Rays of promotional sunshine will highlight 46 European finished and unfinished films at this year’s Marché du Film at the Cannes Film Festival (17–28 May 2022).
‘Triangle of Sadness’ by Ruben Östlund (Sweden, France, Germany, UK/ Coproduction Office)
21 international sales agents are drawing on Film Sales Support (FSS) - totalling €78,000 - to bolster and innovate promotion and marketing campaigns of brand-new films to trigger sales to countries outside of Europe at one of the most prestigious markets of the year. Overseas buyers on-site and off-site will have the fortune to catch sight of a number of new films from Europe premiering at the Croisette.
Amongst the many to be discovered at the Marché are Competition titles, Pacifiction by Albert Serra (Spain, Portugal, Germany/Films Boutique,France), Triangle of Sadness by Ruben Östlund (Sweden, France, Germany, UK/Coproduction Office), Boy from Heaven by Tarik Saleh (Sweden, France, Finland, Denmark/Memento International), Un Certain Regard titles, Metronom by Alexandru Belc (Romania, France/Pyramide International) and Rodeo by Lola Quivoron (France/Les Films du Losange) as well as films in Directors’ Fortnight, Will-o'-the-wispby Joao Pedro Rodrigues (Portugal, France/Films Boutique,Germany) and The Super 8 Years by Annie Ernaux & David Ernaux-Briot (France/Totem Films).
For the first time, FSS will also be awarded to a Ukrainian film in solidarity with the country. Indie Sales is the happy recpient for its film Pamfir by Ukrainian director, Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk, a multi-coproduction between the Ukraine, Poland, France, Germany, Chile and Luxembourg. By a lucky twist, 3 of EFP’s Producers on the Move and their films will benefit from the support indirectly: Sick of Myself by Kristoffer Borgli (producer Andrea Berentsen Ottmar from Norway/Memento International), The Woodcutter Story by Mikko Myllylahti (producer Derk-Jan Warrink from the Netherlands) and Tel Aviv Beirut by Michale Boganim (producer Janine Teerling from Cyprus/WT Films).
13 European films in the companies’ line-ups are yet unfinished but ready to be announced and promoted.
Thanks to Swiss Films, 4 films from Switzerland will similarly receive FSS for the promotion in Cannes: Men Caves by Céline Pernet (Lightdox), Continental Drift by Lionel Baier (Switzerland, France/ Les Films du Losange), 99 Moons by Jan Gassmann (m-appeal world sales) and The Black Spider by Markus Fischer (Switzerland, Hungary/The Playmaker Munich).
FSS is supported by Creative Europe MEDIA and part of EFP’s (European Film Promotion) many activities for the promotion of European films and talent around the world.
Cannes International Film Festival 2022, the largest press event in the world except for the Olympics (which this year was a disaster — or was that last year?), is filled with excitement and contradictions.
As Ukraine is mercilessly bombarded by a mad man named Putin, the warriors and worriers for the Seventh Art gather to celebrate another year of creative passion. Aside from the dazzling array of talent, people, film and intense discussions, the idea that we are warriors for culture takes a shape in my mind and hence this blog.
Contradictions define the human race. In spite of COVID rates rising, people not wearing masks gather together to watch movies and share ideas. Aren’t COVID and social mixing contraindicative of health and safety? And yet we dive in…will this event further our futures or curtail them as individuals? Therein lies another contradiction: Individuals would be better named dividuals, especially in our own minds. We are very divided, not indivisable and not independent. We are living together within a universal unity of oneness and are totally divided within and without our selves.
We have in our minds that it takes democratic free speech to support artists. And free speech is getting more expensive by the day. Even the film Markets themselves (The Cannes Marche, EFM and AFM) are more worried about making money than about how to best support filmmakers’ buyers and sellers.
Dividing an indivisible world into geo-political pods, Europe stands out as a cultural oasis. To further elucidate this, I interviewed Doreen Boonekamp, formerly Director of The Netherlands Film Fund (one of Europe’s smallest countries but one with the farthest reach in many ways). Doreen is now Chair of the Open Method of Coordination (OMC) of the European Union Member States’ Experts on Coproductions. Co-productions that Shineshows that the commitment of Europe to continuing cultural development is unique among all national alliances.
Wishing to put together a dialogue between two seemingly opposite camps, I also spoke with Shivani Pandya Malhotra, Managing Director of the Red Sea International Festival who, in my opinion, is the only spokesperson for culture (i.e., film) in the Middle East as she has gone from 15 years as head of the Dubai Film Festival to the now most impressive, showiest of showcases of Arab and African films, the Red Sea International Film Festival in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Shivani herself, India born and raised, is an example of crossing culture and is a rare woman leading a world class event (in spite of Iris Knobloch being named titular head of the Cannes Film Festival, a largely ceremonial position but the first time held for a woman and a non-French one at that). Equally notable is Mrs. Fatma Al Remaihi, Chief Executive Officer of Doha Film Institute in Qatar who has maintained her position since the longest standing such institute’s inception.
The dialogue will have to wait, but regarding Saudia Arabia: we do not have to put into the words the arguments for and against giving support to the country as they are repeated in every discussion, but on the warrior for culture front: the youth of the Islamic Middle East and Africa are hopeful and filled with their as-yet-untold-stories now waiting at the gate to be released to the world. This, to me, represents the democratization of media and of free speech.
Culture in the Middle East, while ancient, has never been widely disseminated or even spoken of as if its existence mattered to its leaders. Now, just perhaps, this is changing…
So to begin this rambling blog: beginning at the end, the awards have been handed out, Cannes is over for another year during which many as yet unknown events will occur either further dividing or further uniting us in the film world.
Of the approximately 130 films in the Festival and its sidebars, of course the majority were European…we are in Europe, after all, and film is a largely European invention; but here are the “others” whose themes are so often individual and group rights, indeed one can rightly call the filmmakers warriors for culture as the films make their cases heard. Very few are such elegiac slice-of-life sonatas as is Mia Hanson Love’s European film One Fine Morningfor example. You can read the storylines as they are linked into the titles through IMDb:
Middle East & North Africa (MENA)
The Middle East and Africa have nine films in the festival if you include Iran and Turkey. Tunisia leads with three: Harka in Un Certain Regard by Lofty Nathan’s whose film won a prize at the Red Sea Film Fest as a work in progress; it a story about a young man who is barely making a living selling contraband gas. The young Tunisian suddenly finds himself in charge of his two sisters after this dad’s death. This is actually the story of the man who ignited The Arab Spring. In Directors’ Fortnight is Ashkal by Youssef Chebbi (workshopped at Qumra and Venice Gap Financing Market) and Under the Fig Trees (Venice Production Bridge and Marrakech International Film Festival, Atlas Workshops) by Eriga Sahiri, a copro of Tunisia, France and Switzerland. Iran has two films, Competition film Leila’s Brothers/ برادران لیلا by Saeed Roustayi and Critics’ Week in Competition film Imagine تصور by Ali Behrad. Turkey’s Burning Days is in Un Certain Regard, as is Morocco’s The Blue Caftan, andQatar’s copro with Costa Rica, Domingo And The Mist. Palestine’s Mediterranean Feveris in Critics’ Week.
Sub Saharan Africa
Africa has so little at the festival, considering how long the French particularly have been “helping” their ex-colonies develop films from their own culture.
International sales by Visit Films
Late to be announced for Cannes FF Classics was A Daughter’s Tribute to Her Father: Souleymane Cissé/ Hommage d’Une Fille à Son Père by Fatou Cissé from Mali tracing the life and career of one of the greatest and most influential African filmmakers from his childhood and teenage years through the making of such acclaimed films as Cannes Jury Prize winner Yeelen to the present day.
Opening Un Certain Regard is the Senegalese-French film Father and Soldier/ Tirailleurs starring Omar Sy about a father, who enlists in the French army in 1917 to join his 17-year-old son, who was drafted by force directed by Mathieu Vadepied. Directors’ Fortnight is screening The Dam, a Sudanese coproduction of France, Germany, Serbia, Sudan. This slow art film about a worker in a traditional brickyard by the the Nile who secretly builds a mysterious mud construction.The Dam/ Le Barrageis proportedly a political fable about the power of imagination set against the backdrop of the Sudanese revolution. However, it never fully realizes itself.
A Sudanese project is also in L’Atelier, Cotton Queen by Sudanese-Russian filmmaker Suzannah Mirghani as is an Ethiopian one, The Last Tears Of The Deceaseddirected by Beza Hailu Lemma and produced by Gobez Media’s Tamara Mariam Dawit; and from Zimbabwe, Chimbo chebere (The Hyena’s Song)formerly named Akashinga by Naishe Nyamubaya, which like Harka, won a 2021 Red Sea Film Festival award as a Souk project. It is a fascinating look at two sisters, one armed against poachers of wild life and the other siding with farmers seeking sustainable farming which is enroached upon by the wild life itself. Let’s hope the future brings these three films into the festival.
China seems to still be isolating. And who speaks for Hong Kong today? And why is Malaysia always so absent?
As for other Asian entities, Japan — whose great Who Will Drive My Car screened here last year and won the Oscar for Best International Film — has two films in the festival, Yamabuki in ACID and Plan 75 in Un Certain Regard. South Korea continues to thrive with four films: Broker and Decision to Leaveare both in Competition, Next Sohee is Closing Night Film for Special Screenings of the Festival and Hunt is in Critics Week.
Southeast Asia is represented by Pakistan’s first film ever in Cannes Film Festival,Joyland in Un Certain Regard. Central Asia, Kyrgystan, is represented by the documentary The Hill in ACID. India and UK’s documentaryAll That Breathesis in Cannes Special Screenings.
Myanmar is represented in L’Atelier with one project, The Beer Girl In Yangon directed by Sein Lyan Tun. Another L’Atelier project is the Philippine project Samdirected by E del Mundo.
Trying to fight on the cultural front, Ukraine has three films. In Un Certain Regard is Butterfly Vision directed by Maksym Nakonechnyi, a Ukranian Croatia, Czech Republic, Sweden coproduction being sold by Wild Bunch. The feature has also been acquired by Nour Films for theatrical release in France. Inspired by the experiences of women serving in Ukraine’s armed forces against Russian-backed separatists in the country’s eastern Donbas region, in a conflict that began in 2014 and has since escalated following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24. It revolves around a female Ukrainian aerial reconnaissance expert, who returns home to her family after serving in the Donbas, where she was captured and held prisoner for months.
Directors’ Fortnight is screening Pamfir directed by Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk, a France, Ukraine, Luxembourg coproduction.
In Special Screenings is the Ukranian production The Natural History of Destruction directed by Sergei Loznitsa whose film Babi Yar: Context played Cannes last year.
We all know all too well that USA has no government support of culture (disregarding the infinitesimally tiny National Association of the Arts, National Public Radio and the Smithsonian complex of museums), so we can eliminate it as a rival oasis right here. On the other hand, out of 130 films showing in Cannes Film Festival’s Official Selections and its satellites Directors’ Fortnight, Critics’ Week and ACID, US productions cum coproductions number 19 or 15 percent. USA is the Capital of Capitalism, but as in any nation, there is great talent and consequently there are great voices who can stand up for Democracy as an political system that nurtures creativity, even if its most ubiquitous films are made in order to make money for their corporate owners who only pay 10% of the total GDP.*
Canada is surprisingly short on films with David Cronenberg’s Crimes of the Future in Competition and Falcon Lakeby Charlotte Le Bon in Directors’ Fortnight.
Europe, The Oasis of Culture exists in the midst of human contradictions. Its history of defining art (in contradiction to its having built itself on the back of slavery and the looting of its colonies); its current attempts at building socialistic systems (even while capitalism thrives) which will maintain its cultures; and in its current attempts to remedy the past by official acts of inclusion (even while boatloads of refugees from Africa and truckloads of refugees from the Middle East are struggling to penetrate their borders, while capital knows no boundaries).
Humankind is filled with contradictions but at least we are still here, a noble experiment if not an entirely successful one, guardians of the world we have inherited.
*In US, ordinary tax payers pay 77% of the GDP and payroll taxes account for 6.2%.
with coproduction companies, international sales agents and territories sold to date.
Cannes International Film Festival Jury and Award Winners 2022
Cannes 2022 Competition Awards
Palme d’Or: Triangle of Sadness, directed by Ruben Ostlund, a coproduction of Sweden, United Kingdom, United States, France, Greece. International Sales Agent (ISA) Coproduction Office sold to North America-Neon; Baltics- Filmstop Ou; Benelux, Surinam, Dutch Antilles-September; France-Bac; Hungary-Vertigo; Italy-Teodora; Poland-Gutek; Romania-Independenta; Serbia-Five Stars, Slovenia & Ex-Yugoslavia-Demiurg-Cvetka Flakus; Sweden-SF; Switzerland-Xenix
‘Triangle of Sadness’
Grand Prix co-winners: Closedirected by Lukas Dhont, a copro of Belgium, Netherlands, France. ISA The Match Factory sold over 100 territories including USA, Canada-A24; Australia/ NZ-Madman; Baltics-A-One; Benelux-Lumiere; Czech Republic and Slovakia-Artcam; Ex-Yugo-MCF; France-Diaphana, Germany, Austria-Pandora; Greece-Ama; Israel-Lev; Italy-Lucky Red; Netherlands-Cassestte for theatrical, Vedette for TV; Poland-New Horizons; Romania-Bad Unicorn; Scandinavia-Future; So. Korea-Challan; Spain-Vertigo; Switzerland-Filmcoopi; Taiwan-Filmware; Thailand-Sahamangkolfilm; Turkey, UK, Ireland, Latam, Turkey, India-MUBI
The Stars at Noondirected Claire Denis, a copro of United States, France. ISA Wild Bunch sold to No. Am.: A24; Benelux, Surinam, Dutch Antilles-September; Czech and Slovakia-Film Europe; Turkey-Bir.
Best Actor: Song Kang Ho (Parasite, A Taxi Driver) in Brokerdirected by Hirokazu Kore-eda, from So. Korea. ISA CJ Entertainment sold to 171 territories before its premiere, including No. America-Neon; Australia/ NZ-Madman; Benelux, Surinam, Dutch Antilles-September; Finland-Cinema Mondo; France-Metropolitan, Germany-Koch; Hong Kong-Edko; Italy-Koch; Japan-Gaga; Singapore-Clover, Golden Village; Spain-Filmin; Scandinavia-Triart; Switzerland-Ascot Elite; UK, Ireland-Picturehouse.
Best Actress: Zar Amir Ebrahimi, in Holy Spider, a copro of France, Sweden, Denmark, Germany. ISA Wild Bunch sold to USA, Canada-Utopia; Austria, Germany-Alamode; Baltics-A-One Films; Benelux-Cineart; Czech Republic, Slovakia-Film Europe; Denmark-Camera; Ex-Yugo-Fivia/ Cenex; France-Metropolitan; Greece-Cinobo; Hong Kong-Edko; Hungary-Vertigo; Indonesia-Falcon; Ireland, Latam, Malaysia, UK-MUBI; Israel-United King; Italy-Academy 2; Japan-Gaga; Mexico-Canibal; North Africa-Ciné 7ème Art; Poland-Gutek; Portugal-Nos Lusomuno; Romania-Independenta; So. Korea-Pancinema; Spain-B-Team/ Karma; Switzerland-Xenix; Taiwan-Proview; Turkey-Bir.
Jury Prize co-winner: EO, directed by Jerzy Skolimowski, copro of Italy, Poland. ISA Hanway sold to No. America-Sideshow and Janus Films; France-ARP.
Jury Prize co-winner: The Eight Mountains, directed by Felix van Groeningen, Charlotte Vandermeersch, copro of Italy, Belgium. ISA Vision sold to Austria, Germany, Switzerland-DCM; Baltics-Kino Pavasaris; Benelux-Kinepolis, Dutch Filmworks; Bulgaria-Beta; Czech Republic, Slovakia-Aero; Denmark-Camera; Finland-Cinemanse; France-Pyramide; Greece-One from the Heart; Italy-Vision; Norway-Selmer; Poland-M2; Portugal-Outsider; So. Korea-JinJin; Spain-Avalon; Sweden-TriArt; Taiwan-Swallow Wings; Turkey-Bir; UK, Ireland-Picturehouse.
Best Director:Park Chan-wook (Old Boy) for Decision to Leave, So. Korea. ISA CJ Entertainment sold to USA, UK, Ireland, India, Turkey-MUBI; Australia/ NZ-Madman; Benelux-Cinart; France-Bac; Germany-Koch; Greece-Cinobo; Hong Kong, Macao SAR China-Edko; Japan-Happinet Phantom; Poland-Gutek; Russia, ex-USSR-Arna; Scandinavia, Iceland, Baltics-Nonstop; Italy-Lucky Red; Singapore-Golden Village; Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia-Purple Plan; So. Korea-CJ; Switzerland-Filmcoopi; Taiwan-Movie Cloud
Best Screenplay: Tarik Saleh, Boy From Heaven, Sweden. ISA Memento sold to Benelux-Cineart; Germany, Austria-X Verleih; Greece-Cinobo; Hungary-Vertigo, Latam-Impacto; UK, Ireland-Picturehouse Switzerland-Filmcoopi; Poland-M2 Films; Israel-New Cinema;, Ex-Yugoslavia-Blitz; Czech Republic, Slovakia-FilmEurope; Baltics-A-One; Romania-Bad Unicorn; Bulgaria-Beta; Portugal-Leopardo Filmes; Turkey -Bir Films.
Special prize for Cannes’ 75th anniversary: Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne, Tori and Lokita, copro Belgium and France. ISA Wild Bunch sold to No. America-Sideshow and Janus Films; Baltics-European Film Forum Scanorama; Benelux-Cineart; France-Diaphana; Ireland, UK-Picturehouse.
Camera d’Or: War Pony, directed by Rieley Keough, Gina Gammell, USA. ISA Protagonist.
Camera d’Or Special Mention:Plan 75, directed by Hayakawa Chie, Japan. ISA Urban Films sold to China-DDDream; France-Eurozoom; Italy-Tucker; Japan-Happinet; Singapore-Lighthouse; Taiwan-Sky Digi; UK- September
Short Film Palme d’Or: The Water Murmurs, directed by Chen Jianying Special mention: Lori, directed by Abinash Bikram Shah
Un Certain Regard
The jury was chaired by actress-director-producer Valeria Golino and included director Debra Granik, actress Joanna Kulig, actor-singer Benjamin Biolay and actor-producer Edgar Ramírez.
Grand Prize: The Worst Ones/ Les Pires, the debut feature directed by Lise Akoka and Romane Gueret. France. ISA Pyramide. France-Pyramide.
Jury Prize:Joyland, director Saim Sadiq’s debut feature and the first Pakistani feature in official selection at Cannes. Telling the story of a young man from a patriarchal family who secretly joins an erotic dance theatre and falls in love with a trans starlet. Copro of US-based All Caps and Pakistan’s Khoosat Films. ISA Film Constellation.
Best Director: Alexandru Belc for Metronom, debut feature focusing on a group of music-loving Bucharest teenagers caught up in the crackdown that followed the end of Romania’s cultural liberalization period in the early seventies. Romania. ISA Pyramide. France-Pyramide.
Best Actor: Jointly awarded to Vicky Krieps for Corsage, Marie Kreutzer’s period piece in which Krieps plays Empress Sisi of Austria, one of Europe’s first celebrity royals. Copro Austria, France, Germany, Luxembourg. ISA MK2 sold to US, Canada-IFC; Austria-Panda Lichtspiele; Benelux-The Searchers; France-Ad Vitam; Germany-Alamode; Hungary-Cirko; Ireland, UK-Picturehouse; Italy-Bim; Spain-Adso Films; Poland-M2; Czech Republic-Aerofilm; Ex-Yugoslavia-Demiurg
Best Actor: Adam Bessa for Harka, with Bessa as the impoverished young man who sparked revolutionary Tunisia and the Arab Spring. Tunisia. ISA Film Constitution sold to France-Dulac.
Best Screenplay:Mediterranean Fever, a Haifa-set, Arabic-language drama written and directed by Maha Haj. Israel. ISA Luxbox sold to France-Dulac.
The Coup de coeur prize: Rodeo directed byLola Quivoron, about a young woman determined to infiltrate the male world of dirt-bike racing. France. ISA Les Films du Losange.
Best Documentary Award L’Oeil d’Or: All That Breathes by Shaunak Sen,a copro of India, United Kingdom, United States. ISA Submarine, USA-HBO, Sideshow.
Directors’ Fortnight
Best French Language Film Award: The Mountainby Thomas Salvador. France. ISA Le Pacte.
Europa Cinemas’ Award for Best European Film: Mia Hansen-Løve’s One Fine Morning. Europa Cinemas Network will now support the film with promotion and incentivize exhibitiors to extend its program run. The film was chosen by a jury of four exhbitiors from the network. It is the 19th time Europa has awarded the label. France. ISA Les Films du Losange sold to USA-Sony Pictures Classics; Australia/ NZ-Palace; Baltics-European Film Forum Scanorama; Benelux-Cherry Pickers; France-Les Films du Losange; Austria, Germany-Weltkino; Greece-Weird Wave; Hungary-Cirko; Portugal-Alambique; So. Korea-Challah; Spain-Elastica; Taiwan-Andrews; UK, Ireland, India, Turkey-MUBI; Sweden-Nonstop; Denmark, Norway-Another World Entertainment Norway; Iceland- Myndform; Lithuania-Scanorama; Estonia-Bestfilm Eu; Latvia-Sia Best Film; Slovenia-Fivia.
Critics’ Week. Sidebar dedicated to first and second features. Kaouther Ben Hania, Jury President
Grand Prize:La Jauría feature debut by Andres Ramirez Pulido. Copro France, Colombia. ISA Pyramide. France-Pyramide.
SACD prize:La Jauría about a country boy who is wrongly accused of a crime and incarcerated in an experimental rehabilitation center for tough boys in the heart of the Colombian tropical forest.
French Touch Prize: Charlotte Wells’ Aftersun, abittersweet drama about a father and daughter who spend a summer holiday in a Turkish resort. United Kingdom. ISA Charades sold to No. America-A24; Austria, France, Germany, India, Ireleand, Spain, Turkey, UK — MUBI.
Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star Award: for Zelda Samson in Love According to Dalva directed by Emmanuelle Nicot, about a 12-year-old girl who dresses and lives like a woman until one day, she’s taken away from her house. Dumbfounded at first, she later meets a social worker, and a teen with a temper and a new life seems to start for her. Copro Belgium, France. ISA MK2 sold to France-Diaphana, Netherlands-Gusto.
Leitz Cine Discovery Prize for Short Film: The Ice Merchants, a prestigious first for Portuguese animation.
Un Certain Regard:The Blue Caftan by Maryam Touzani Copro of Morocco, France, Denmark, Belgium. ISA Films Boutique sold to Austria-Thimfilm; Baltics-A-One; Benelux-Cineart; Denmark-Camera; France-Ad Vitam; Greece-Danaos; Israel-Nachshon Films; Italy-Movies Inspired; Japan-Longride; Spain-Karma; Switzerland-Filmcoopi.
Saim Sadiq’s Joyland, a daring portrait of a transgender dancer in Pakistan, for the festival’s best LGBT, queer or feminist-themed movie.
Palm Dog Awards
Palm DogManitarian Award: To Patron, a Jack Russel Terrier who has helped sniff out over 200 landmines in Ukraine. Although the film festival usually celebrates movie stars, it also runs the Palm Dog awards, which, since 2001, recognizes the best dogs to appear on screen. Unfortunately, due to the war, Patron was unable to travel to Cannes to receive the award, so another Jack Russel named Opium receiveƒd it on his behalf. Earlier this month, Patron was awarded a medal by President Zelensky for his work. Credit: Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine via Storyful (Ukrainian Jack Russell terrier mine sniffer)
Best Performance by a Dog: War Pony’s standardsilver poodle, Britney
Canine cast:Godland. Denmark.ISA New Europe Film sold to Australia/ NZ-Palace; Baltics-Scanorma; Benelux-Imagine; France-Jour2Fete; Greece-One from the Heart; Hungary-Vertigo; Poland-New Horizons; Spain-Contracorriente; UK, Ireland-Curzon.
The Palm Dog turned 21 years old this year. What was started as a low-key event by British journalist Toby Rose and his critic friends is now a ceremony on the beach with global media in attendance, plus sponsors, as well as an embossed collar for the prize-winning pup — but still retains its all its sense of fun.
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