Cannes Film Festival 2024: Key Takeaways and talking points of the 77th edition

euronews (in English)

It's over for another year and the winners have been announced. But what were the key talking points and takeaways of 2024's Cannes Film Festival?  We've narrowed them down to 10. You're welcome.

Transcript

00:00The results are in, but we can't leave Cannes without a round-up.

00:09Chapeau to you, David. Real pain for our enemies. Champagne for you, because you called it right

00:17on that best film.

00:18Yep, Honora by Sean Baker. I mean, it was the, let's say, the crowd-pleasing choice,

00:24because it could have gone either way. They could have gone maybe for a more political

00:27choice, with the Mohamed Razulov, which screened towards the tail end of the festival, with

00:32The Seat of the Sacred Fig. But in the end, Greta Gerwig and her jury went for the consensus,

00:39the critical consensus, and Honora is just a vibrant, very joyful film, and a very well-earned

00:46palm, I think, for Sean Baker.

00:48Any other surprises, though? I mean, like I say, you didn't really miss many tricks

00:53there, but perhaps that Grand Prix?

00:55Grand Prix, I mean, it was interesting to see the first Indian film in competition in

01:0130 years. The last one was in 1994, where Pulp Fiction won the palm. But yes, All We

01:06Imagine is Light, which is this very gentle, very dreamlike film, which clearly stood out

01:12in competition alongside Miguel Gomes' Grand Tour. The main surprise, really, was the fact

01:20that they gave Emilia Perez, the film by Jacques Odiard, this madcap cartel musical,

01:27two prizes, which is rare for Cannes, because usually if you win one prize, that automatically

01:32kind of takes you out of the running for another one. And it won Best Actress for Carla Gascogne,

01:38but at the same time, it was an ensemble piece, so Zoe Saldana was also celebrated with that.

01:45And Carla Gascogne becomes the first transgender performer to ever win an acting prize in Cannes.

01:53Let's move on now to some of the other takeaways that we can say if we resume the last two

01:58weeks here. What for you have been perhaps the highlights and the lowlights?

02:04Films are a little bit too long. I think by and large, even if you liked the films, a

02:10common criticism, even from our highlights, were you could have shaved off 20 minutes.

02:16So there's that. The fact that it was a very sexually charged competition, a lot of nudity,

02:20not gratuitous, mind you. I'd say that another key takeaway is that maybe it's time to bury

02:26the titans. You had the masters of cinema, shall we say, who came to the festival. There

02:31was George Miller, Francis Ford Coppola, there was David Cronenberg. And by and large, I

02:36know I'm in the minority for George Miller and Furiosa, but these films ended up disappointing

02:41and you weren't quite sure what some of them were doing in competition slots. So maybe

02:47this was yet another sign that it's time to kind of give a platform, a boost to directors

02:56who are up and coming and maybe a new generation of voices that would need that little insignia

03:02on their poster can competition, as opposed to these old masters, which by and large

03:09have disappointed.

03:11Well, let's also talk about, briefly if we could, regarding two issues which threatened

03:18to overshadow the festival. Two weeks ago, we spoke about the disgruntled workers and

03:23how they were planning to protest and also this big report into Me Too, which didn't

03:29really materialise.

03:30No, it didn't. I mean, there were a few news pieces that essentially, you know, did name

03:34a few names, but at the end of the day, that seems to have fizzled somewhat. But I mean,

03:40again, it's an ongoing conversation and as Coralie Fargea said in her acceptance speech

03:44for the substance, that this is, the revolution has not yet begun. An interesting statement

03:50because it feels like it has, but I think her point was that this is something that

03:54is going to be happening brick by brick. This isn't a conversation that's going away any

03:58time soon, nor should it. It's an ongoing debate. It's an ongoing reckoning. In order

04:03for that to happen, these questions need to be asked. There needs to be that revolution

04:09and there also needs to be more of a plurality of voices. With only four female directors

04:13in competition this year, it's, a festival like Cannes is lagging behind, specifically

04:19I'm thinking compared to Berlin, who have struck nearly a bit of a 50-50 parity.

04:26But now let's leave you with some of the highlights from Cannes, 77th edition. Thanks for joining us.

04:56Thank you.

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