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Paul Verhoeven, the octogenarian (he’s 82) Dutch-born director, remains one of world cinema’s most controversial filmmakers, a status reconfirmed by his latest feature, Benedetta, the most audacious movie to be seen at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. As an auteur, he is known for blending ultra-graphic violence and bold sexual contents, laced with a darkly humorous social satire.

Don Cheadle spoke with the journalists of the Hollywood Foreign Press in 2004 about Hotel Rwanda directed by Terry George. “First and foremost, I hope that the film is entertaining and it's engaging to people.

Oliver Stone’s latest project JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass, is a documentary which explores the factual side of the events he dramatized in JFK (1991), which earned him a Golden Globe exactly 30 years ago. JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass, narrated by Donald Sutherland and Whoopi Goldberg, premieres at the Cannes Film Festival on July 11, while JFK will be screened on the giant Plage screen.

Considering the frisson that Paul Verhoeven created with his 2021 Cannes entry, the erotic/religious drama Benedetta, it would be appropriate to recall another shock by the Dutch enfant terrible - Basic Instinct, in competition in 1992. The film had already stirred controversy in the US - it had opened in March -, with critics panning the picture -according to Roger Ebert, "just a worthless scrap with the spaces filled in"- and gay activists loudly protesting the movie with signs saying "Hollywood Promotes Anti-Gay Violence".

In 1968, Cannes had imploded - the nouvelle-vague squad had stormed the Palais demanding the immediate end of the event in solidarity with the student revolt in Paris, among other things. A year later, the festival was still licking its wounds and changing colors.

One of the key powers of Cannes is its ability to create a brand new talent for the world to see. In 1994, this talent was Quentin Tarantino.

Matt Damon, a multiple Golden Globe contender and two-time winner, returned to the Cannes Film Fest on Thursday night to showcase his latest movie, Stillwater. This highly anticipated feature is directed by Tom McCarthy, an indie filmmaker (The Visitor) whose latest film, Spotlight, was a Golden Globe and Oscar winner.

In his new documentary, The Velvet Underground, the quintessentially indie filmmaker Todd Haynes (Far From Heaven, Carol) tells the story of the legendary, seminal rock 'n' roll band, led by Lou Reed and John Cale, by situating their work in the broader cultural contexts of New York City of the 1960s.   The feature world-premiered out of competition at this year’s Cannes Fest, ahead of its October 15 release by Amazon in select theaters, and later on Apple TV+.

Up until May 2000, Björk was a well-known Icelandish rockstar, first with the band Sugarcubes in the mid-80s, and, as of 1993, as a solo performer. Cannes changed everything: the unpredictable choices of Croisette enfant terrible Lars von Trier had put Björk front and center in his musical drama Dancer in the Dark, and the result - including the customary quarrel between critics and festivaliers - was a Palme d'Or for von Trier for Best Film, and a Best Actress award for Björk.

Brazilian Fantastic and Horror film festival co-founder Otávio Lima is motivated by dystopia. He tells HFPA journalist Ana Maria Bahiana that a lot of films that were submitted to the festival - first in the country - bring attention to current events in Brazil.