Cannes Director Thierry Fremaux Answers the Biggest Questions About This Year’s Festival
The Cannes Film Festival always invites scrutiny from every side of the industry, from distributors and sales agents to critics and journalists. The conversations surrounding Cannes have only intensified in recent years, with topics surrounding the evolution of the business and the advent of streaming platform sharing space with complaints about the diversity of the festival lineup. However, the festival doesn’t avoid these far-reaching issues. While Cannes director Thierry Frémaux spoke to IndieWire ahead of this year’s festival about this year’s festival, the narrative of the festival changes over the course of its 10 days, so Frémaux had more to say.
He made a surprise appearance at the American Pavilion this week to join IndieWire’s Eric Kohn and Anne Thompson for a live recording of Screen Talk, where he delved into many potent topics about the 2019 festival. Among the issues Frémaux addressed: debates about the lack of gender parity in the program, how the programming process works for films from different parts of the world, and why Cannes juror Elle Fanning isn’t compromised just because her sister Dakota appears in the new Quentin Tarantino film.
Prior to Frémaux’s arrival, the co-hosts also debated a few films in the Competition section of the festival, including Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” and Ira Sachs’ “Frankie.” They also took audience questions at the end of the session.
Listen to the full episode below.
Screen Talk is available on iTunes.
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