Festivals

A 75th birthday should be enough reason for a big celebration, but after being forced into a very much reduced and belated edition in 2021 due to the Covid pandemic, Cannes will this year pull out all the stops, starting on opening night. Michel Hazanavicius’ newest film Final Cut, starring his The Artist discovery Bérénice Bejo, will open the festival on May 17.

In May 2022, in association with many other Asian-American organizations, the Asian World Film Festival (AWFF) will be celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islanders Heritage Month (AAPIHM) by hosting a special screening of multi-award-winning comedy/drama The Farewell, which will take place at the TCL Chinese Theater, Hollywood Boulevard on May 19. The film, written and directed by AWFF Advisory Board member Lulu Wang, stars Awkwafina (who received the AWFF's 2018 Rising Star Award), and AWFF Honorary Board member Tzi Ma.

PaleyFest LA, which showcases buzzworthy TV shows, aptly concluded this year with one of the most popular, Emily in Paris. After screening an exclusive clip from the show, the creator and cast members participated in an interactive Q & A panel with the festival attendees, which was moderated by People magazine’s Janine Rubenstein at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood.

This year, Cannes will be really Cannes! The festival, which celebrates its 75th anniversary this year, will be held from May 17 to 28 in an almost normal configuration and will offer top-of-the-range competition. After 2020’s edition was canceled due to Covid and a smaller version held in summer 2021, this year the festival anticipates normal attendance levels.

The 65th edition of the San Francisco Film Festival, the oldest annual film festival in the United States, ran from April 21 to May 1. The documentary-rich festival featured a diverse selection of films highlighting work that has yet to secure financing in the United States, in addition to star-studded and festival circuit darlings.

It was a celebration of cinema that lasted 13 days in which there was room for all genres and styles. The 23rd edition of BAFICI, the Buenos Aires Film International Film Festival concluded on May 1, 2022.

Los Angeles – PaleyFest, the premier television festival produced by The Paley Center for Media, recently presented some new and favorite television shows to the public at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. Two shows that were featured were the comedy-fantasy Ghosts and the sitcom The Neighborhood, both on CBS.

Interestingly, CinemaCon 2022, which gathered several thousands of exhibitors from all over the world in the Colosseum at Caesars Palace for four intense days of presentations by Hollywood studios, kicked off with National Association of Theatre Owners CEO John Fithian declaring that “simultaneous release is dead as a serious business model, and piracy is what killed it”. Yesterday was the final day of CinemaCon 2022 packed schedule wrapped up with Lionsgate presentation of the studio’s slate that followed two full days of exciting events by The Walt Disney Studios, Universal Pictures, and Paramount Pictures Studio expressing their confidence in the fact that moviegoers are back to theaters, and so is the industry, and sharing their release plans for the coming months ahead.