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A pedestrians walks on the official logo of the 77th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, south-eastern France, on May 13, 2024. - Cannes Film festival will take place from May 14 to May 25. Christophe Simon, AFP

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CANNES

Agence France-Presse

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:950px"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/17156726792535-14-2024 4-00-29 PM.png" style="width:950px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left"><span id="isPasted" style="color:rgb(51, 51, 51);letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;display:inline !important;float:none">A pedestrians walks on the official logo of the 77th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, south-eastern France, on May 13, 2024. - Cannes Film festival will take place from May 14 to May 25. <em>Christophe Simon, AFP </em></span><em> </em></span></span></span></div><div><br/></div><p>CANNES, France — Hollywood stars jetted into Cannes on Tuesday as the world&#x27;s most famous film festival gets under way in dramatic circumstances, including a fugitive director&#x27;s daring escape from Iran, and a looming cloud of fresh #MeToo allegations.</p><p>The festival officially kicks off in the evening with an honorary award for Meryl Streep -- just one of a host of international A-listers flocking to the sun-drenched Cote d&#x27;Azur, where legendary directors George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola top the VIP guest list.</p><p>Coppola&#x27;s decades-in-the-making epic &quot;Megalopolis,&quot; an Ancient Rome-inspired saga set in a corrupt modern-day city, is the most anticipated of this year&#x27;s entries for the top prize Palme d&#x27;Or.</p><p>&quot;Cannes is important to him and he is important to Cannes. He comes as an artist,&quot; said festival head Thierry Fremaux, praising the 85-year-old director of &quot;The Godfather&quot;.</p><p>&quot;Megalopolis&quot; is one of 22 films competing for the affections of a jury led by &quot;Barbie&quot; director Greta Gerwig.</p><div><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/entertainment/12/14/23/barbie-director-gerwig-to-head-cannes-film-fest-jury">READ: &#x27;Barbie&#x27; director Greta Gerwig to head 77th Cannes Film Festival jury</a></div><p>Richard Gere will star in Paul Schrader&#x27;s &quot;Oh Canada&quot;, recent Oscar winner Emma Stone reunites with Yorgos Lanthimos in &quot;Kinds of Kindness&quot;, and Demi Moore tries her hand at horror in &quot;The Substance&quot;.</p><p>Outside the race for the Palme d&#x27;Or, George Miller&#x27;s latest &quot;Mad Max&quot; installment, &quot;Furiosa&quot;, will get its world premiere on Wednesday, while Kevin Costner returns to the Western genre with &quot;Horizon, an American Saga&quot;.</p><p>But darker, off-screen plotlines have emerged on the eve of the festival&#x27;s 77th edition.</p><p>In a last-minute twist, director Mohammad Rasoulof -- also competing for the Palme d&#x27;Or -- announced on Monday he had escaped in secret from Iran, just days after being sentenced to eight years in prison on security offences.</p><p>Rasoulof had been under pressure from Iranian authorities to withdraw his latest film, &quot;The Seed of the Sacred Fig&quot;, from Cannes.</p><p>&quot;I am grateful to my friends, acquaintances, and people who kindly, selflessly, and sometimes by risking their lives, helped me get out of the border and reach a safe place on the difficult and long path of this journey,&quot; he wrote on Instagram.</p><p>Rasoulof&#x27;s lawyer Babak Paknia told AFP that the director plans to attend the festival for the premiere next week.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>&#x27;FESTIVE MOMENT&#x27;</strong></div><div><br/></div><p>Meanwhile, France&#x27;s film industry is in the midst of a belated #MeToo reckoning, with a string of accusations against its biggest star, Gerard Depardieu, and rumors in the run-up to Cannes of more accusations to come against high-profile figures.</p><p>Actor Judith Godreche, who has accused two directors of assaulting her when she was a teenager, is presenting a short film, &quot;Moi Aussi&quot; (Me Too) aimed at encouraging more women to come forward.</p><p>On Monday, nine women accused Alain Sarde, a major French film producer, of having raped or sexually assaulted them.</p><p>His lawyer did not respond immediately to the allegations, which were published by ELLE magazine.</p><p>Camille Cottin, star of hit television series &quot;Call My Agent!&quot; and an outspoken feminist, will host this year&#x27;s festival.</p><p>She said there were a lot of issues she would like to address in her opening speech.</p><p>&quot;But it&#x27;s also supposed to be a festive moment... and I&#x27;ve only got four minutes,&quot; she told AFP.</p><p>Adding to the off-screen drama, a group of festival employees have called for a strike over pay and conditions that could cause disruption at the event.</p><p>Festival head Fremaux insisted the focus this year will be squarely on the movies.</p><p>&quot;No controversies come from the festival,&quot; he told reporters. &quot;We have taken care to ensure the main reason we&#x27;re all here is cinema.&quot;</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>TRUMP, COPPOLA, STONE</strong></div><div><br/></div><p>Among the other entries for the Palme d&#x27;Or is &quot;The Apprentice&quot; -- a biopic of Trump&#x27;s formative years from Iranian-born director Ali Abbasi. It stars Sebastian Stan, known for playing the Winter Soldier in Marvel films.</p><p>And &quot;Emilia Perez&quot; has quite the synopsis: a musical about a Mexican cartel boss undergoing a sex change to escape the authorities, directed by France&#x27;s own Golden Palm winner Jacques Audiard. Pop superstar Selena Gomez appears in a supporting role.</p><p>But the hot ticket is undoubtedly Coppola&#x27;s &quot;Megalopolis&quot;, starring Adam Driver, on Thursday.</p><p>There is a growing anticipation over whether the veteran director -- who self-funded the lavish epic -- can match his masterpieces of the 1970s, when he twice won the Palme d&#x27;Or for &quot;Apocalypse Now&quot; and &quot;The Conversation&quot;.</p><p>Film fans are also excited for new works from body-horror maestro David Cronenberg (&quot;The Shrouds&quot;), Italy&#x27;s Paolo Sorrentino (&quot;Parthenope&quot;) and Oliver Stone (&quot;Lula&quot;, a documentary about Brazil&#x27;s president).</p><p>Playing out of competition is &quot;She&#x27;s Got No Name&quot;, one of China&#x27;s biggest-ever productions, which features megastar Ziyi Zhang tackling the highly sensitive topic of women&#x27;s rights.</p><p>Legendary Japanese animators Studio Ghibli -- makers of &quot;Spirited Away&quot;, &quot;My Neighbour Totoro&quot; and &quot;Howl&#x27;s Moving Castle&quot; -- will receive an honorary Palme d&#x27;Or, the first offered to a group.</p><p>And the festival will round off on May 25 with a final honorary award for &quot;Star Wars&quot; creator George Lucas.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>— By Andrew Marszal, </strong><span id="isPasted" style="color:rgb(65, 65, 65);letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;display:inline !important;float:none"><strong>Agence France-Presse</strong></span><strong> <br/></strong></div><div><br/></div>

<p>Adding to the off-screen drama, a group of festival employees have called for a strike over pay and conditions that could cause disruption at the event.</p>

Adding to the off-screen drama, a group of festival employees have called for a strike over pay and conditions that could cause disruption at the event.

Hollywood heads to Cannes as off-screen drama soars

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Hollywood heads to Cannes as off-screen drama soars

Agence France-Presse

Published May 14, 2024 03:59 PM PHT

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