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The beaches of Cannes are populated with more than just scantily clad bathers, especially during the film festival. Film and production companies bring their talent to try and sell upcoming films to various foreign markets.

Cannes this year looks and feels the same as it ever was, just like David Byrne sings in, well, "Same as It Ever Was": parties every night, films galore all day long, stars, filmmakers, and press taking over the lovely beach town. It is as if the pandemic had never touched down on the Croisette - art and joy now take over fear and pain.

30 years before the spectacular opening of this year's Cannes Film Festival, Tom Cruise - with then-wife Nicole Kidman - made a more discreet visit to the Croisette. Cruise and Kidman were the stars of the film that close the festival: Far and Away, directed by Ron Howard.

Credited with paving the way for Asian actors in Hollywood, Chinese Icon Nancy Kwan, who turns 83 on May 19, nevertheless made most of her later films outside of America. Born in Hong Kong to a Cantonese architect father and a British-Scottish model mother, Nancy Kwan studied ballet from a young age.

John Woo was born on September 22, 1946, in Guangzhou, China, during the Chinese Civil War, into a Christian family. They faced persecution after the communist revolution and fled to Hong Kong when he was five years old.

Anaïs in Love is a romantic comedy and the debut feature film by French director Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet. The 36-year-old director’s film is about Anaïs (Anaïs Demoustier), who is having a hard time making decisions in her life.

It's 1991 and les frères Coen leave their mark on the Croisette, taking the Palme d'Or for Barton Fink (which will go on to receive a Golden Globe nomination for John Goodman, supporting actor). Cannes in the 1990s is absolutely in love with les indies américains (and Asia), and more Palmes will rain on the Sundance generation throughout the decade.

Over the past 18 years, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association has donated over $1. 375 million to the non-profit organization, FilmAid.

Golden Globe and Academy Award-winning actor, producer, and director, Forest Whitaker was met with a standing ovation at the opening ceremony for the 75th Cannes Film Festival when he received an honorary Palme d’Or lifetime achievement.   He follows such luminaries as Jodie Foster, Jeanne Moreau, Bernardo Bertolucci, Jane Fonda, Manoel de Oliveira, and Agnes Varda.

Cannes is not different from a pilgrimage: the gods of cinema make an appearance and the faithful follow, entranced, amused, and, sometimes, irate. In its long and illustrious 75-year journey, Cannes saw stars and filmmakers of all magnitudes interacting with their worshippers and their anointed (better yet: credentialed) clergy, the press.