In the face of fierce opposition to the present and the future, detractors of Cannes, the grandmother of film festivals, say that the event is past its sell by date, but that is not the case. The festival has banned selfies. Personally, while I detest the practice, like your favourite intimate fungoid growth, it is here to stay. Though I maintain that anyone with a selfie stick should be belaboured with it.
Not so trivial is the festival’s disagreement with Netflix or vice versa. Last year, Okja and The Meyerowitz Stories were awards contenders at Cannes, but this year, due to a new law that prevents any film without French theatrical distribution playing in competition, Netflix is out. Another antediluvian French law requires films not to appear on any home video outlets for three years after theatrical release. I appreciate the effort to preserve the sanctity of the big screen experience (I really wish I could have watched Annihilation in the cinema rather than on Netflix), but reality will catch up. I give you iTunes vs the music industry.
There is also the small matter of the press screenings. Rather than the early morning press shows on the day of the première that had led to some hostile reviews casting a pall over the evening screenings, the festival has decided to show films to the media at the same time as the premières. Perhaps they haven’t heard of the timed embargo practice prevalent the world over, but hey, no one is accusing them of being with the times.
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That said, the positives outweigh the negatives at the festival this year. Welcome news is that Cannes has teamed with the French government to launch a sexual harassment hotline. While there are those who may say, “What happens in Cannes, stays in Cannes”, victims will disagree, and now they have succour.
The selection remains as strong as ever, with Asghar Farhadi’s Everybody Knows with an all-star cast of Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem and Ricardo Darin opening the festival, and our own Nandita Das’ Manto with Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Rasika Dugal, Rajshri Deshpande and Shashank Arora in Un Certain Regard to look forward to. In addition, Rohena Gera’s Sir , starring Tillotama Shome, Geetanjali Kulkarni, Vivek Gomber and Rahul Vohra will play in the Critics’ Week section.
The festival is also a strong advocate of free speech, coming out in support of Wanuri Kahiu’s Un Certain Regard selection
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Lest we forget, Cannes is also the biggest film market in the world. Many companies choose to make their key announcements for the year at the festival and market screenings are often when international sales deals for hundreds of films are decided every May. Yes, there are also scores of people who just turn up without pre-arranging meetings, hoping that deals will happen just by virtue of their being there, but they are forgiven, for what is Cannes without the gawpers.