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Politics, religion, and sex are the trinity that always dominate Arab cinema in international film festivals, especially in Cannes. The Cannes International Film Festival is used to welcoming and celebrating these controversial films, which are not allowed to be screened in their original countries for various reasons.

It was a film, Boys Don’t Cry by Kimberly Peirce (1999) that dramatized a tragic real-life story of a boy in the body of a girl long before most of the population even was aware of the term “transgender”. It was a film, Philadelphia by Jonathan Demme, (1993) that evoked deep sympathy and compassion for a loving couple of two men, one of them dying of AIDS.

High above the bustle and heat of the 75th Cannes Film Festival, in the penthouse suite of the Five Seas Hotel, Alejandro Nones - star of the smash-hit Netflix series, Quien Mato A Sara? (Who Killed Sara?) - now in its third season - sits, relaxed, open and exuding a huge dose of the appeal that has more than a million fans following him on Instagram. Being a brand ambassador for a house like Chopard, one of the official sponsors of the Cannes Film Festival is a gig many would covet, but the way Nones tells it, the partnership came about by accident.

Its first official week outdid even better than expectations. Top Gun: Maverick, out in Italy since March 25th, already raked in over 4 million euros: 4.

Andy Warhol was born in 1928 in Pittsburgh to immigrant Slavic parents. As a child, he caught a nervous system disease called Sydenham’s Chorea, which may have been the cause of his skin blotchiness.

Belgian documentary filmmaker Michiel Thomas (36), born and raised in a tiny cozy village called Neerpelt, is currently touring the international film festival circuit with his new feature documentary Gemmel & Tim. This intimate true crime drama explores the lives and untimely passings of Gemmel Moore and Timothy Dean, two gay Black men who in 2017 and 2019 respectively died from meth overdoses at the home of West Hollywood politico Ed Buck.

In Cannes, Belgian director Felix Van Groeningen, best known for the Oscar-nominated The Broken Circle Breakdown and his Hollywood debut film Beautiful Boy, presented his latest film The Eight Mountains, alongside his real-life partner/actor Charlotte Vandermeersch, who also co-directed and wrote the film. Intimately shot by Ruben Impens in the 4:3 aspect ratio, this touching story about friendship is set in the breathtaking and wonderfully photographed Italian Alpine valley of Aosta.

Weeks before arriving in Cannes for my first Cannes Film Festival experience, I understood that sleep was going to be off the table. The festival (which this year returned to a traditional, in-person event for the first time in two years) had implemented a new online ticketing system to avoid day-of lines.

They say Morgan Freeman plays characters with a calm and reassuring demeanor: well he's also the voice of God! Since Bruce Almighty (2003), Freeman has added this honor to his many accolades. “I gravitate towards gravitas”, Freeman was quoted to say to Variety at the time, with his distinctly ironic tone.

For the past century, LGTBQ+ themed has been part of Spanish and Latin American cinema, addressing sexual diversity as a central focus. On the one hand, condemning homophobia and discrimination that is still present in the lives of many people and, on the other hand, proposing crucial turning points in the process toward tolerance and inclusion.