. . . with the Poster by Agnes Varda to welcome the Master of Ceremonies and Juries.

(da Cannes Luigi Noera – Photos are published courtesy of the Festival de Cannes)

The official poster of the is already known 72 International Cannes Film Festival a tribute to the director Agnès Varda, recently disappeared.

On a sunny background perched on the shoulders of an impassive technician as high as he could go.

Holding on to a camera, which seems to absorb it completely, a young woman from 26 years makes his first film.

It is August of 1954: we are in the Pointe Courte neighborhood in Sète, in the south of France. In the dazzling light of summer, Silvia Monfort and Philippe Noiret explore their fragile love, surrounded by fishermen in difficulty, animated women, children playing and cats in motion. Natural environments, lightweight camera, reduced budget: con La Pointe Courte (presented in Cannes, in a projection on rue d’Antibes, in 1955), the photographer of Jean Vilar's Théâtre National Populaire is paving the way for a promising young filmmaker, of which will remain the only female director.

Like a poster, this photo from the set sums up everything about Agnès Varda: his passion, aplomb and malice. Ingredients of a free artist, that form a recipe that has never stopped improving. His 65 years of creativity and experimentation correspond almost to the age of the Cannes Film Festival, which celebrates visions that reveal every year, they dare and rise higher. And who remains eager to remember.

As she liked to point out, Agnès Varda is not a director: Agnès Varda is a filmmaker. He often attends the Cannes Film Festival to present his films: 13 times in the official selection. She was also a member of the jury in 2005 and president of the jury of the Caméra d’or in 2013. When he received the honorary Palm of Honor, in 2015, he evoked “resilience and endurance, more than honor”, and dedicated it “To all the brave and inventive filmmakers, those who create the original cinema, whether it's fiction or documentary, that are not in the spotlight, but that continue”.

This year's poster whose assembly and design were created by Flore Maquin / www.flore-maquin.com and the signatures of the 2019 create da Philippe Savoir (Filifox) / www.filifox.com.

Alain Delon, Honorary Palm of Honor at 72 Th Cannes Film Festival

It belongs entirely to cinema and its best works and legends: in 2019, the Festival de Cannes has decided to award Alain Delon an honorary Palme d'Or to pay tribute to his wonderful presence in the history of cinema.

After Jeanne Moreau, Woody Allen, Bernardo Bertolucci, Jane Fonda, Clint Eastwood, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Manoel de Oliveira, Agnès Varda e Jean-Pierre Léaud, the Festival de Cannes is proud and happy that the legendary actor starring Luchino Visconti the leopard (Palma d'oro, 1963) accepted this honor from the international community.

“Pierre Lescure and I are delighted that Alain Delon has accepted to be honored by the Festival”, affirmed Thierry Frémaux, general delegate. He hesitated for a long time, having long been reluctant to this Palme d'Or because he thought he would come to Cannes only to celebrate the directors he had worked with. ”

We are talking about a giant, a living legend and a global icon. In Japan, where he is revered, it is even known as the Spring Samurai. More than 80 film, countless masterpieces and superlatives testify to the artistic reach and international aura of a man who entered the scene at Purple Noon (1960), a detective film and a hymn to its incredible beauty. René Clément invented Delon in this film. A rough diamond, at the time he only had 25 years.

Many of his films have become classics. Exploring his filmography is like (ri) experience some of the most beautiful hours of contemporary cinema. Directed by the biggest names in cinema (Antonioni, Visconti, Melville, Losey, Godard, Deray), he starred alongside the biggest movie stars (Gabin, Lancaster, Montand, Sharif, Ventura) and embraced the best actresses on the screen (Mireille Darc, Romy Schneider, Claudia Cardinale, Ursula Andress, Monica Vitti).

Combining artistic excellence with commercial success, is a box office champion (Borsalino, The Red Circle) that has never strayed from independent cinema. Alain Delon has always made strong choices. He shrugged off the features of the captivating young hero, focusing on complex characters, ambivalent and tragic, fragile but rough and shaping the role of police officers and cold-blooded animals. With its charisma, his eyes and his expression of tension, Delon's acting is a genre in itself in Le Samouraï – a huge source of inspiration for John Woo and Quentin Tarantino.

His connection with the Cannes Film Festival dates back to the beginning of his career. Alain Delon has often participated in the Cannes Film Festival. He presented the Palme d'Or, attended the ceremonies of 60 Anniversary of the Festival and came to Cannes Classics to support the restoration of some of his favorite films. Alain Delon has now said that his acting days are over. But he has a regret. “There is one thing that has escaped me that will always haunt me: I wish I had been directed by a woman before I died.”

The jury of 72 Th Cannes Film Festival

This year's prestigious competition will be evaluated by the jury of the next Festival de Cannes (from 14 al 25 May 2019), with the first ever presence of a Latin American director, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu: four women and four men, from four continents and seven different nationalities.

Pierre Lescure and Thierry Frémaux said: «The Cannes jury is invited to see films directed by the greatest directors of our time – as it happens again this year. All directors who participate in the competition must also know that they will be considered by strong artists – which is also the case! »

President Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu Regista, producer and screenwriter / Mexico

Elle Fanning Actress / United States

Maimouna N’Diaye actress and director / Burkina Faso

Kelly Reichardt Regista, screenwriter and editor / United States

Alice Rohrwacher Director and screenwriter / Italy

Enki Bilal Graphic novel author and director / France

Robin Campillo Director, writer and editor / France

Yorgos Lanthimos Regista, screenwriter and producer / Greece

Paweł Pawlikowski Director and screenwriter / Poland

The jury 2019 In some perspective

Chaired by Lebanese director and actress Nadine Labaki, the jury of 3 women and 2 men will reveal his winners on Friday 24 May during the closing ceremony .

In the jury, in addition to President Nadine Labaki, director and actress from Lebanon, Marina Foïs French actress, Nurhan Sekerci-Porst German manufacturer, Lisandro Alonso Argentine director and Lukas Dhont Belgian director

The jury of the Cinéfondation and short films

Composed of 2 women and 3 men of different backgrounds, the short films and the jury of the Cinéfondation are presented.

Chaired by Claire Denis, the jury will nominate the Palme d’or short film winner among 11 films selected in Competition. It will be assigned to the closing ceremony, Sunday 25 May, nel Grand Theater Lumière.

I 5 Jury members will also award prizes for three of the 17 student films screened as part of the Cinéfondation selection. The Cinéfondation awards will be announced by the jury on Thursday 23 May during an award ceremony at the Buñuel Theater, followed by a screening of the winning films.

Stacy MARTIN – Actress – France, United Kingdom who starred in Matteo Garrone's Tale of Tales (Competition, Cannes film festival 2015)

They were KOLIRIN – Director and screenwriter – Israel. His third film, Beyond the Mountains and Hills, Un Certain Regard was previewed at Cannes 2016 and was released with great critical acclaim.

Batch H. KOUTRAS – Director and screenwriter – Greece

Cătălin MITULESCU – Film director, writer and producer – Romania.

Rithy Panh, president of the jury of the Caméra d’or, the Cambodian director will chair the Caméra d’or Jury this year, which will award the prize among one of the 22 first works presented by the official selection.

“I am so happy to be returning to Cannes to chair the Caméra d’or Jury this year. I remember my first time in competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 1994 con The Rice People. I remember pride, faith, the enthusiasm I felt during the making of the film. Shoot in Cambodia, who was returning in peace, working with a Cambodian crew, making a Khmer language film … but nothing could have stopped me! And there the Cambodian flag waved above the Croisette … After a genocide and two decades of war, that piece of colored cloth, found in a market in Phnom Penh, it stirred in the wind and I said to myself: “We are not dead. We have accomplished something.” I can't wait to discover these first films, presented for the first time “.

The other members of the jury are Alice Diop director – France

Sandrine Marques (SFCC) Director and film critic – France

Benoît delhomme (AFC) Photography director – France

Nicolas Naegelen (STAY) Chief Executive Officer of Polyson – France

Less than a week from the start to the selection 2019 expected but unconfirmed films are added. It is Once upon a time … a Hollywood by Quentin Tarantino (2 ore 45). “We feared that the film would not be ready, given that he would not be ready until the end of July, my Quentin Tarantino, who hasn't left the editing room for four months, it is a true, faithful and punctual son of Cannes! As for Inglourious Basterds, will definitely be there – 25 years after the Palme d'Or for Pulp Fiction – with a finished film projected in 35mm and its cast in tow (Leonardo Dicaprio, Margot Robbie, Brad Pitt). His film is a Hollywood love letter from his childhood, a rock music tour of the 1969 and an ode to cinema as a whole.

In addition to thanking Quentin and his crew for spending days and nights in the editing room, the Festival would like to thank the Sony Pictures teams in particular, who made this possible “.

The other film is the marathon Mektoub, My Love: Intermezzo di Abdellatif Kechiche (4 ore)

“I saw the movie last Thursday, since it was still being edited, and definitely right in the middle of the changes! But it's about to end and the director says it will last four hours. And projected at the end of the Festival so that the DCP has time to get there. Franco-Tunisian director Abdellatif Kechiche returns to Cannes with Mektoub's Intermezzo, My Love, six years after his Palme d'Or with La Vie d’Adèle (Blue Is the Warmest Colour). The foundations for this saga narrative and the extraordinary portrait of French youth in the 90s were laid in his Canto Uno, and it will be a pleasure to see the cast again. ”

While out of competition comes Lux Æterna di Gaspar Noé (50 me)

“Two actresses, Béatrice Dalle and Charlotte Gainsbourg, they are on the set of a film that tells stories of witches – But that is not all. Lux Æterna is also an essay on cinema, love for cinema and hysterics on set. It is a brilliant medium-length feature film for the return of Gaspar Noé – unexpected until recently – to the official selection, for a film that the selection committee watched at the last minute and which will be shown in a midnight screening as advertised is mysterious. ”

Another confirmed film is Lorenzo Mattotti's famous bear invasion in Sicily (1 Now 22) “Adapted from the children's book by Dino Buzzati, this animated film by the illustrator and comic book author Lorenzo Mattotti is a visual extravagance, whose graphic ingenuity and his color work will delight the much larger audience of fans of the Italian master. With Italian voices by Toni Servillo, Antonio Albanese and Andrea Camilleri and French voices of Leïla Bekthi, Arthur Dupont e Jean-Claude Carrière. Like the other Un Certain Regard film in the animation Les Hirondelles de Kaboul (The swallows of Kabul) by Zabou Breitman and Eléa Gobbé-Mevellec, The famous bear invasion in Sicily will also take part in the acclaimed Annecy International Animated Film Festival next June. ”

Odnazhdy v Trubchevske / Once in Trubchevsk at Larissa Sadilova (1h30)

“Russian director Larissa Sadilova, who has already directed six films, hasn't made a movie for several years. She came back with this “chronicle from the village of Troubtchevsk”, evoking the feelings of love in the contemporary Russian countryside, shooting the characters played by his formidable actors with a refined direction and a kind eye. The aspirations of women, their patience, the courage that must be shown towards emancipation, the desire, frustration always illusory, a certain sense of immemorial fatalism are all examined, sharply and weightless. It will be the first time that the Cannes Film Festival welcomes Larissa Sadilova. ”

For SPECIAL SCREENINGS

Chicuarotes at Gael García Bernal (1 Now 35)

“A full member of Mexico's exceptionally talented generation, a first-rate actor in the films of Iñárritu and Cuarón, Gael Garcia Bernal, together with Diego Luna, is a devotee of Cannes, where he was on the jury in 2014. Chicuarotes is the actor's second feature in which he immerses himself deeply in Mexican society with a story of teenagers that is an affectionate representation, which continues in the tradition of Mexican cinema to pay homage to its eternal country, film after film ".

Lto the mountain range of dreams di Patricio Guzmán (1 h 24)

“Patricio Guzmán has left Chile more than 40 Years ago, when the military dictatorship took over the democratically elected government, but he never stopped thinking about a country, a culture and a place on the map that he has never forgotten. After covering the North in Nostalgia for the Light and the South in The Pearl Button, his shots come close to what he calls “the vast backbone revealing Chile's past and recent history”. The mountain range of dreams è a visual poetry, a historical investigation, a film essay and a magnificent personal exercise in the search for the soul. ”

Ice on Fire by Leila Conners (1 Now 38)

"In 2007, Leila Conners ha proiettato The 11th Hour at Cannes, an incisive documentary on climate change produced by Leonardo DiCaprio. The Festival projects documentaries about the conflict as part of a strong and proud tradition, as he did also with Davis Guggenheim's An Inconvenient Truth, who won an Oscar and won Al Nobel Peace Prize. Twelve years later, while the alarm bells are still multiplying all over the world (and not only!), Leila Conners and Leonardo DiCaprio have joined together again on the same topic to make a film with an eloquent title: Ice on Fire. ”

5B at Dan Krauss (1 Now 33)

"In the 80s, only a number and a letter were used to designate a ward at the San Francisco General Hospital, the first in the country to treat AIDS patients. While a part of society saw these patients as pariahs, male and female caregivers in 5B have chosen a different path. This film is their story.

Directed by Dan Krauss, 5B is a film about a past that challenges our present. It will be distributed in the United States, all over the world and in France, which in October will host the world conference for all lenders who will donate money over the next three years to fight HIV, tuberculosis and malaria. ”

Finally, the 72 Cannes Film Festival will close with the screening of The Specials, the new film by Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano. From this year it will no longer be the “Closing Film”, but it will be called “Last Screening”. Its French name “Last session” it's the same as Peter Bogdanovich's French title for The Last Picture Show and Eddy Mitchell's song.

Since last year, the Cannes Film Festival ends on Saturday and no longer on Sunday.

By renaming the closing film “Last Screening”, the Cannes Film Festival wants to reconnect with its tradition of great final screenings, as was the case with the memorable nights in which E.T. di Steven Spielberg. l’Extra-Terrestrial (nell’ex Palais, in 1982), Ridley Scott's Thelma and Louise (in the new, in 1991) o Terry Gilliam's The Man Who Killed Don Chixote last year.

The Specials it is a social comedy that reinvents the world of Nakache and Toledano, as in each of their films. Vincent Cassel and Reda Kateb lead a cast of non-professional actors and young autistic teenagers. The direction puts all the characters on the same level, in a film that keenly evokes social and contemporary issues, where the collective world is once again at the center of everything: social workers, volunteers, healthcare professionals who are all committed to taking care of autistic teenagers . As usual, the two filmmakers all go out with their love for humanity, their trust in the life of the group and humor as the first and last defense in human relations.

“Just like the characters, viewers find themselves immersed in the life of these associations, with these families, doctors, volunteers, interns, all these solidarity heroes who defend the love of others”, says Pierre Lescure, Festival President.

“This film is more than contemporary and brings great promise for the future”, dichiara Thierry Frémaux, general delegate. With The Specials as the last screening and as with the other French films presented in the Official Selection, cinema in the 2019 will show his ability to talk about cities, roads, shopping centers, to film all the faces of young people, their commitments, their music , the places where they live, their anger for life and their questions about the world. ”

For twenty years, Bruno and Malik lived in a different world: the world of autistic children and adolescents. Responsible for two separate non-profit organizations, train young people in disadvantaged areas to deal with extreme cases that have been rejected by all other institutions. It is an exceptional partnership, outside of traditional settings, for some pretty extraordinary characters.