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“The P in HFPA stands for press, but it could also stand for philanthropy”, said HFPA president Lorenzo Soria in his opening remarks on Sunday, May 21, at the Association’s annual Cannes party. This year the event served as a benefit for the International Rescue Committee (IRC), a nonprofit organization that responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people who have been devastated by conflict and disaster, to which the HFPA donated $500,000.

In its US landing Ridley Scott’s Alien: Covenant had the honor of a $36. 5 million first place debut.

Kristen Stewart is in Cannes making her directorial debut with her short film Come Swim. Stewart, 27, is not new to Cannes - she was here as an actress with Twilight and Café Society and again last year in Personal Shopper -  but this is the first time she's here as a director and screenwriter.

Day four of the festival was dominated, at least briefly, by the “security scare” at the Palais des Festivals. As if journalists were not frayed enough by the interminable lines for screenings and the extra security, the several hundred who had lined up for over an hour to see Michel Hazanavicius’ Le Redoutable were suddenly ordered to move back by surging security officers.

Boldly original, Okja, the new film from the talented South Korean writer-director Bong Joon Ho, is not just an ambitious film with a social message, but a charming fable about the incomparable love of a young girl for her special “Super Pig,” whose name provides the film’s title. Working with a larger budget than the usual, and defined by some dazzling state of the art special effects, Okja is the most eccentric film to date in competition at the 2017 Cannes Film Fest.

40 years ago, Arnold Schwarzenegger, then a famous bodybuilder and an aspiring actor (he had already done Bob Rafelson's Stay Hungry, which earned him the best newcomer Golden Globe by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association), came to Cannes with a documentary which became a must-see in the world of body building, Pumping Iron, by George Butler. Since then Schwarzenegger, who came back to Cannes with Terminator 2 and True Lies, has become a global movie star, Governor of California, object of a much talked-about divorce from journalist Maria Shriver, and is now back as producer and narrating voice of another documentary, in 3D, Wonders of the Sea, directed by Jean-Michel Cousteau (son of Jean Jacques) and Jean Jacques Mantello.

The 1970s hit the Croisette hard, amd Cannes fell deeply in love with the sex, drugs and rock 'n roll generation that was shaking Hollywood to the foundations. An unsung master among giants, Hal Ashby became the darling of the 1978 edition of the festival with his soulful, blistering Coming Home, the story of what happens to warriors after the war is over.

With the first weekend looming, Cannes is indeed in full swing and traffic on the Croisette, compounded by checkpoints, sold-out café patios and bumper to bumper black sedans  is reaching the customary frenzy. Alongside the main competitions the sidebars – Quinzaine and Semaine de la Critique - have also begun screenings.

You wouldn’t necessarily know it from the line of stragglers still snaking in front of the press office to pick up credentials, but Cannes Day one is in the books. The crowd of journalists is due to the 4000 some credentials which have been assigned for this 70th edition, and the hottest item in the lines is sunscreen: the weather is picture perfect but the sun in the Riviera’s azure skies can take a toll on critics’ delicate complexions.

At 70, the Cannes Film Festival – opening today with the gala screening of Arnaud Desplechin’s Ismael’s Ghosts - feels as young and fresh as ever. There’s a notable presence of works from young filmmakers, from the US’ Sean Baker, of Tangerine fame, in the Directors’ Fortnight with his newest, The Florida Project, to France’s Arthur de Pins, directing an animated featured based on his comic book series Zombillenium.