Cannes Chief Thierry Frémaux Talks Scorsese’s Competition Invite, “Magnificent” Johnny Depp, Lineup Additions & A Jean-Luc Godard Tribute
13.04.2023 - 22:25
/ deadline.com
Cannes chief Thierry Frémaux unveiled the bulk of the Official Selection for the 76th edition of the festival at a packed press conference in Paris on Thursday morning.
In a lineup mixing established auteurs with rising directors, Palme d’Or winners Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Nanni Moretti, Ken Loach, Wim Wenders and Hirokazu Kore-eda return to the main Competition alongside first-time contenders Kaouther Ben Hania, Justine Triet and Ramata-Toulaye Sy.
Talking points include the record number of women-directed films in Competition, whether Martin Scorsese might segue Out of Competition to compete for the Palme d’Or with Killers of the Flower Moon and the selection of Euphoria creator Sam Levinson’s reportedly challenged series The Idol.
Deadline sat down with Frémaux after the press conference to drill down on the Selection and the process of bringing it together this year.
DEADLINE: The selection process always goes up to the wire ahead of the main line-up announcement. What time did you manage to wrap things up overnight?
THIERRY FRÉMAUX: There have been editions where we’ve finished at 3am in the morning. This time we all left at 1am. We even took the time to eat pizza with the team. Of course, I ended up fielding a few texts and messages at home.
DEADLINE: One of the final tasks, is tying up the selection of French films in the line-up. I read in the French press that you received 600 French films this year. Is that true?
FRÉMAUX. It’s probably more like 200 French films, but that’s still a lot. When it comes to world cinema, we’re not selecting from the entire production available across a whole year, it’s more films that are ready for this period. For French cinema, there are really people who wait for Cannes, even if