A person wears a hat in front of the official poster for the Cannes film festival, a photo of actress Catherine Deneuve taken by Jack Garofalo, on May 15, 2023 in the southern French city.
British director Ken Loach, twice crowned in Cannes, closes this Friday together with Italian filmmaker Alice Rohrwacher the competition for the Palme d’Or in Cannes.
The awards gala for this 76th edition of the competition, which represented the return of great Hollywood stars, will take place on Saturday.
At 86, Loach has nothing to prove in Cannes, where he goes to serve up another social spoon and commit to a film.
“The Old Oak,” says the veteran director, is a slow-moving film set in a town in northern England that has suffered a long period of deindustrialization, where a group of Syrian refugees arrived.
The action takes place around the pub, the heart of the town.
Loach won his first Palme d’Or in 2006 with “The Wind That Shakes Harley” and in 2016 with “I Am Daniel Blake”.
His cinema is militant, in the service of the cause of the left, whatever times it represents, from contemporary England to the Spanish Civil War (“Land and Freedom”, 1995).
– Archaeologists and Thieves.
Alice Rohrwacher is a 41-year-old Italian director who competes for the third time at Cannes with “La Chimera”.
The film tells the story of a young archaeologist who becomes involved with a group of tomb robbers in Italy in the 1980s.
Rohrwacher received the Grand Prix of the festival in 2014 with “Mirabili”, and in 2018 he was awarded the best screenplay for “Felix Lazzaro”.
In 2019 the jury member is chaired by Mexican filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu.
Two other Italian cinematographers are in the running: Marco Bellocchio (83 years old) and Nanni Moretti (69 years old), as well as an insight into the historical past of their country.
Friday will close with a speech by the American actress Jane Fonda, the latest Hollywood personality to land in Cannes, this year full of stars.
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At the same time, Un Certa part of the Republic will announce its awards (20 films in competition).
The 76th Cannes Film Festival has been a window into the world of cinema for almost two weeks, with veteran directors and new voices, and a record seven female directors.
Of the 21 applicants, thirteen repeated in Cannes, and five have already won the Palme d’Or.
The jury, chaired by Swedish director Ruben Ostlund, will close in town on Saturday to compile the list of awards.
The main awards of the competition are the Palme d’Or, the Governor’s Award, the Jury’s Award, the award for the best director, the best screenplay, the best male performance, the best female performance and the best short film.
There is also a Golden Camera award for best new directors.
Cannes also closes with a record attendance at the parallel film market, where Spain was honored.
More than 14,000 faithful people attended the event, including 500 professionals from the Spanish region.
