Berlinale #7: France is the big winner at Berlin

By Elisa Giudici

Mati Diop and Lupita Nyong'o at the awards ceremony © Ali Ghandtschi / Berlinale 2024

There was a clear standout at the 74th annual Berlinale: French cinema. Given the competition lineup, France secured all three podium positions one way or another. Let's start with the Golden Bear, naturally. The jury, led by Oscar-winning actress Lupita Nyong'o, crowned a new documentary by French-Senegalese director Mati Diop (of Atlantics fame) as the winner. It's a double win for French cinema: not only is Diop a French citizen, but she's also a product of the Cannes Film Festival, a source of national pride.

Her winning documentary, Dahomey, is a low-budget project that might have struggled in the bright spotlight at Cannes... 

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Cannes Red Carpet, mid week edition

by Nathaniel R

Sharon Stone is at Cannes!

The sartorial splendor of closing weekend events is just ahead of us but let's catch up on recent Cannes fashion. If you missed the previous reports they are here (opening night) and here (first few days). Now let's take a look at the glamour of midweek. Who takes your best-dressed crown? You can click on any of the images to enlarge them...

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74th Cannes. Spike Lee's Jury

by Nathaniel R

We've known for well over a year that Spike Lee would be presiding over the competition jury. And last week he became the first Jury President (that we know of) to ever be the poster star of the festival in the year he was jurying. How about that? People will also be excited to hear that the competition jury is majority women but that's not a first. It's actually the third time. Isabelle Huppert led a majority female jury in 2009 (White Ribbon won the Palme that year) and Jane Campion led a majority female jury in 2014 (Winter Sleep won).

LET'S MEET THE JURY...

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Other women who should have won Best Director

by Cláudio Alves

At this year's Oscar ceremony, Chloé Zhao became only the second woman in Academy history to conquer the Best Director prize. The second one in 93 years. She follows in the steps of Kathryn Bigelow, whose Hurt Locker, like Nomadland, also won the Best Picture trophy. As a longtime proponent of the importance of women directors in film history, I rejoice at this result. However, the victory is bittersweet, a reminder of the chronic lack of recognition for these filmmakers. Many other women have deserved to win the Best Director Oscar across the years…

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An Awards Night in New York

by Murtada Elfadl

Award events where the winners have already been announced have a particular way about them. The speeches are mostly prepared before, and the winners  - or their publicists and the people behind their movies - have a say in who gets to present them with the award. Last night the New York Film Critics Circle presented their 2019 awards and here are some of the presenter / winner pairings and why perhaps they’ve been chosen.

Yahya Abdul Mateen / Lupita Nyong’o…. He played her dad in flashbacks in Us

Claire Denis / Mati Diop …. Diop was in Denis’ 35 Shots of Rum...

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