Cannes Talking Points Halfway: “Corsage” and “Aftersun” Prove Female Directors Continue to Shine, While There Are Record Prices and Boycotts of Russian Distributors on the Market

These are the highlights of the Cannes Film Festival and the market.

First of all with regard to time. The general feeling is that it is wonderful to return en masse to the solar festival, personally, at the forefront, where the reach of Covid has been at least significantly reduced.

Last night at dinner, a seasoned critic noted that the small number of popular films to date (even earlier) meant that the industry and media were talking about more than the films themselves. Between Russia and Ukraine, problems with tickets, censorship, Riti Panh’s exit from the jury, protest on the red carpet, etc. There was plenty of room to talk outside of the training.

The films themselves have generally received mixed reviews. Arguably the most popular film in the Competition so far has been James Gray’s thrilling film. the time of armageddon. As expected, top Gun It was a wonderful reception at the festival and the flight was memorable.

Two films that have really stood out to date. Body Y ᲛAfter, first in Un Certain Regard, second in Critics’ Week. Both are directed by women: Marie Kreutzer and Charlotte Wells respectively. They both fight for the house.

In BodyVicki Cripps plays Empress Elisabeth of Austria, idolized for her beauty and known for her fashion trends. For their part, in the lead are Francesca Corrio and Paul Mescal ᲛAfterIn which the young woman reflects the shared joy and personal sadness of the vacation she had with her father twenty years ago.

As Anne Thompson pointed out in Indiewire yesterday, it is a shame that she is not the first in the competition anyway. Female filmmakers won major festival awards last year, including the Golden Palm Branch. Unfortunately this year three of the five directors in competition will not make it to the end of the festival. It remains to climb the mountain in many ways. As highlighted yesterday in a report by the Swedish Film Institute, on average a feature film directed by women spends more than a year developing the projects of male directors.

On the market, we have closed two big deals so far. Netflix got rid of the recent Emily Blunt package issues pain cheaters And Apple just started the Jesse Buckley-Reese Ahmed drama nail.

In general, there was optimism about the speed of business. The market will not back down, but more packages than ever have been announced to enter the market and it will be a good move.

One of the topics discussed was the approach to Russian buyers. Despite the Russian state-backed buyer’s main association in trading this morning, we heard the opposite from the sellers. We understand that many major US sellers refuse to sell to Russian distributors, European sellers have told us they are not looking for Russian buyers, and we know that at least one national film sales organization has agreed to pre-marketing, which their members would not have done. according to. Don’t sell to the Russians. That said, there are some Russian buyers on the market and some are buying movies. The boycott is always an acute problem.

For the most part, the theatrical conundrum remains. The good news is that the pandemic is easing and several major films are coming out to help people get back to the movies. But everyone is worried about the low workload of cinemas in Europe and elsewhere. In large markets such as Italy, France, Spain, Germany, cinema attendances continue to decline. When Searchlight announced its acquisition for the Amy Adams project Overnight And saying it goes through Hulu, I looked at my colleague and said “how does the weather change”. This is a brave new world out there.

Some vendors may be too excited to go back to personal events after a pandemic. We have heard that some of the asking prices lead to disbelief. by Lionsgate The hunger games We understand that Prickwell had a history of asking Germany for $ 30 million. The Ბ Dirty dancing Rebooting was also expensive in adults. Both are likely to arrive. We’ve also heard some big questions about small arthouse films. of movies The triangle of pain It has several large numbers in the international markets. But we also know that there is a great deal of interest.

More than us.