News

When a lady is presented the opportunity to celebrate her 75th anniversary, you better believe she wants the event to unfold orderly, without chaos, on time and with good weather. While the past two years of the pandemic has humbled more than a few celebratory events, the grand dame of Cannes is coming out of her two-year celibacy by pulling out all the stops for her diamond jubilee.

The HFPA is proud to announce that long-time member, Film and Sociology Professor Emanuel Levy, Ph. D.

Pam & Tommy, starring Lily James and Sebastian Stan, the much-awaited Hulu series directed by Craig Gillespie (I, Tonya, Cruella), explores the relationship between Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee and is an account of their stormy courtship and paparazzi-plagued marriage. The first celebrity couple to fall victim to a sex-tape scandal, the series chronicles the circumstances leading up to the shooting of the video on their honeymoon, and its aftermath following the theft of the tape and illegal distribution to the public.

It seems the importance that Ibero-American cinema has been acquiring in the film industry or on the international festival circuit does not matter. With all the effort applied to this edition of the Cannes International Festival - the in-person return after two years affected by the pandemic - in the end, this film fest, considered among the most important in the world, has pretty much forgotten Ibero-American cinema, again.

Before Tom Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick lands and takes off with expected blockbuster figures, Doctor Strange and his cloak clobbered the box office competition, especially overseas. Benedict Cumberbatch’s snarky yet charismatic doctor-wizard worked his magic internationally, drawing $396.

Back in 1973 legendary Roman folk singer Gabriella Ferri gave life to one of Italy's summer anthems by definition. “Tutti ar mare, tutti ar mare, a mostra' le chiappe chiare”, she sang with her distinctive hoarse voice, inviting everyone to go to the beach, to show off their “pale buttocks”.

There was not much movement this week – just like in the US charts the top five spots held steady with no debut releases breaching the list. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness stayed in the top spot for its second week with Fantastische Tierwesen 3: Dumbledores Geheimnisse (Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore) holding on to second and The Lost City – Das Geheimnis der Verlorenen Stadt placing third, followed by Downton Abbey 2.

In 2020, China passed the US to become the biggest box office territory in the world. In 2021, the China Film Administration put out a five-year plan to “adhere to the party’s total leadership over film work.

Over the years Cannes has stood out as a fashion showcase. This year promises to be even more intriguing as the 75th Cannes Film Festival returns to full strength after Covid impact.

Alicia Silverstone stars in three new films this year – the terror/adventure The Requin (on Amazon), the comedy Senior Year and soon, the crime drama Reptile. Some time ago, the journalists of the Hollywood Foreign Press interviewed her twice, in 1997: when she was 20 years old, about playing Batgirl in Batman & Robin directed by Joel Schumacher – with George Clooney as Batman and Chris O’Donnell as Robin –  and when she had produced, through her company, First Kiss Productions, the romantic comedy Excess Baggage in which she acted opposite Benicio del Toro.