[Global Times special correspondent in France Dong Ming] The 77th Cannes International Film Festival officially opened on May 14. In the next ten days or so, the global film industry and entertainment media will focus on this small city in southern France. A large number of film premieres, red carpets, commercial promotions and transactions will be held here, which will not only demonstrate the "barometer" of the world film industry role, and strive to maintain a balance between art and commerce. Inviting " Barbie " director Greta Gerwig to be the chairman of the jury, screening Hollywood blockbusters, and expanding the trading market... For the French who are "alien" from Hollywood, these measures will inevitably be regarded as "compromises" by the outside world. a manifestation of.
May 14, 2024, Cannes, France, 77th Cannes Film Festival Jury Press Conference. (Visual China)
This year’s Cannes coincides with the Olympic torch relay, and the torch will appear on the red carpet of the Film Palace on May 21. The Cannes Film Festival can also be called the Olympics of world cinema. This year, a total of 22 films from all over the world have been shortlisted for the main competition. Among them are film industry veterans such as Francis Coppola and David Cronenberg, as well as Pa. Rising stars like Lal Kapadia and Agathe Ridinger. In terms of Chinese works, "An Unfinished Movie" and "The Siege of Kowloon Walled City", which were shortlisted for the screening unit, will premiere on May 16; "The Romantic Generation", which was shortlisted for the main competition unit, will premiere on May 18 Premiered on the same day as "Dogs", which was shortlisted for the "Un Certain Regard" category. Peter Chan's work " Jiang Yuan Nong " will appear in Cannes on May 24.
The chairman of the jury at this year's Cannes is Greta Gerwig, the American female director who won last year's global box office championship with "Barbie." In terms of popularity and box office, Gerwig is now unparalleled in Hollywood. However, in terms of the number of works, qualifications and honors, she is actually not as good as many world-famous directors. Japanese director and Palme d'Or winner Hirokazu Kore-eda, who is also a member of the jury, is in She is also superior in artistic achievements. But the reason why Cannes invited the 40-year-old Gerwig to serve as chairman is that as a female director and actress, her breakthroughs in the Hollywood business field in recent years have set a role model for the new generation of filmmakers. What's even more rare is that Gerwig has starred in "Frances Ha" and directed "Lady Bird" and other successful independent films, and has his own views on film artistry. This kind of popular filmmaker who has not only box office, popularity and traffic blessing, but also artistic guarantee is what the organizers of Cannes long for most.
Cannes is not only a showcase for new films from around the world, but it is also the world's largest film trading market. For example, the American film " Metropolis ", which was shortlisted for the main competition this year, this new work by the film master Coppola, who is over 80 years old, has not sold North American distribution rights so far because of its high artistic level and not commercial enough. Coppola, who sold his vineyard to raise US$120 million for the film, hopes to use the Cannes stage to find distributors for his new work in North America and other regions. If it can receive "warm applause" at the world premiere, like " Apocalypse Now " also won the award that year, which will help the film's reputation and distribution. For increasingly cautious film investors and distributors, this is the most important function of international film festivals.
In addition to "Metropolis", there are also France's "Love", China's "The Romance", "The Siege of Kowloon Walled City", and the Hollywood blockbuster "Mad Max: Goddess of Fury"... The artistic masterpieces and masterpieces in each unit Commercial blockbusters strive to come to the global stage of Cannes to "set up a stage and sell their films." According to Guillaume Esmio, executive director of the Cannes Film Festival, the number of participants in the Cannes market unit this year is expected to reach 15,000, an increase of 6% from last year, and will once again set a new record. To this end, this year’s Cannes Film Festival also launched market fast lanes, lunch break activity areas, etc., hoping to provide a better trading environment for film producers coming from afar. Currently, the United States still has the largest number of registrations, accounting for 18%, followed by France with 16%. Film producers from the United Kingdom, Italy and other countries are also very active.
The American "Deadline" website analyzed that although registrations for the Cannes Film Market this year are booming, in fact the entire film industry has not fully recovered, especially last year's strike by Hollywood screenwriters and actors, which caused many projects to be postponed or even canceled, and these film studios The reason why I squeezed out my budget and went to Cannes was because I wanted to find more flexible business in the world-class trading market.
This year, Asian film trade has shown a trend of rapid recovery. The number of exhibitors from China, Japan and South Korea has increased significantly. The number of Chinese film professionals is expected to reach 250-300, and Japanese and Korean film companies have also increased by 10%-16%. For this reason Cannes organizers will also launch a special Asian joint exhibition. In addition, this year’s Cannes market will also focus on promoting Swiss films, promoting remake projects of outstanding European works, and focusing on digital media innovation and artificial intelligence. In Esmio’s words, it will “play a good B2B role at the commercial level and provide support for film projects.” and help from industry insiders.”
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