The 78th Cannes Film Festival opens on Tuesday with expectations running high for what could be a banner edition. All of the ingredients — an absurd number of stars, top-tier filmmakers, political intrigue — seem to be lined up for the French Riviera spectacular. Over the next 12 days, Cannes will play host to megawatt premieres including those of “Mission: Impossible – The Final Recoking”, Spike Lee’s “Highest 2 Lowest” and Ari Aster’s “Eddington”.
Things get underway on Tuesday with the unveiling of Juliette Binoche’s jury, a three-film tribute to Ukraine and the opening night film, Amélie Bonnin’s French romance “Leave One Day”. At the festival’s opening ceremony, Robert De Niro will receive an honorary Palme d’Or, 49 years after “Taxi Driver” won Cannes’ top prize.
Cannes is coming off a 2024 festival that produced a number of eventual Oscar contenders, including “Emilia Perez”, “The Substance”, “Flow” and the best picture winner, “Anora”. Asked if he’s feeling the pressure this time around, festival director Thierry Frémaux said the only kind of pressure he believes in is in beer. (Beer on tap in France is “biere a la pression.”)
“Indeed last year was a beautiful year,” Frémaux said Monday. “But at the very time when I was with (journalists) as the festival started, we didn’t know if it was going to be a good year or not.”
This year’s Cannes Film Festival, the premier international cinematic gathering, is unspooling following US President Donald Trump’s call for tariffs on movies made overseas. While Fremaux expressed sympathy to the cause of strengthening local movie production, he said it was too soon to comment on the still-unformed plans.
Cannes will follow up Tuesday’s festivities with the return on Wednesday of Tom Cruise to Cannes. Three years after he brought “Top Gun: Maverick” to the festival, he’s back with the latest “Mission: Impossible” movie.
