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Cannes 70 is in the books and this year’s Palmarés included a Special Prize for Nicole Kidman, to go with her 11 Golden Globe nominations, three Globe wins and all her other accolades. It was almost inevitable given that the undisputed queen of the Croisette appeared  in a record four films: John Cameron Mitchell’s How to Talk to Girls at Parties, Sophia Coppola’s The Beguiled, Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Killing of a Sacred Deer and Jane Campion’s Top of the Lake 2: China Girl.

“I certainly have not been paid the same as a male star. Sometimes I've had to accept (the pay disparity) for financial reasons, or because I really wanted to play that role.

Born in Sweden, catapulted to stardom by Hollywood, Ingrid Bergman is such an integral part of Cannes that the festival made her the face of the event in 2015, the centenary of her birth.   She visited the festival many times and was president of the competition jury in 1973.

The introspective comedies of Noah Baumbach have established him as one of the most distinctive voices working in American cinema today. Recently his films have been populated by millennials and gen-xers feeling their way though life’s existential and emotional choices as if they’d misplaced the instruction manual.

By the time Akira Kurosawa and Martin Scorsese met on the Croisette in 1990, both were already celebrated master filmmakers. Scorsese had one Palme d'Or (Taxi Driver) and one Best Director prize (After Hours), plus three nominations for the Palme (Alice Doesn't LIve Here Anymore, The King of Comedy and After Hours) and one Golden Globe nomination for Raging Bull.

Gallic writer-director Robin Campillo is a major talent to watch. In is feature directing debut, 120 Beats Per Minute which world premiered in Competition at the 2017 Cannes Film Fest, he revisits with passion and compassion his past as a member of the AIDS activist organization ACT UP in 1990s Paris.

If you grew up under the spell of Captain Jack Sparrow you will probably  find it difficult to believe that, back in 1990s, Johnny Depp was the muse of independent filmmakers both stateside and abroad, and a regular Cannes fixture - in competition, not to promote some massive blockbuster. Our multi-nominated and Best Actor Golden Globe winner was in Cannes twice with (a young, bold) Tim Burton, in 1990 for Edward Scissorhands and in 1994 for Ed Wood - nominated for a Palme d'Or and responsible for the most coveted promotional item on the Croisette, that year: a black t-shirt with 'Mon prochain film sera meilleur' ('My next film will be bettter') inscribed in giant pink letters.

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.

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.