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Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem film to open Cannes festival

The Cannes film festival will open next month with Iranian master Asghar Farhadi's new film "Everybody Knows", starring Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem, the organisers said Thursday.

Published: 5 April 2018 11:20 CEST

Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem film to open Cannes festival

Photo: AFP

The psychological thriller shot in Spanish will also compete for the Palme d'Or — the first time in six years that an opening film will be in the running for the festival's top prize.

READ ALSO: Discovering Madrid through the movies of Pedro Almodóvar

While Farhadi won an Oscar and the Golden Bear at Berlin for his 2011 breakthrough film, “A Separation”, he has never taken the Palme d'Or, although two of his later films — “The Past” (2013) and “The Salesman” (2016) — won best screenplay and best actor and actress prizes.

“Everybody Knows”, which also features the Argentine star Ricardo Darin, tells the story of a woman played by Cruz who returns from Buenos Aires to her native village in Spain with her husband and children.

Cruz and Bardem are the golden couple of Spanish-language cinema, and have starred in several films together including last year's “Loving Pablo”, about a journalist who falls in love with the notorious Colombian drugs lord, Pablo Escobar.

Farhadi, 45, is one Iran's most renowned directors, who has made a name for himself with tense and carefully crafted stories both inside and outside his homeland.

The film will be released in France on May 9th, the day after the 11-day festival begins.

Berlinale to host outdoor festival for film fans in June

An empty area outside the Berlinale Palast in March 2020. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Paul Zinken

The coronavirus outbreak forced the Berlinale, one of Europe’s top cinema showcases, to push back its usual February event and split it into two parts.

It held an all-online edition for critics and industry buyers in March and will now press on with an exclusively outdoor festival for the general public June 9th-20th.

“The Berlinale is pleased to be able to give audiences the enjoyment of an open-air cinema experience at 16 venues in total at the Summer Special,” it said in a statement.

It said Berlin’s falling infection rate “as well as positive signals by government offices” had led to the decision.

“Audiences will be getting a very special, collective festival experience – something we’ve all been missing for such a long time,” organisers said.

The June edition “is geared towards re-igniting the desire to go to the cinema, and to contributing to the revival of cultural activities with an audience”.

READ ALSO: Germany holds virtual Berlinale film fest

The programme will be made up primarily of movies shown online at the March edition, including the winners of its Golden and Silver Bear prizes, which will be awarded at a gala ceremony on June 13th.

Existing open-air cinemas throughout the city as well as a specially created site on Berlin’s historic Museum Island will serve as venues and comply with pandemic hygiene rules.

Ticket sales will begin on May 27th.

The global coronavirus outbreak has dealt a body blow to the cinema industry and created major complications for film distribution and production for over a year.

Cannes, the world’s top film festival, usually held in May, has been postponed to July 6-17 this year due to the pandemic and was cancelled outright last year.

The Berlinale, now in its 71st year, awarded its Golden Bear top prize in March to the biting social satire “Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn” by Romania’s Radu Jude.

The city of Berlin on Monday reported a seven-day coronavirus incidence just over the 100-mark, meaning cinemas, restaurants and other facilities remain closed.

However, officials are hopeful that an accelerating vaccination campaign and tightened lockdown measures will bring infections down soon, allowing for an at least partial reopening.

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