After skipping 2020 due to the global Coronavirus pandemic, the Festival is back, but it WILL be different this year: from health and wellness protocols, to a reduced number of attendees. Cannes will require masks to be worn indoors at all times, including at screenings. And we’re hearing the screenings will be booked to 100% capacity. But what does that mean for the red carpet? How about the party scene? We still have many questions, but what we’re sure of is that Cannes, as always, will have a diverse, eclectic, and stunning array of films submitted from all corners of the globe.
Usually held in the month of May, this year the Festival will run in July. And on the 6th, the red carpet will host Leos Carax’s first English-language film “Annette”, starring Marion Cotillard and Adam Driver, playing in competition.
Also, as part of the opening night festivities, there will be a tribute and honorary Palme d’Or presented to Jodie Foster, whose work has played Cannes many times, beginning in 1976 with “Taxi Driver”. My late husband Roger always recalled that when he interviewed Jodie in Cannes that year, he was struck that even as a young girl, she was completely professional and spoke perfect French.
This year, the 2021 Festival poster features Jury President Spike Lee, depicted as his character in “She’s Gotta Have It,” his first feature that screened in Cannes’ Directors Fortnight section in 1986. Spike was most recently in Cannes in 2018, when his film “BlacKkKlansman” won the Grand Prize.
This year, he’ll be the one handing out prizes along with the rest of his distinguished jury including…director Mati Diop from Senegal, French-Canadian singer/songwriter Mylene Farmer, American actress Maggie Gyllenhaal, Austrian director Jessica Hausner, French actress Melanie Laurent, Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho, French sctor Tahar Rahim, and South Korean actor Song Kang-Ho.
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