind it. Refn revealed in the film’s official Cannes press conference that he died momentarily in 2023 following complications caused by a ‘leaky heart’, which reduced not just the filmmaker but some press members to tears amidst the triumphant applause.
Irish films few and far between but stars bring A-game
It's a far cry from two years ago when an unprecedented six Irish-backed films made their way to the Croisette, but homegrown talent still left their fingerprints all over this year’s festival.
Audiences were treated to excellent performances from Barry Keoghan in Kantemir Balagov’s Butterfly Jam, Michael Fassbender alongside wife Alicia Vikander in breathless Korean sci-fi actioner Hope, Eanna Hardwicke in Ancestors and a trio of stellar displays from Anthony Boyle, Daryl McCormack and Lola Petticrew in Clio Barnard’s I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning (with a script by Enda Walsh).
To that list add Alexander Murphy’s documentary Tin Castle, following the O'Reilly traveller family, which impressed in the prestigious Critics' Week strand.
Queer cinema steals the show
Whether it was Ira Sachs’ 80s-set musical The Man I Love, Lukas Dhont’s Coward - a WW1 epic about love in the trenches - or surprise festival standout La Bola Negra which received the longest standing ovation of the festival, Queer Cinema occupied center stage at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
And that was just in competition. Club Kid was one of the standouts of the festival and was picked up for $17million by A24 after its premiere, while Jane Schoenbrun further cemented their reputation as one of the most exciting talents in contemporary independent cinema with her beautifully dark satire Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, paying homage to everything from slashers and summer camps to scream queens and late night television.
