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When Olivia Wilde saw The Breakfast Club she knew what she wanted to do. “I want to tell stories that feel funny and true and delight the audience while feeling like there was some authentic reflection of life and humanity.

It wasn’t so much a clash of the titans, it was more like a tribute to them when Bruce Springsteen sat down with Martin Scorsese for a public conversation at Hollywood's Raleigh Studios, organized by Netflix. The pre-Emmy event was held in support of the campaign for Springsteen’s one-man show “Springsteen on Broadway”.

More than any other film festival -with the possible exception of Berlin, which comes close- Cannes is first and foremost a market festival. Taking place too early in the year to truly influence the awards season - Telluride, Venice and Toronto are the leaders in that department – Cannes is all about deals and money.

Last year, 82 famous women marched on the red carpet of the Palais du Festival to bring attention to the lack of female directors at the French festival. Lead by then-current and previous jury presidents Cate Blanchett, Ava DuVernay and Agnès Varda, their ranks included Salma Hayek, Kristen Stewart, and Marion Cotillard.

Things finally got underway on the Croisette with the customary Jury press conference in the Palais du Cinema. Loudly announced by Thierry Fremeaux channeling his best Sergeant at Arms, the “Grand Jury of the 72nd Cannes Film Festival” filed into the press room to the usual lightstorm of camera flashes.

Tarantino. Malick.

“I (saw) All that Jazz as a teenager, I think I was 15 or 16,” Steven Levenson told HFPA journalists at a recent press conference for Fosse/Verdon, the FX miniseries which revisits the relationship between director and choreographer extraordinaire Bob Fosse and his wife and collaborator – and Broadway superstar in her own right – Gwen Verdon. Levenson is the showrunner for the series starring Sam Rockwell and Michelle Williams; All That Jazz is the 1979 movie directed by Fosse covering some of the same autobiographical ground that the series explores in depth.

This weekend one film finally had a chance to overtake Avengers: Endgame as the monstrous hit which Marvel spent a decade making finally slowed down at home and abroad. Detective Pikachu came very close to unseating the reigning box office champion, but its $58 million opening was just short of the incumbent film's $63 million third frame take.

Immediately after the completion of John Wick: Chapter Two, Lionsgate was eager to start production on a third installment of the successful franchise which had earned a combined $260 million in worldwide grosses. Keanu Reeves, who plays the retired hitman seeking revenge for the killing of his puppy – a present from his late wife - was eager too.

A lively crowd of mostly Balkan Europeans filled the Writers Guild Theater on Doheny in Beverly Hills on May 1st, 2019 for the opening of SEEfest. The Los Angeles festival, whose mission is to promote works from the South Eastern European regions, has grown slowly but steadily over the last 14 years.