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The 70th anniversary edition of the Cannes Festival has been an historic event and the HFPA helped mark the milestone at the luncheon it hosted with Renault, a star-studded event at the Club by Albane on the rooftop of the JW Marriott hotel. That’s where HFPA president Lorenzo Soria presented Thierry Frémaux, director of the Cannes Film Festival and of the Institut Lumière, with a token of our admiration for the festival’s contribution to the history of cinema.

Some decades down the line, how will the 70th Cannes Film Festival be remembered? From an in-the-moment point of view, this jubilee iteration of the venerable event is being shaped by the forces of new media - streaming platforms, virtual reality, TV-as-cinema - and women. Lots of women - behind the camera, in front of the camera, telling women's stories and universal themes from a female perspective.

By the time Heaven's Gate landed on the Croisette, a trail of rumors, allegations and serious problems was following it like a hound from hell. Hot from the success of 1978's The Deer Hunter - which received six Golden Globe nominations, with Michael Cimino winning as Best Director -  Cimino stirred a bidding war for his next project, the period drama, Heaven's Gate.

David Lynch met the HFPA just before leaving for the Cannes Film Festival where he will present the first two hours of his new TV series Twin Peaks: The Return. When he was asked how important is his connection between visual and music, he answered:“I love music and I say music is a film.

Feminine. Everything the word evokes.

After catching the attention of the international film circuit with a trio of powerful pictures firmly rooted in Taiwanese culture - Pushing Hands in 1991, The Wedding Banquet in 1992 and Eat Drink Man Woman in 1993 - director Ang Lee quickly did a turnaround and launched himself into a series of varied projects. First came his adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, and then, in 1997, another literary adaptation - the family drama The Ice Storm, writen by James Schamus from Rick Moody's eponymous novel and an official selection, in competition, at Cannes that year.

The news of the horrendous attack in Manchester hit Cannes on the very day the festival had set aside to celebrate its 70th anniversary. The horror and sadness were adressed with a moment of silence, a strong statement from the festival and the very thing terror and ignorance always try to extinguish - the power of choice, freedom and creativity.

“Strange” (sounds better in French: bizarre) is the first label that comes to mind after watching How to Talk to Girls at Parties, from John Cameron Mitchell, which is an official selection (out of competition) of the 2017 Cannes Film Fest. This romantic tale, which tries to mix the subcultures of punk and aliens in a sci-fi milieu, was one of the toughest press screening to get into (It took place at a small venue, Salle Bazin).

It was a somber start for day seven in Cannes as the Festival, like the rest of the world, awoke to the tragic news coming from Manchester. An official statement from the Festival read: “This is yet another attack on culture, youth and joyfulness, on our freedom, generosity and tolerance, all things that the Festival and those who make it possible –the artists, professionals and spectators– hold dear.

The opening of The Rider - winner, with A Ciambra, of the Directors Fortnight-  focuses on a horse’s mane, spreading and floating in slow motion as the animal bucks and whinnies. It’s an indication that this cowboy story is going to be told differently and hints at the visuals to come that capture the vast open spaces and rugged isolation of South Dakota.