France

Inside Cannes 2025: 22 Films Vying for Palme d'Or

A total of 22 films are competing for the top prize at this year's Cannes Film Festival, which wraps up on Saturday. Here is a list of the titles vying for the Palme d'Or, which will be awarded by this year's jury president Juliette Binoche and her seven fellow judges, including Oscar-winner Halle Berry and Succession star Jeremy Strong. A ...

Sebastião Salgado, Photographer of Humanity and Nature, Dies at 81

French-Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado, acclaimed for his monumental body of work depicting wildlife, landscapes, and people across the globe, died on Friday at the age of 81, the French Academy of Fine Arts announced. Salgado was a member of the Academy since 2016. The Academy expressed its deep sorrow, describing him as “a great ...

Saeed Roustaee at Cannes: Filming for Iran, Despite the Cost

“It’s very important to me that my films are seen by people in my country,” said Iranian filmmaker Saeed Roustaee in an interview with AFP. Three years after Leila’s Brothers, Roustaee is back in competition at Cannes with a film that received official shooting permits. After his previous visit to the Croisette in 2022, the 35-year-old ...

Cannes Hotel Legend Retires After Decades of Star Encounters

French maître d'hôtel Jean-Francois Pomares says he never has time to see a film at the Cannes Festival, but he has met many of its stars over the years, including a young Sharon Stone. "It was at table 24, I still remember," said the 61-year-old who oversees the dining room at the Carlton Hotel in the French Riviera city. At the time, "nobody ...

"Humans": The Poetry of Knowledge at Le Monnot Theater

From May 28 to June 1, Le Monnot theater welcomes Humans, a unique performance by Swiss artist Narcisse. Directed by Jean-Philippe Daguerre, this poetic-musical creation explores human knowledge through an innovative staging that blends poetry, music, and theater. Praised by French critics, Humans stands out for its intellectual richness, ...

Cannes After 8 PM: Where Cinema Is Born

It’s easy to assume that Cannes winds down after the last screening, that the gowns are packed away and everything fades into the next day’s headlines. But that’s a misconception of the true rhythm of the Croisette. After 8 PM, a different atmosphere takes over. A cinema without screens, yet one where everything can begin. This parallel ...

Cannes 2025: ‘The Six Billion Dollar Man’ Revisits the Julian Assange Story

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has recovered well after his release from jail last year, his wife told AFP ahead of the premiere of a documentary Wednesday that includes never-seen-before footage of the whistleblower. Assange is at the Cannes Festival to promote the documentary by American filmmaker Eugene Jarecki, who said he was trying to ...

Kristen Stewart Breaks Silence with Bold, Unflinching Debut

"I can't wait to make 10 more movies," Kristen Stewart told AFP the morning after making what Rolling Stone called "one hell of a directorial debut" at the Cannes Film Festival. Nor can film critics, judging from the rave reviews of The Chronology of Water, her startling take on the American swimmer Lidia Yuknavitch's visceral memoir of surviving ...

French Town Breaks Smurf Number World Record

The small Breton town of Landerneau set a new world record on Saturday for the largest gathering of Smurfs, with 3,076 people dressed as the iconic blue characters, according to the organizers. The achievement comes after two failed attempts over the past five years.

Cannes 2025: ‘Mama’ Shines a Light on Migrant Maids

Director Or Sinai didn't have to go far to find the subject of her acclaimed debut film about the secret lives of the millions of women who support their families back home by being domestic workers abroad. She was chatting to the "wonderful Ukrainian woman" who looks at her mother, who has Parkinson's Disease, when the housekeeper started ...

Boualem Sansal: A Silenced Voice Honored in Paris

Boualem Sansal, who has been jailed in Algeria for six months, was awarded the international Cino del Duca Prize on Wednesday. The French literary prize honors "the strength of a writer who (...) continues to make their free voice heard." Recognized for his entire body of work, Boualem Sansal joins the ranks of past laureates like Andrei ...