The Cannes Film Festival revealed its last film in its selection. There are films screened on the last evening of the festival that have branded the Cannes legend. With the desire to carry on this tradition, the festival is pleased to announce that Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano’s new film The Specials, in Official Selection 2019, will be the Last Screening of its 72nd edition, on Saturday May 25, in the Grand Théâtre Lumière, during the closing ceremony.
Its name will no longer be the “Closing Film,” it will now be called the “Last Screening”, falling on the evening of the closing ceremony. Its French name “La Dernière séance” is the same as Peter Bogdanovich’s French title for The Last Picture Show, and Eddy Mitchell’s song.
Since last year, the Festival de Cannes has ended on a Saturday and no longer on a Sunday. As the last night has retrieved the warmest colours of the party and celebration, the last film screened will be a beautiful end to an Official Selection launched eleven days earlier.
By renaming the closing film the “Last Screening”, the Festival de Cannes wishes to reconnect with its tradition of final great screenings, as has been the case with the memorable nights where were shown Steven Spielberg’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (in the former Palais, in 1982), Ridley Scott’s Thelma and Louise (in the new one, in 1991) or Terry Gilliam’s The Man Who Killed Don Quixote last year.
This year, the 72nd Festival de Cannes will end up on a major event: the premiere of Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano’s new film The Specials, starring Vincent Cassel and Reda Kateb.
The Specials is a social comedy reinventing Nakache and Toledano’s world, as in each of their films. Cassel and Kateb lead a cast of non-professional actors and young autistic teens. The directing puts all the characters on the same level, in a film that acutely evokes social and contemporary issues, where the collective world is once again at the heart of everything: social workers, volunteers, and health professionals, all striving to take care of autistic teens. As usual, the two filmmakers go all out with their love of humanity, their belief in the life of the group, and humour as the first and ultimate defence in human relationships.
“Just like the characters, the viewers find themselves immersed in the life of these associations, with these families, doctors, volunteers, interns–all these heroes of solidarity championing the love of others,” says Pierre Lescure, president of the festival.
“This film is more than contemporary and carries great promises for the future,” declares Thierry Frémaux, general delegate. “With The Specials as the Last Screening, and as with the other French films presented in the Official Selection, cinema in 2019 will showcase its ability to talk about cities, streets, shopping centres, filming all the faces of youth, their commitments, their music, the places they live in, their rage for life, and their questioning of the world,” adds Frémaux.
The Specials was submitted at the last minute to the selection committee. The Festival de Cannes is pleased to welcome for its world premiere two filmmakers who count enormously for all lovers of cinema.
The Specials is produced and distributed by Gaumont. It will be released on October 23 in France.
The Festival de Cannes will open on Tuesday, May 14 with Jim Jarmusch’s The Dead Don’t Die.
The prizes will be awarded on Saturday, May 25 by the jury chaired by Mexican filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu.
