French filmmaker and screenwriter Claire Denis will be chair of the Short Film and Cinéfondation jury of the 72nd Festival de Cannes. Denis follows Abderrahmane Sissako, Naomi Kawase, Cristian Mungiu and Bertrand Bonello. On May 23rd, she and her jury will award three prizes on behalf of the Cinéfondation to the seventeen student films that are in the running this year. On May 25th, the festival's closing

Led by Jean Dujardin and Adèle Haenel, "Deerskin" is Quentin Dupieux’s seventh feature. Among the most singular directors in the contemporary film scene, Quentin Dupieux is also a screenwriter, director of photography, film editor and composer of electronic music, known internationally as Mr. Oizo. "Deerskin" marks the return to Cannes of Jean Dujardin in a leading role after he emerged on the world

Labaki rising. Last year she won the Jury Prize at [...]

So I got curious about Cinéfondation, an incubator created within the Cannes Festival's ecosystem to lend certain filmmakers a helping hand, whether that's advice, a network, or funds. It's been two decades since its inception and I needed to situate this program within the festival's many other endeavors. Gilles Jacob, former president of the Cannes Festival, created Cinéfondation in 1998, over twenty years ago. The foundation lends assistance in several

The Cannes Festival selection is augmented, each year, with a spate of student movies by young filmmakers sending their unfinished projects from around the world in the hope of finding a sensitive ear and a receptive heart. With deep pockets, preferably. L’Atelier (“workshop” in the French original) is a way for students in search of finishing funds to come to Cannes, pitch their project, meet with prospective partners

The Iranian actress Behnaz Jafari receives a video message from a young woman who’s taped her own suicide after reaching the conclusion that she likely won’t fulfill her dream of becoming an actress. The suicide girl lives in a small village, far from Tehran, and any activity that doesn’t involve milking cows or knitting is regarded with a lot of suspicion by the locals, thus bringing dishonor. While suspecting that it is a fake, done to draw attention to herself, Behnaz sets off with director Jafar Panahi to the her village.

HE'S BAAAACK! Lars Von Trier's "The House that Jack Built" will be shown at the Cannes Festival this year, helping to deliver a shot in the arm, a mixture of adrenaline and steroids, to the official selection. Seven years ago, Von Trier was ejected from the Cannes Festival after fumbling his way, with devil-may-care indecency, through a Q&A with the press following the screening of his film "Melancholia." I hadn't attended