Cannes 2024: Lily Gladstone joins Greta Gerwig's Jury

by Cláudio Alves

Lily Gladstone is one of the eight jurors who have just been announced for the Cannes Main Competition. After success at last year's festival with Killers of the Flower Moon, the Oscar nominee feels like a logical choice. Indeed, most of the jury comprises artists who have found acclaim at the Croisette. There's a former Palme winner, a Jury Prize victor, the co-writer of a Palme d'Or recipient, stars of various pictures that have screened there, and more. All things considered, Greta Gerwig is probably the least familiar with Cannes red carpets and the screen of the Lumière. But after three solo directorial credits of such cultural prominence, it's easy to see why she's this year's Jury President.

Here's the complete Main Competition Jury for the 74th Cannes Film Festival...

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Review: Lebanon’s ‘1982’

By Abe Friedtanzer

There are many different reasons that nations go to war, and what unites all of them is that many of those affected have nothing to do with the inherent conflict. It’s a concept that might be difficult for modern-day Americans to relate to since most of the wars from our lifetime have been fought on foreign soil; the domestic population doesn’t feel the impact in the same way. But there are so many civilians, throughout history, who have seen their lives irreversibly changed by a war they never asked for that doesn’t benefit them. Oualid Mouaness’ feature debut 1982, which was Lebanon’s official Oscar entry for 2019 (and finally getting a US release) offers a strong and stirring take on that idea with the 1982 Lebanon War.

1982 takes place over the course of a day in the title year when a group of schoolchildren go about their ordinary lives as military clashes in the distance come ever closer...

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Oscar's International Race Pt 1 - The Female Directors

The Academy has officially announced list of 93 contenders -- an all time record --  for this year's Best International Feature Film Oscar (submission chart here). So let's dive in! 

Last year's sole female nominee for Best International Feature, Nadine Labaki (Capernaum) is in front of the camera this time for Lebanon's new submission "1982"

by Nathaniel R

We've been tracking the just renamed foreign-language film race for so long that we love to dig in to stats a bit. You may recall that last year 20 of the 87 pictures were directed or co-directed by women. This year 28 of the 93 contenders are -- that's 30% of the list which is easily an all-time record! Here's another promising note for the future in regards to gender parity: female directors made only 2 of the nominated foreign-language films in the first quarter century of this category but things opened in the 1980s with four nominees from female directors, there were four again in the 1990s, and then seven in the 2000s. Though the 2010s have only seen five thus far, the trend is still promising; in the past four consecutive years one of the nominees has come from a female auteur:

2015 Mustang (France) by Deniz Gamze Ergüven
2016 Toni Erdmann (Germany) by Maren Ade
2017 On Body and Soul (Hungary) by Idilko Enyedi
2018 Capernaum (Lebanon) by Nadine Labaki

Will the trend continue this year? Here are the 29 women who will be trying to make that happen.

The 29 Women Competing in the Best International Feature Race
* means they co-directed their film

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The 72 Greatest Gowns of the 72nd Cannes Festival (Part 1)

by Nathaniel R

How did we ignore the gowns from Cannes red carpets for the entirety of this year's run in the South of France? As penance we've collected our favourite gowns (i.e. anything that isn't pants) in two giant red carpet posts. Herewith the 72 greatest gowns from the Cannes Festival ranked in rough order of our appreciation. The order is for entertainment purposes only and we shan't stand by the arbitrary rankings if grilled about them. The order would change every five minutes as this was pieced together bit by bit over several days and our favourite color might be champagne in five minutes whereas at this very second it happens to be red (weird) and usually it's blue or purple.

72 ELLE FANNING 

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Cannes: 'Un Certain Regard' and 'Cinéfondation' Winners

At Cannes the "Competition" titles get most of the press but there's another competition that runs parallel each year which often hides films that are just as strong --some years critics argue that they're stronger. Nadine Labaki (Capernaum) presided this year over the jury judging the 19 films in "Un Certain Regard." That's the program Cannes officials often throw distinctive or high quality films from newer filmmakers in since they reserve the main competition for (mostly) legendary auteurs or Cannes mainstays. 

UN CERTAIN REGARD PRIZE

THE INVISIBLE LIFE OF EURIDICE GUSMAO (Karim Aïnouz, Brazil)
We first started tracking this picture because it's from the queer Brazilian director Karim Aïnouz who made Futuro Beach, a movie that we liked at the time but obviously undervalued as it really lingers in the memory (I still find myself thinking about it regularly 5 years later). His new film, which won the hearts of Labaki and her jury, also features the legendary Fernanda Montenegro but hers is, alas, a supporting role...

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