The Cannes Film Festival kicked off its screenings on Tuesday with the Oscar-winning Iranian director Asghar Farhadi’s film Everybody Knows, starring Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz.
The festival will last until 19 May.
Festival officials have set up a telephone hotline for victims of harassment, with reports of Cate Blanchett and Kristen Stewart joining other female film professionalss Saturday in a protest in support of the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements. In addition to the speculated protest, several platforms and groups will address the issue.
During the festival’s 71st edition, eight films from the Middle East will compete in its competitions. Two of them will be in the main competition: one is an Egyptian film, Youm El-Deen (End of Time), by director Abu Bakr Shawky and the second is Lebanese film Capharnaüm by Nadine Labaki.
The main competition will also include the return of legendary French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard, a pioneer of the 1960s French New Wave film movement.
Godard, who is not a newcomer to Cannes, comes back to Cannes 50 years after he was a vocal opposer to holding the festival. In 1968, political turmoil spread all over France, including protests by students and workers. At the time, Godard was an advocate to cease all cultural activities due to the revolution.
France is currently witnessing a wave of semi-crippling strikes, which included train workers and employees at some airline companies.
