The 2022 Cannes Film Festival opens, but towards what horizon?

The famous red carpet will be rolled out this morning at 11 a.m. for the first stair climb this evening. For two weeks, stars from all over the world will flock there to amaze the photographers and the public of the most publicized cultural event in the world. Tom Cruise, Kristen Steward, Isabelle Huppert, Viggo Mortenson, Marion Cotillard, Léa Seydoux, Anthony Hopkins, Anne Hathaway, but also Diam’s… are the most anticipated stars of this anniversary edition. The opening ceremony will take place from 7 p.m. in the Grand Théâtre Lumière at the Palais des Festivals, but it will also be broadcast live in 300 cinemas throughout France.

The Cannes Film Festival and the war in Ukraine

After a canceled 2020 edition and a mixed 2021 edition, because postponed to July, the obligation of tests and masks is no longer on the agenda. Instead, the war in Ukraine has become an unmissable cinema event. The Festival, long a follower of the formula: ” It’s not the Festival, but the films that are political », had to take a stand and banish the Russian delegations from Cannes. On the other hand, Tchaikovsky’s Wife by the now exiled Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov – who will also open the Festival d’Avignon in July with The Black Monk, according to Chekhov – was hoisted like a standard. Indeed, the Russian artist, known for his engagements hostile to Putin’s policy, lends himself perfectly to it, knowing that Serebrennikov’s mother was Ukrainian.

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To affirm the Festival’s support for the Ukrainian people, Thierry Frémaux has programmed two Ukrainian films in the official selection. Sergei Loznitsa, a regular at the Festival, is a unique chronicler of the tragedy and fighting spirit of Ukrainians, of the revolution Maidan in 2014, until the start of the vicious war in Donbass. This year, in a special session, he will give a spectacular and provocative historical dimension to his cinematographic research with The Natural History of Destruction, based on a book by German WG Sebald about the destruction of German cities by the Allies during World War II. The prestigious parallel section Un certain regard welcomes the young Ukrainian Maksim Nakonechnyi with Butterfly Vision. This is the story of a young teacher engaged and kidnapped in the war. Without forgetting the highly anticipated screening of Mariupolis 2 of the Lithuanian director Mantas Kvedaravicius, killed at the beginning of April in Mariupol in Ukraine during the shooting of this film showing life under the bombs.

“ Cut ! – Cinema and the world after

The opening night ignores this news under the bombs, with Cut!, the new film by Michel Hazanavicius. Given the very quirky humor of this zombie comedy, the festival will play big, even if the film remains out of competition. The 21 films in the running for the Palme d’or, selected by the artistic director of the Festival, Thierry Frémaux, what world after (the confinement of the Covid-19 era) do they draw? First, the directors seem very keen to tell a lot of things. The majority of films exceed two hours, and above all, in none the constraints caused by the coronavirus play a central role.

David Cronenberg will offer us with The crimes of the future a dive into a world of transformed and mutated human bodies. The Dardenne brothers approach the fate of two young exiles in Belgium. Claire Denis launches with a diplomatic thriller. Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski introduces us to a mysterious world through the eyes of a gray donkey. The Japanese Hirokazu Kore-eda leaves in road-movie. Cristian Mungiu recounts the hopeful return of a Romanian to his native village in Transylvania, after quitting his job in Germany. James Gray brings us back to the 1980s in the Queens district of New York where an unscrupulous real estate developer rules his game. His name: Fred Trump, father of the future president of the United States. Ruben Östlund has fun shaking up the world of models and influencers gathered on a yacht for a luxury cruise. Saeed Roustaee confronts us with the insoluble moral dilemmas of Iranian society. And Tarik Saleh focuses on the son of a fisherman who attends the prestigious Al-Azhar University in Cairo to talk about the power struggles between religious and political elites in Egypt today.

What place for Africa?

Tarik Saleh, born in 1972 in Stockholm, of Egyptian origin, will indeed be the only filmmaker of African origin in the running for the Palme d’Or, even if Boy from Heavenshot in Sweden and Morocco, was made possible thanks to production companies based in France, Sweden, Morocco and Finland… So, after a dozen African directors in competition over the last ten years (with the Jury Prize for the Chadian Mahamat Saleh Haroun in 2010 and the Grand Prix for the Franco-Senegalese Mati Diop in 2019), we will always be waiting for the second African Palme d’or after that of the Chronicle of the Ember Years of the Algerian Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina in 1975.

The inexorable rise of women

Yes, only five of the 21 films in competition are directed by a filmmaker. But, despite this figure, the trend remains rather very positive for women. First, five means one more filmmaker in the running for the Palme d’Or. Then, the prestigious parallel section Un certain regard reached almost equality this year with 9 out of 19 films signed by a female director. Without forgetting that last year, Julia Ducournau became with her monster film Titanium the second woman in the history of the Festival to win the Palme d’or. The highest distinction was awarded by a jury for the first time with a female majority. Also this year, the jury under the chairmanship of Vincent Lindon is made up of four men and four women, including Deepika Padukone. The Bollywood star, known for her flamboyant clothes, will certainly be one of the queens of the red carpet, but at the same time also the ambassador of India, country of honor at the Marché du film 2022, with six films screened at the Marché , but none in the official selection.

A new era for Netflix in Cannes with Iris Knobloch at the helm of the Festival ?

For women, even at the head of this event which aims to remain the absolute artistic reference of world cinema, things are changing. From July 1, the Cannes Film Festival, jewels of France’s cultural influence, will for the first time be chaired by a woman, moreover German. Iris Knobloch will have a decisive role to play in the sensitive issue of relations with platforms, in particular with Netflix. The latter, following the historic agreement concluded in February with professional film organizations in France, will have more and more weight in the French film industry. However, today, the Cannes Film Festival remains the only major film festival to remove films from the competition’s streaming platform to save media chronology and support cinemas. However, since confinement, habits have changed, and even moviegoers are finding it difficult to return to dark rooms and to abandon the platforms or streaming sites that provided them with cinematic balance during the pandemic.

Cinema e(s)t the climate

As for the ecological commitments made last year, one has the impression that they have passed into the background. Displayed in a very strong way during the previous edition, with a special action Cinema for the climate, this very remarkable selection of films on the environment has not been renewed. And no ecological assessment of the 2021 edition, nor ecological ambition for the 2022 edition, were presented during the opening press conference as the climate catastrophe looms even more threateningly on the horizon. On the other hand, behind the scenes, the work continues. On May 20, Marion Cotillard, Cyril Dion and Magali Payen launched their new production company “Newtopia” in Cannes, whose promise can be summed up in one sentence: “ To create a New World, let’s start by imagining it “. Another era change has already begun. Since last year, the National Center for Cinema and the Moving Image (CNC) has decided to oblige, from 2023, all works and projects financed by the CNC to carry out a carbon assessment. And towards the end of the Festival, on May 26, the CNC will organize a round table on eco-responsible filming. Pending the creation of an Ecological Palm, the CNC will award the Ecoprod prize for the first time to ” a feature film presented at Cannes and produced in the most eco-responsible way possible “.

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► The Cannes Film Festival will take place from May 17 to 28.