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Diane Paragas wears many hats as an award-winning writer, director, editor, cinematographer, and producer of features and documentaries. It’s hard to believe it was only two years ago she presented her debut feature film, Yellow Rose, and made history in doing so as the first Filipino-American film theatrically distributed by a major Hollywood studio.

Actor-director Sean Penn, a multiple Golden Globe nominee and winner (Mystic River), returns to the Cannes Film Festival this year with his latest directorial effort, Flag Day, starring his daughter, Dylan Penn, and Josh Brolin, among others. The movie played in the Main Competition, where several of Penn's previous films had appeared, including The Pledge in 2001 and The Last Face in 2016.

Black Widow smashed domestic box office records but the other big news was that Disney, for the first time, disclosed Disney Plus Premiere Access’ earnings from the latest Marvel Cinematic Universe installment on its streaming premiere. In a rare move, Disney announced that director Cate Shortland’s Natasha Romanoff standalone film grossed $60 million in streaming revenues on Disney Plus.

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.