Thierry Fremaux Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefKawase Naomi, the Japanese auteur who won the Camera d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1997 and has had films in competition on multiple other occasions, is paying a flying visit to the festival with “Official Film of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games Side A,” which screens on Wednesday evening.A feature-length documentary, “Side A” is focused largely on the athletes. “Side B,” Kawase’s next project, casts a wider net and captures what Kawase calls a turning point for Japanese society.The International Olympic Committee hired me to do it. I was elected or nominated by the IOC.

Manori Ravindran International EditorThe Cannes Film Festival invited eight male directors for an hours-long symposium on the future of cinema on Tuesday — a session that raised uneasy questions for those working with streaming services, and paid no attention to the lack of female filmmakers on the panel.Moderated by Cannes festival director Thierry Fremaux and Canal+ correspondent and festival associate Didier Allouch, guests included Guillermo del Toro, Claude Lelouch, Costa Gavras, Gaspard Noé, Paolo Sorrentino, Nadav Lapid, Mathieu Kassovitz and Robin Campillo. The directors were interviewed individually, with Del Toro present on stage throughout.The session — which ran for two and a half hours, with speakers remaining a mystery until the event was underway — is one of two forums about cinema organized by the festival.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentThe Cannes Film Festival celebrated its 75th anniversary Tuesday evening with a group of no less than 120 stars and filmmakers from all over the world, including Jake Gyllenhaal, Paolo Sorrentino, Isabelle Huppert, Diane Kruger, Guillermo del Toro, Jacques Audiard, Melanie Laurent, Gael Garcia Bernal and Nicolas Winding Refn who made the trip for the event.Some of them, notably del Toro, took part in a symposium earlier Tuesday to discuss the new challenges that cinema is facing today. The roster of talents on the ground at the gala ceremony also included the bevy of stars and filmmakers presenting films at this year’s festival, including Kristen Stewart, Lea Seydoux, Viggo Mortensen and David Cronenberg (“Crimes of the Future”), among many others.

To celebrate its 75th anniversary, the Cannes Film Festival gathered dozens upon dozens of previous laureates and special guests at the Palais des Festival this evening. Inside the Lumière Theatre, the fest’s artistic chief and general delegate, Thierry Frémaux, and outgoing Cannes President, Pierre Lescure, did a roll call of star actors and directors who left their seats and made their way to the stage .

Julia Roberts climbed to the top of the stairs at Cannes’ red carpet last week, festival director Thierry Frémaux whispered in her ear: “You made it with your shoes on.” This was, for Roberts, a first — the last time she hit the world’s most glamorous red carpet, promoting “Money Monster” in 2016, she’d intentionally abandoned her stilettos.At the time, the press speculated that Roberts bared her feet as a political statement, given that Cannes has a history of mandating that women wear heels, not flats, at the gala premieres. Was she trying to send a message? “I’ll leave it to everyone to decide for themselves,” Roberts says.

Viola Davis brought guests at Kering’s annual Women in Motion dinner in Cannes to their feet on Sunday with a rousing speech acknowledging her roots and personal journey to Hollywood.“As much as I love Alexander McQueen — and I love Alexander McQueen — and the fabulous makeup,” said Davis, “I am always, always so moved when people tell me my work or my life meant something to them. But just know who I am at the end of the day is: I don’t want to leave something for people — I want to leave something in people.”Davis was speaking on stage at Kering’s annual dinner at the Cannes Film Festival, where she was the night’s honoree.

Christopher Vourlias Russia may have been cut off from much of the international film community, but here at Cannes, members of the country’s media business are quietly trying to line up deals.Nearly three months into the war in Ukraine, the leadership of the film festival has spent its opening week fielding questions about its stance on Russia. Festival chief Thierry Frémaux, for instance, was grilled over the inclusion of competition title “Tchaikovsky’s Wife,” a movie with financial ties to Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich.

really hated church, but my parents made me go.”One particular Sunday, he said, his stepmother was sick and decided to skip the service. So Hawke and his father got dressed up in their suits and ties and headed for church.

Hello and welcome back to Deadline’s International Insider. If you’re not in Cannes enjoying the sun-soaked days and balmy evenings along the Croisette, allow us to provide you with everything you need to know, plus provide the lowdown on another big week in international entertainment.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefThe question arising at every Cannes Film Festival lineup announcement about why the festival has not selected films from a particular country tends to irk chief selector Thierry Frémaux. But this year, with films from China notable by their absence, Frémaux may be asking himself if he messed up, or whether bigger forces are at play?Last year, Cannes was at pains to conceal its selection of Hong Kong pro-democracy film “Revolution of Our Times” until as late as possible, in order not to alert mainland Chinese authorities or disrupt the other Chinese indies showing in the festival.China experts differ as to how much Cannes’ defiance last year was a factor in this year’s de facto boycott.

Tom Cruise mania descended Wednesday in Cannes where the actor made a whirlwind appearance at the film festival, walking the red carpet, receiving a surprise Palme d’Or and watching a squadron of French fighter jets fly over the European premiere of “Top Gun: Maverick.”

cast landed on the red carpet in style at the 75th Annual Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday. The spectacle began with the celebrated arrival of superstar Tom Cruise, who greeted cheering fans at the Palais before walking down the red carpet with co-star Jennifer Connelly. Cruise and Connelly were also joined by fellow co-stars Jon Hamm, Miles Teller, Glen Powell and Jay Ellis. The cast's arrival was made even more memorable when an eight-jet flyover released smoke in the colors of the French flag over the event.

Naman Ramachandran Tom Cruise showed just why he’s the biggest movie star in the world with his 45-minute masterclass at the Cannes Film Festival.The sold-out crowd at the Grand Palais’ Debussy theater waited in line patiently for an hour under the blazing afternoon sun and could barely contain their impatience as festival director Thierry Fremaux introduced the event. They watched a montage of the actor’s most memorable scenes — set to Richard Strauss’ “Also sprach Zarathustra” — then broke out in frenzied applause during the famous lip-synching sequence from “Risky Business.”As soon as Cruise hit the stage, he received a standing ovation.Tom Cruise has arrived at #Cannes2022.

CANNES, France -- Tom Cruise mania descended Wednesday in Cannes where the actor made a whirlwind appearance at the French film festival to screen “Top Gun: Maverick," exalt the big screen and sit for a rare interview.Cruise brought a palpable buzz to the Croisette, where throngs gathered around the Palais des Festivals to get a glimpse of the 59-year-old star. Cruise hadn't been to the festival in three decades.

EXCLUSIVE: Berenice Bejo (The Artist) agreed that making Cannes opening-night film  Final Cut (Coupez!) with filmmaker husband Michel Hazanavicius (The Players) had been a family affair.

Ramin Setoodeh Executive EditorA visit from the dead? How chic.The Cannes Film Festival sprung back into action on Tuesday night, as this year’s opening night movie, “Final Cut (Coupez!)” received a 5-minute standing ovation. The gory zombie line, which straddled a tone somewhere between “The Blair Witch Project” and “Call My Agent,” kicked off a festival where few patrons were wearing masks in these COVID times.To commemorate the 75th edition of Cannes, festival director Thierry Fremaux selected a French movie — not to mention a French jury president, “Titane” actor Vincent Lindon — to keep things local at the start of the celebration of movies in the French Riviera.

Cannes Film Festival chief Thierry Frémaux took part in a ‘meet the press’ session with journalists in Cannes yesterday afternoon.

CANNES, France -- After a canceled 2020 edition and a scaled back gathering last year, the Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday rolled out the red carpet for what organizers hope will be a f ully resuscitated French Riviera spectacular.The 75th Cannes Film Festival is set to open Tuesday night with the premiere of Michel Hazanavicius' zombie comedy “Final Cut.” Over the next 12 days, 21 films will vie for the festival's prestigious top award, the Palme d'Or, while a handful of high-profile Hollywood titles — including “Top Gun: Maverick,” “Elvis” and “Three Thousand Years of Longing” — will also launch in Cannes.“This year, everyone wanted to come to Cannes,” said Thierry Frémaux, artistic director of the festival, ahead of the opening. “Everyone wanted to meet again.”This year's Cannes will officially begin Tuesday evening with an opening ceremony preceding the premier of “Final Cut," which was renamed from its original title, “Z,” after Ukrainian protesters noted that the letter Z to some symbolizes support for Russia’s war in Ukraine.The war in Ukraine is expected to be a regular presence in Cannes.

Ellise Shafer Cannes Film Festival has responded to complaints over the online press ticketing system, saying that the fest is currently working to resolve the issue.“The technical difficulties met this morning on the online ticketing service are very likely due to acts aimed at saturating the site with ticket requests, thus preventing festival-goers from accessing it,” Cannes’ official statement reads. “We are currently working on fixing the problem.”Many journalists and critics took to Twitter this morning to express their frustration at the ticketing site, which was not allowing them to access badges or book tickets for screenings.“It’s fair to say the Cannes online ticketing system is a shambles wrapped inside a clusterfuck wrapped inside an enigma,” critic Martyn Conterio wrote on Twitter.

The Cannes Film Festival, which gets underway this week, has given an update following complaints from journalists today about online ticketing issues.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentCannes Film Festival’s chief Thierry Fremaux didn’t just have to field questions about Russia and the dearth of female directors at the fest during his meeting with journalists on Monday afternoon. He also had to address a claim that the festival is attempting to censor the press — and confirmed that he has asked publications to revise his quotes.Reading his quotes before publication is just a “French tradition” and “not a big deal,” he told journalists.But Fremaux denies that he has asked to change what journalists have written or to remove certain questions.

CANNES, France -- After two years of pandemic, the 75th Cannes Film Festival is getting going with a familiar dose of controversy and some new snafus as it readies for its largest gathering on the French Riviera since the 2019 edition.Preparations were in full swing up and down the Croisette on Monday ahead of the festival's opening. The festival is set to open Tuesday with “The Artist” director Michel Hazanavicius' zombie film “Z."But before things even kicked off, the festival had already found plenty of commotion.

Long a bastion of artistic freedom, the Cannes Film Festival has a secret: it censors interviews with festival head Thierry Frémaux.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentPresiding over the 75th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, director Thierry Frémaux has assembled some serious Hollywood star power, world cinema auteurs amid indications that despite COVID, the film world is buzzing with anticipation for the films, the deals and most of all the glamour the fest brings.While Frémaux has been credited with expanding the horizons of the Cannes Film Festival since taking over the reins of its Official Selection in 2001, he’s also been praised for building relationships with American studios and filmmakers.This year, he’s lured them back in spite of the ongoing pandemic, with a lineup including James Gray’s “Armageddon Time,” David Cronenberg’s “Crimes of the Future,” Joseph Kosinski’s “Top Gun: Maverick,” Kelly Reichardt’s “Showing Up,” George Miller’s “Three Thousand Years of Longing” and Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis.” “My first red carpet was for ‘Moulin Rouge!’ with Baz Luhrmann and Nicole Kidman in 2001 and it will be engraved in my memory forever,” says Fremaux. “I’m happy to reunite with Baz this year.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorAt this year’s Cannes Film Festival, heads will turn at a new May-December romance: TikTok, which is 6 years old, has hooked up with the venerable fest, now celebrating its 75th anniversary.How is it that Cannes — which, in years past, notoriously banned social-media posting from its famous red-carpeted steps — is now welcoming TikTok as one of its elite sponsors? For the festival, the partnership is aimed at pulling Cannes forward into the 21st century, lending it a sheen of techno-hipness and ideally attracting younger film fans. For TikTok, which boasts more than 1 billion monthly users worldwide, pairing with the Cannes Film Festival is an effort to show filmmakers that the app is more than just a place for teenagers to lip-sync to the latest viral dance craze.

Cannes Film Festival almost 35 years ago, I was still green and naïve enough to ask long-time Cannes attendees why the famed French fest held such a powerful place in the pecking order of international film gatherings. The late Richard Corliss, Time magazine’s peerless and beloved film critic, answered warmly and succinctly, with his own more worldly query: “Would you rather be in Germany in the winter or the South of France in the spring?”Corliss had a point, but in the decades since I’ve tucked my own couple of dozen Cannes fests under my belt, I’ve compiled my own list of reasons why Cannes remains the one film festival that people who’ve never been to a film festival have heard about and wish they could go to, and know that if a film has scored there, it must be worth their time.

Lise Pedersen The 75th edition of the Cannes Film Festival also marks the 25th anniversary of its partnership with luxury jewelry and watchmaker Chopard.Chopard artistic director and co-president Caroline Scheufele remembers fondly when Pierre Viot, then president of the Cannes Film Festival, asked her to create a new version of the world-famous trophy in 1997.“You can imagine my racing heart when he invited me to redesign a fresh interpretation of the Palme d’Or,” Scheufele tells Variety. “The following year, at the closing ceremony of the 1998 Cannes Festival, the new Palme d’Or was unveiled to the world in the form in which it still exists today.For Cannes Film Festival director Thierry Frémaux, the 25-year partnership with Chopard is a relationship based on loyalty and trust.

Sasha Urban editorMovie icon Julia Roberts has been named the Godmother of the Trophée Chopard 2022 at Cannes Film Festival.As Godmother, Roberts will present the award to both a male and female young actor on the rise. She follows Godmother Jessica Chastain, who presented the award to Jessie Buckley and Kingsley Ben-Adir at Cannes Film Festival 2021.Zhang Ziyi, Charlize Theron, Robert De Niro, Cate Blanchett, Elton John, Julianne Moore, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law and Helen Mirren are among previous presenters.

Zack Sharf Italian director, actor and producer Valeria Golino will serve as the president of the jury for this year’s Un Certain Regard sidebar at the Cannes Film Festival. Golino follows in the footsteps of last year’s jury president Andrea Arnold.