Cannes 2016

Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov revisits the subject of escalating classroom drama in his new film (M)uchenik. Well received at the Cannes Film Festival, (M)uchenik just earned Serebrennikov the “best director” award at the 27th Kinotavr Open Russian Film Festival in Sochi.

Ken Loach, a Cannes veteran since 1979, an a Palme D’Or winner in 2006 for The Wind That Shakes the Barley did it again – his I, Daniel Blake took the top prize at the 69th Cannes Film Festival. The drama about a working class family coping with the infernal labyrinth of social welfare bureaucracy was one of best reviewed and liked at the festival, but the win came as a surprise nonetheless.

Any self respecting A-list festival needs a film that rocks the boat and ruffles some feathers. Controversy can be like fuel to a Cannes festival, sparking debates that bubble late into the post-screening dinner conversations at the sidewalk cafés.

The dire early predictions of rain turned out to be widely exaggerated, and the weather has been mostly resplendent during the Cannes Festival; but having Riley Keough stop by the HFPA lounge is truly a ray of sunshine. The 27-year old actress -who was seen on the Palais big screen last year as one of the fugitive wives in Mad Max: Fury Road and is currently on the small screen in the Starz series The Girlfriend Experience - is back in Cannes with a remarkable supporting turn in Andrea Arnold’s American Honey.

Writer-director Jeff Nichols (Take Shelter, Mud, Midnight Special) showed his fifth feature at this 69th Cannes and Loving immediately garnered plenty of buzz, with some unequivocally declaring it one of the festival's best. Loving is a quietly understated telling of one of the lesser known and yet crucial episodes in the American struggle for civil rights: the landmark (and never more  appropriately titled) case of Loving v.

A visually and musically thrilling picture, American Honey, British director Andrea Arnold's fourth film, is also the first one that is set and shot entirely in America. The US rights to this picture, which premiered at Cannes Festival (in competition) were acquired during the festival by Focus Features.

One of the great sidebars in Cannes is the Classics selection, a favorite of cinephiles and a tribute to the history of cinema and the festival. This year fans can feast their eyes on great movies from Jean-Luc Godard’s Masculin Féminin, Andrei Tarkovsky’s Solaris and Milos Forman’s Valmont.

Roald Dahl stories have inspired groundbreaking films, both live action (Witches, Matilda) and animated  (Fantastic Mr. Fox, James and the Giant Peach).

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.

Cannes is not only competition and cinephiles. As Hollywood-on-the-Riviera it’s also one of the world's foremost film markets and a giant springboard for Hollywood movies.