May 17th will mark the beginning of not only the screenings, but of 12 days of celebration! Here are the events that will take place throughout this 70th edition.
From the Opening Ceremony to the awards ceremony on Sunday, May 18th, both emceed by Monica Bellucci, the Festival will celebrate its 70th edition by initiating brand new tailor-made events and inviting numerous stars and personalities.
PUBLISHING OF CES ANNEES-LA (EDITIONS STOCK), the anniversary book, an anthology of original reports on their Cannes experience by sixty French and foreign journalists.
On the opening night, from early evening until late at night, the Festival offers a WELCOME PARTY to greet the festival-goers and the press. The party will take place on the Plage du Majestic (Majestic beach) as well as on the Agora, with live music by the Fantasy Live Experience Orchestra and DJ Daddy Ryton.
After the party on Friday, May 12th organized for professionals based in Cannes, three dinners will be held in honour of different components of the international film community:
- on Friday, May 19th, in the Grand Salon of the Carlton Hotel, a dinner for the film industry professionals present in Cannes. On this occasion, a tribute will be paid to American producer Jeffrey Katzenberg.
- on Saturday, May 20th, at the Agora, the “dinner of the Festivals” will reunite 150 directors of the greatest film festivals in the world.
- on Thursday, May 25th, in the Grand Salon of the Carlton Hotel, the “Press dinner” will gather 250 international journalists and critics present in Cannes.
On May 23rd, the anniversary evening will celebrate the 70th season in exceptional style. Under the presidency of Isabelle Huppert, the stage of the Grand Théâtre Lumière will feature screenings, edited archives and film extracts, musical interludes and presentations by artists. The traditional anniversary dinner will bring together all the major figures at Cannes that evening, including many artists who have won the Palme d’or, or have left their mark on the history of the Festival.
On the Plage Macé (Macé beach), for festival-goers and Cannes inhabitants
Like every year, screenings will take place at the Cinéma de la Plage every night at 9:30 PM on the Plage Macé (Macé beach). On the same beach, two open-air concerts will be held for this anniversary edition:
Sunday 21 May: an exceptional concert with -M-, who will present his new album “ÎL” EST UNE ÂME, le Baptême de LAMOMALI, accompanied by star African kora players Toumani and Sidiki Diabaté, Malian soul diva Fatoumata Diawara (discovered thanks to the success of Abderrahmane Sissako’s Timbuktu). Free entrance upon presentation of a ticket to be collected at the Cannes city hall and at the Festival.
Thursday 25 May: a second exceptional show, performed by TONY GATLIF AND HIS REBETIKO BAND, popular Greek music, followed by the premiere screening of his latest film, Djam (France-Turkey, 2017, 1h37), a musical journey through Turkey full of hope and sharing.
To increase the number of screenings, access to films in the Official Selection will be extended with extra screenings at 8:30 AM in the Debussy Theatre, 8 PM and 10 PM at the Olympia and noon at the Salle du Soixantième.
On the 4th floor of the Palais des Festivals, a new reception venue, the Terrasse des Journalistes, will be inaugurated on Wednesday, May 17th. During the whole Festival, it will be dedicated to journalists, enabling them to meet up in the best possible conditions in between screenings. The Terrace will be open every day from 10 AM to 7 PM.
Following on from Festival TV created in 2002, Cannes will inaugurate Radio Festival, its official web radio, which will, alongside programmes from the archives and live broadcasts from the major events, feature discussion forums on the cinema of the future. Podcasts from May 17th on. Operator: Moustic.
On the Web, the history of the event can now be viewed online on the new official site,designed to showcase the archives, with articles, photos, videos, reports, correspondence and rare documents (in collaboration with the Cinémathèque française, INA, AFP and Getty Images.)
The 4th floor of the Palais will host an exhibition of photos and videos initiated by INA and taken from their archives: 24 Images, the Festival de Cannes seen through the eyes of Pierre Lescure, Gilles Jacob and Thierry Frémaux, looking back over the major milestones in the event’s history.
A prize will be given to photographers by a dedicated jury, to discover the most striking images and reward, at the end of the Festival, the best photos from the 70th season, as a tribute to press photographers who have also contributed to the Festival’s legend.
Cannes Classics will showcase films that have made Festival history, from the Palme d’or winners which have changed the course of cinema, such as Henri-Georges Clouzot’s The Wages of Fear in 1953 or Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow-Up in 1967, to rare and restored films, enjoying a new outing at Cannes, such as the Lebanese film Ila Ayn? at which director Georges Nasser will himself be present 60 years after its first screening in 1957. A Polish delegation will also attend the event to honour the memory of filmmaker Andrzej Wajda for the screening of Man of Iron, winner of the 1981 Palme d’or.
And finally, the city of Cannes is in sync with the celebration. To celebrate the 70thedition of the Festival, the Cannes Town Hall has organised a series of events throughout the year devoted to cinema: a logo in effigy form of the 70 years of the Festival, a permanent red carpet, photographs of the stars by Gilles Traverso, masterclasses, exhibitions, meetings, a temporary museum, open-air screenings… and during the Festival in particular, the exhibition Cannes fait le mur, giant screens and a pétanque game, co-organized by the Festival de Cannes.
Many important figures will attend the Festival, and in particular the anniversary night. From May 17th to May 28th, the screenings will be exceptional as well, welcoming the following guests of honour:
CLINT EASTWOOD, who was President of the Jury in 1994, and will be in Cannes from 19 to 21 May. On Saturday 20th May at 4:45 PM, he will be at the Debussy Theatre to present the restored copy of Unforgiven, which is celebrating its own 25th anniversary at the Festival with Warner. The following day, he will inaugurate the 70th ANNIVERSARYMASTERCLASS with a discussion in the company of American critic Kenneth Turan, in the Buñuel screening room at 4 PM.
JANE CAMPION, who presided the Feature Film Jury in 2014 and remains to this day the only female director to have garnered a Palme d’or for The Piano in 1993, will present her latest work on Tuesday 23rd May, Top of the Lake: China Girl, which she co-directed with Ariel Kleiman.
DAVID LYNCH, 1990 winner of the Palme d’or with Wild at Heart, Best Director in 2001 with Mulholland Drive and President of the Jury in 2002, will return to the Festival to present Season 3 of Twin Peaks on Thursday 25th May at 7:30 PM in the Grand Théâtre Lumière.
Throughout the Festival, ALEJANDRO G. IÑÁRRITU, the visionary director of Birdman and The Revenant, and winner of the Best Director for Babel, will present his 6 minutes 30 seconds film Carne y Arena, an immersive experience within an incredible Virtual Reality installation.
ALFONSO CUARÓN, a member of the Feature Film Jury in 2008, director, producer and screenwriter, will also give a Masterclass, in the company of film critic Michel Ciment on Wednesday 24th May at 4:30 PM in the Buñuel screening room, during which they will discuss his career in Hollywood and Mexico.
On Monday 22 May, the Debussy Theatre will host a TRIBUTE TO ANDRÉ TÉCHINÉ. The French director, who was a member of the Feature Film Jury in 1999, has presented 11 films in the Official Selection since 1975, including 6 in Competition. His new film, Nos années folles, will be screened to mark the occasion. Those who have accompanied him in his movies throughout the years will be present.
Finally, in memory of the immense ABBAS KIAROSTAMI, winner of the 1997 Palme d’or for Taste of Cherry, who died on 4 July 2016, there will be a screening of his posthumous film 24 Frames. The session will take place on Tuesday 23 May in the presence of his friends and his son Ahmad Kiarostami.
Two actresses, whose commitment to the Festival in recent years has been plain to see, will enjoy their first experience at Cannes as short films directors and will be present on the Croisette.
ROBIN WRIGHT: at the opening of Cannes Classics on Thursday 18 May in the Buñuelscreening room at 8 PM, the actress, producer and now director will come to present her first short, The Dark of Night, homage to film noir. It will be followed by the screening of the restored copy of Bob Fosse’s All That Jazz, winner of the Palme d’or in Cannes in 1980.
KRISTEN STEWART: after starring in the last two years in the films of Woody Allen and Olivier Assayas and winning a Best Supporting Actress Cesar, the young American actress will come to present Come Swim – her first work as a director – on Saturday 20 May at 6:45 PM.