2016 Cannes International Film Festival

Like the Supreme Court, Cannes juries are composed of nine experts, although by the shroud of secrecy that surrounds their proceedings sometimes they can appear more like a sequestered jury than a festival panel. This years judges are Arnaud Desplechin, Kirsten Dunst, Valeria Golino, Mads Mikkelsen, László Nemes, Vanessa Paradis, Katayoon Shahabi and Donald Sutherland headed by Aussie, Golden Globe nominated director George Miller who was on the Croisette last year with his Mad Max: Fury Road.

By the time the weekend comes along, the transfiguration of Cannes is complete. Hardline cinephiles don't like to hear it, but by then the lovely town has indeed become a mini-Hollywood with even more expensive food; in other words, a place where someone dressed as an enormous, fluffy creature can walk around and nobody would bat an eyelash - but photographers will swarm to take his/her picture.

Parties are Cannes’ unique language, and the HFPA speaks it very well – and with a purpose. On Friday, May 13, the Association threw a cocktail party at the glamorous Nikki Beach of the Carlton Hotel, on the Croisette, to benefit and honor FilmAid International.

Soko and Lily Rose Depp star in the true story of Loïe Fuller and Isadora Duncan, women whose dancing reverberates 100 years on. The fascinating and little known story of Loïe Fuller, a young woman who improbably left the wilds of the American frontier to become a dancer in turn-of-the-century New York and ultimately a star of the Paris opera, makes for a fascinating film story.

Director Cristi Puiu, one of the leaders of the Romanian New Wave, is in main competition for the first time at the 2016 Cannes Film Fest.   But he is not a new presence at this prestigious event.

Cannes opened to rain filled skies and plenty of star power.

By this stage Cannes 2016, like most of its predecessors, has settled into a routine - a fine balance between art, commerce, gossip and controversy. The market, which started even before the opening night of the competition, is buzzing- this is where film projects hope to raise funds and find distributors.

Back in Cannes like she had done so many times before - all the way back to 1976 and Taxi Driver - Jodie Foster took the Palais by storm with her latest directorial project, Money Monster. Screening out of competition, the engaging, politically aware thriller - much in the vein of Sidney Lumet's Dog Day Afternoon, per Foster's own take- brought the usually jaded gala audience to their feet with several minutes of warm applause.

The wattage on the marches amped up with the screening of Money Monster and the appearance of its cast on the famed red carpet. George Clooney was accompanied by the radiant Julia Roberts and Caitriona Balfe and to add to the bona fide Hollywood glamour, it helps when the director is herself a seven-time nominated, two-time winner of Golden Globes as well as a Cecil B.

Money Monster, Jodie Foster‘s fourth directorial effort, in Cannes out of competition, has a disgruntled investor (Kyle Budwell) barge into a broadcast studio and take a financial show host (George Clooney) hostage in live TV while the director (Julia Roberts) tries to defuse the standoff from the control booth. It is a tense thriller rooted in a world we can readily identify with.