cannes

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.

Veterans of the Croisette say that there's only one thing that never fails in Cannes: the rain. The choices are: rain on opening day (and the next four days) or rain in the closing day (and the previous four days).

The opening film for the Cannes 2016 International Film Festival is Woody Allen’s Café Society. Amazon also commissioned an original series from Allen – his first foray into episodic fiction.

Amazon Studios – the film production and distribution division of the digital retail behemoth is a big player in Cannes this year. There are five Amazon films here this year: Nicolas Winding Refn’s The Neon Demon, The Handmaiden by Park Chan-Wook, two films by Jim Jarmush: Paterson and the Stooges documentary Gimme Danger plus, of course the opening film, Woody Allen’s Café Society.

The 69th Cannes Film Festival kicked off  with Woody Allen’s Café Society which has its morning press screening in advance of the evening gala and the customary glitz of the montée des marches. The 80 year-old director, a festival favorite, climbed the red-carpeted steps of the Palais du Cinema along with his cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Kirsten Stewart, Blake Lively and Corey Stoll (Steve Carell and Parker Posey also play in the film but did not make the trip to the Croisette).

Security is tighter than ever, the red carpet is in place, the jury has arrived. Like so many migrating birds, thousands of journalists, photographers, executives, producers, directors, sales agents and stars ranging from A to Z-lists flock to the once-sedate town in the South of France for ten days of films, deals and parties in a yearly ritual that reverberates around the world - and all the way through the end of the year, when the final fate of many of these characters will be revealed during awards season.

A generous selection of 20 titles (against last year’s 19 and 2014’s 18) with a mix of festival perennials, first-timers and exciting segues by recent buzz-worthy filmmakers sets the tone for this year’s Cannes International Film Festival.  The announcement of the 2016 edition of the event – its 69th- was made this morning in Paris by festival delegate general Thierry Fremaux and festival president Pierre Lescure.

Cannes Day 8She came, spoke and conquered: Sophia Loren was the guest of Cannes’ master class series, and the lines in the hot and humid Palais de Festival started forming two hours before the much coveted event. The security was powerless against the onslaught.

Director Francis Lawrence, Liam Hemsworth, Jennifer Lawrence, Sam Claflin and Josh Hutcherson appear at Lionsgate's "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay photocall at the Majestic Barriere on May 17, 2014 in Cannes, France. Cannes is not only a screening marathon, it is above all party central.

Remember ‘True’? Remember ‘Gold’? Remember ‘Lifeline’?. It was the 80s and the famous rivalry between Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet.