Cannes has announced another program for its 2018 edition. Featuring iconic movies and works from renowned filmmakers, the Cannes Classics category is a celebration of the history of film. The fest also unveiled the Cinéfondation Jury, the panel that will award Cannes’ short film prizes. Three of the five jury members, or 60 percent, are women.
Filmmakers Valeska Grisebach (“Western”) and Alanté Kavaïté (“The Summer of Sangaile”), and actress Ariane Labed (“Mary Magdalene”) will serve on the Cinéfondation Jury. They and their fellow Jury members will select the fest’s Short Film Palme d’or winner as well as the three Cinéfondation Prize recipients. The Short Films Competition includes two women-helmed shorts and Cinéfondation — which showcases students’ short films — features eight women-helmed projects. The Short Film Palme d’or will be awarded during Cannes’ Closing Ceremony on May 19 and the Cinéfondation Prizes at a May 17 event. The latter ceremony will screen the three Cinéfondation Prize-winning films.
Of the 33 films screening in Cannes Classic 2018, only six are from women directors, which amounts to 18 percent. Among the Classic selections are Agnès Varda’s “One Sings, the Other Doesn’t,” which follows the close friendship between two women set against the backdrop of the 1970s women’s movement in France. Also featured is “Fad,jal,” Safi Faye’s documentary about the Senegalese village she grew up in.
Cannes Classic will also feature docs about influential women in cinema: Susan Lacy’s “Jane Fonda in Five Acts” and Pamela B. Green’s “Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché.” The former, which premiered earlier this year at Sundance, explores Fonda’s many different identities: actress, bombshell, businesswoman, and activist. The latter delves into the life of Guy, cinema’s first-ever female director.
Cannes 2018 will run May 8–19.
All of the women-directed Cannes Classic films are below, as are the bios of the female Cinéfondation Jury members. Synopses, details, and bios courtesy of Cannes.
CANNES CLASSICS 2018
Alice Guy and Jane Fonda
Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché (Soyez naturel : L’histoire inédite d’Alice Guy-Blaché) by Pamela B. Green (2018, 2h, United States of America)
First woman director, producer and director of a studio in the history of cinema, Alice Guy is the subject of a documentary carried out full swing like an investigation aiming to make us (re)rediscover the filmmaker and her work around the world.
Presented by Wildwood Enterprises In Association with Artemis Rising. Produced by A Be Natural Production. Pamela B. Green in attendance.
Jane Fonda in Five Acts by Susan Lacy (2018, 2h13, United States of America)
Jane’s Fonda’s film career, her place in the history of the twentieth century, her relationship to the men of her life.
Presented by HBO Documentary Films. Produced by Pentimento Productions. Jane Fonda and Susan Lacy in attendance.
Ingmar Bergman’s Centenary
Searching for Ingmar Bergman (À la recherche d’Ingmar Bergman) by Margarethe von Trotta (2018, 1h39, Germany, France)
Director Margarethe von Trotta, extremely appreciated by Ingmar Bergman, follows the filmmaker’s footsteps as well as her own past and questions the new generation about the place left by the Swedish master.
Presented by C-Films (Deutschland) in Hamburg and Mondex et Cie-France. International sales, Edward Noeltner, CMG in Los Angeles. Margarethe von Trotta in attendance.
Bergman — ett år, ett liv (Bergman — A Year in a Life) by Jane Magnusson (2018, 1h56, Sweden)
Bergman — A Year in a Life describes the existence of Bergman in 1957 when Wild Strawberries and The Seventh Seal were released. A film by Jane Magnusson, who directed in 2013 Trespassing Bergman with Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, Francis Coppola, Wes Anderson.
Presented by B-reel Films. Produced by Mattias Nohrborg, Cecilia Nessen, Fredrik Heinig for B-reel Film, with SvT, Nordsvensk, FRSM, Reel Ventures, SF and supported by SFI, NFI and NFTV. Distribution: Carlotta Films. Jane Magnusson in attendance.
All the Cannes Classics Films
L’une chante, l’autre pas (One Sings the Other Doesn’t) by Agnès Varda (1977, 2h, France)
Presented by Ciné Tamaris.
The film will be screened at the Cinéma de la Plage (Movies on the Beach) with Agnès Varda in attendance.
2k digital restoration from the original negative and restoration, color grading under the supervision of Agnès Varda and Charlie Van Damme. With the support of the CNC, of the fondation Raja, Danièle Marcovici & IM production Isabel Marant, with the support of Women in Motion / KERING. International Sales MK2 films. Distribution in theaters: Ciné Tamaris (the film will be released in France on July, 4th, 2018).
Fad,jal (Grand-père, raconte-nous) by Safi Faye (1979, 1h52, Senegal, France)
Presented by the CNC and Safi Faye. Digital restoration carried out from the 2K scan of the 16mm negatives. Restoration made by the CNC laboratory. Safi Faye in attendance.
THE CINÉFONDATION JURY 2018
VALESKA GRISEBACH
German director, writer & producer
After having studied Philosophy and German studies in Berlin, Munich and Vienna, Valeska Grisebach trained to become a director at the Film Academy Vienna, under Peter Patzak, Wolfgang Glück and Michael Haneke. In 2001, her graduation film Be my Starreceived the FIPRESCI Award (Special Mention) at the Toronto International Film Festival as well as the Grand Jury Award at the Turin Film Festival. Her second feature film, Longing, was invited to take part in the Berlinale Competition (2006), won several awards, including the Special Jury Award in Buenos Aires (BAFICI), the Grand Prix Asturias at the Gijón Film Festival and the Special Jury Award at the Warsaw Film Festival. In 2017, her third feature film, Western, premiered at the 70th Festival de Cannes in the Un Certain Regard section and received numerous distinctions worldwide.
ALANTÉ KAVAÏTÉ
French-Lithuanian director & writer
Born in Lithuania, Alanté Kavaïté has lived and worked in France since 1992. Graduated from the École d’Art d’Avignon, Alanté Kavaïté continued her studies at the École des Beaux-Art de Paris (ENSBA). She directed in 2006 her first feature film Écoute le Temps (Fissures) with Émilie Dequenne, Ludmila Mikaël and Mathieu Demy. Her second film, Summer (The Summer of Sangaile), was released in 2015 and selected in over one hundred international festivals (Berlinale, Stockholm, Busan…), it has received multiple awards including the directing award in Sundance. Alanté Kavaïté is also the co-writer of Evolution by Lucile Hadzihalilovic.
ARIANE LABED
French Actress
Ariane Labed was born in Athens to French parents and grew up in Greece and Germany. She studied drama at Provence University, where she co-founded the Vasistas theatre company, serving as actor, co-director and choreographer. Following a project at the National Theatre of Greece in Athens, she made her screen debut: Attenberg by Athina Rachel Tsangari (Best Actress at the Venice 2010 Film Festival), then Alps by Yorgos Lanthimos in 2011. She went on to feature international projects: Richard Linklater’s Before Midnight, Love Island by Jasmila Žbanić, Fidelio, Alice’s Journey by Lucie Borleteau (Locarno Best Actress award), The Lobster by Yorgos Lanthimos. She has worked with Guy Maddin, Delphine and Muriel Coulin, Philippe Grandrieux, Justin Kurzel, Garth Davis.
