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The Communiqué News

Festival de Cannes: Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur, who is leading the Indian delegation at Cannes Film Festival, on Wednesday met Shivani Pandya, Managing Director at the Red Sea International Film Festival, Saudi Arabia.


Swati Bhat

Anurag Thakur and Shivani Pandya, Red International Film Festival MD, at Cannes 2022/ AFP


The Information and Broadcasting Minister has a packed schedule on the second day of Cannes Film Festival. The minister is also scheduled to meet Jerome Paillard and Guillaume Esmiol, Executive Directors of The Marche Du Film, to explore further business partnerships with India.

The minister on Tuesday led the largest-ever Indian official delegation of eleven celebrities walking together on the inaugural event at Cannes Film Festival.

Mame Khan became the first ever folk artist to open a Red Carpet for Indian contingent. The festival is special this year for its celebration of Indian cinema's prowess as India is the first-ever official Country of Honour at Marche du Film. India is also a 'Country of Honour' at the Cannes Next, under which five new startups would be given an opportunity to pitch to the audio-visual Industry.



Festival de Cannes: The opening ceremony will take place today, at 7:00 pm and will broadcast live on France 2 and internationally on Brut.

All of the Festival’s events will also be available to all through our media partnership with France Télévisions and Brut., which will offer a broad media coverage of the venue. Red carpet and steps events, press conferences, photocalls and all official events will broadcast in both French and English on France.tv, Culturebox, Brut. Cannes, YouTube as well as on the Festival de Cannes’ official website.

The closing ceremony will take place on Saturday May 28, at 8:30 pm and broadcast live on France 2 and internationally on Brut. The screening of the Palme d’or-winning film, that was just rewarded by the Jury, will follow in the Grand Théâtre Lumière Auditorium.


Swati Bhat

Waiting for the Opening Ceremony © Amandine Goetz / FDC


Opening Ceremony of the 75th Festival de Cannes TUESDAY MAY 17 AT 7:00 PM LIVE ON FRANCE 2 Actress Virginie Efira will serve as Master of Ceremony and host of the 75th Edition. She will welcome on the stage of the Palais des Festivals’ Grand Théâtre Lumière the Jury, including Vincent Lindon as Jury President alongside Asghar Farhadi, Rebecca Hall, Ladj Ly, Jeff Nichols, Deepika Padukone, Noomi Rapace, Joachim Trier and Jasmine Trinca. The opening ceremony will broadcast live today at 7:00 pm on France 2. One of the highlights of the ceremony will be the presence of the 75th Festival’s guest of honor, American actor, director and producer Forest Whitaker, who will receive an honorary Palme d’or at that time. Vincent Delerm, who celebrates 20 years of career in the Paris-based L’Européen hall these days, will perform on that night – it’s worth noting that the artist directed the feature Je ne sais pas si c’est tout le monde in 2019 and that he was invited by the Festival in 2021 for a photo coverage that will be released as a portfolio, L’année où le Festival de Cannes avait lieu en juillet (Polka). The screening of the opening film, Michel Hazanavicius’ Final Cut will follow the special night. The film will be theatrically released in France on that same day. As in previous years, audience members will be able to experience the special night in nearly 400 theaters across France – opening ceremony and opening film. This initiative is handled by the Festival de Cannes, along with France Télévisions, the Fédération Nationale des Cinémas Français and the CNC. Closing Ceremony of the 75th Festival de Cannes SATURDAY MAY 28 AT 8:30 PM LIVE ON FRANCE 2 After 11 days of Festival, the Jury will give the awards during the Closing Ceremony. It will take place on May 28, beginning at 8:30 pm and broadcasting live on France 2. The Palme d’or-winning film will then be shown in the Grand Théâtre Lumière and bring an already-memorable edition to a close. The 21 films competing for the Palme d'or this year are: Holy Spider by Ali Abbasi, Forever Young by Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Crimes of the Futur by David Cronenberg, Tori et Lokita by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Stars At Noon by Claire Denis, Brother and Sister by Arnaud Desplechin, Close by Lukas Dhont, Armageddon Time by James Gray, Broker by Kore-Eda Hirokazu, Nostalgia by Mario Martone, RMN by Cristian Mungiu, Triangle of Sadness by Ruben Östlund, Decision to Leave by Park Chan-Wook, Showing Up by Kelly Reichardt, Leila’s Brothers by Saeed Roustaee, Boy from Heaven by Tarik Saleh, Tchaïkovski's Wife by Kirill Serebrennikov, Pacifiction by Albert Serra, Mother and Son by Léonor Serraille, EO by Jerzy Skolimowski, The Eight Mountains by Charlotte Vandermeersch and Felix Van Groeningen. Follow the Festival from all over the world The opening and closing ceremonies will be broadcast live internationally in English and French thanks to Brut., without geographical blocking, via the following links: Brut America - Brut Côte d'Ivoire - Brut Egypte - Brut Espagne - Brut Inde - Brut Maroc - Brut Mexique - Brut Sénégal - Brut Tunisie The Festival Television The Festival Television, co-produced by France Télévisions, Brut. and the Festival de Cannes covers the red carpet and steps, photocalls and official events. Broadcasting in both French and English in the Palais des Festivals, on its outdoor screens as well as in hotels on the Croisette, TV Festival de Cannes will also be available on France.tv, Culturebox, Brut. Cannes, YouTube and the Festival de Cannes’ official website. The Festival de Cannes’ official app is available on the App Store and Google Play.



Festival de Cannes: The opening ceremony of the 75th edition of the Cannes Film Festival commenced on Tuesday as Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur led the star-studded Indian delegation on the Red Carpet at Palais des Festivals.


Swati Bhat

The glamorous red carpet contingent along with the Union Minister included R Madhavan, Ricky Kej, Vani Tripathi, Prasoon Joshi, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Shekhar Kapur. While Madhavan and Nawazuddin opted for black tuxedos, Ricky, Prasoon and Anurag could be seen dressed in bandhgala suits of blue, black and cream colours respectively. Vani wore a beautiful blue saree and Shekhar donned a white kurta with a Nehru jacket.

Apart from these Nayanthara, Pooja Hegde, Tamannaah Bhatia and folk singer Mame Khan are also a part of the Indian delegation led by the Information and Broadcasting Minister. Actor Akshay Kumar too was part of the official delegation but had to opt-out after he tested positive for COVID-19. Earlier, Bollywood diva Deepika Padukone who is currently creating waves at Cannes Film Festival as a jury member attended the red carpet ceremony wearing a saree designed by Sabyasachi.

At the 75th edition of the Cannes Film Festival India has been named the 'Country of Honour' at the Marche du Film, the business counterpart of the marquee event.


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