Lights, Camera, ACTION
Vol. 1 Issue 10 – 1st June 2024
And then there was light
India made history at Cannes with Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine as Light winning the Grand Prix, one of the top awards at the festival. Anasuya Sengupta took home the Un Certain Regard Best Actress award for her performance in The Shameless, while an Indian student from FTII won the La Cinef prize. Now elsewhere, you may have also noticed that Selena Gomez and the ensemble of Emila Perez won Best Actress at the festival. So, how is this possible? Here is a quick look at the major awards at the Cannes Film Festival, what all that French means and who won over the jury this year.
Firstly, the films selected to screen and compete at the festival are divided into categories.
Competition: Feature films and Short films
Feature Films Out of Competition
Un Certain Regard
Cinefondation
The movies that don’t fit the various parameters to qualify for the festival are the ones that are Out of Competition. Un Certain Regard highlights younger filmmakers who are telling unique and progressive stories. Cinefondation is exclusively for works by film students. As for the awards, amongst many others, the main accolades are,
Palme d'Or: Best feature film of the official competition.
Grand Prix: Best feature film that demonstrates originality and the spirit of inquiry.
Jury Prize: Chosen by the jury for a featured film or an exceptional performance.
Best Actor: Best performance by a male actor.
Best Actress: Best performance by a female actor.
Best Director: Best director of a film in competition.
Best Screenplay: Best original or adapted screenplay.
Caméra d'Or: Best first film by a new director across all sections.
Palme d'Or du Court Métrage: Best short film.
Prix Un Certain Regard: Best films that emphasize non-traditional stories. (Under the Un Certain Regard category there is also Jury Prize, Best Director and Performance awards)
La Cinef: Best student film
And the 2024 winners are…
Palme d’Or: “Anora,” Sean Baker
Grand Prix: “All We Imagine as Light,” Payal Kapadia
Jury Prize: “Emilia Pérez”
Actor: Jesse Plemons, “Kinds of Kindness.”
Actresses: “Emilia Pérez”
Director: Miguel Gomes, “Grand Tour”
Screenplay: Coralie Fargeat, “The Substance”
Camera d’Or: “Armand,” Halfdan Ullman Tondel
Palme d'Or du Court Métrage: “The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent,” Nebojša Slijepčević
Prix Un Certain Regard: “Black Dog,” Guan Hu
Performance Awards: “The Shameless,” Anasuya Sengupta; “The Story of Souleymane,” Abou Sangare
La Cinef: “Sunflowers Were the First Ones to Know,” Chidananda S Naik
Haven’t you heard
Knives Out 3, Wake Up Dead Man casting announcements have been flowing in. The murder mystery’s third installment will feature Josh O’Connor, Cailee Spaeny, Andrew Scott, Kerry Washington, Glenn Close, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner and Daniel Craig returning as detective Benoit Blanc.
Donald Trump was found guilty on all 34 counts of his hush-money case. This prevents him from voting in the upcoming US elections but he can still contest as a presidential candidate. 🙃
Billie Eilish is facing backlash after comments in an interview about how “no one wants” 3-hour long concerts and how it is “psychotic”. Twitter was quick to point out that if this was a dig at Taylor Swift and Beyonce then their tours’ sales, attendance and revenue say otherwise. And fans love to get their money’s worth.
Speaking of concerts, Ticketmaster has faced a data breach. Keep an eye on your cards that were used to make any transactions on the ticketing website and app.
Normal People co-stars Daisy Edgar Jones and Paul Mescal teased a reunion online which ended up being a charity raffle to support Pieta & UNICEF, aiding Palestinian children.
Google has launched an AI search result feature and its…not the best.
The Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield starrer, “We Live in Time”, finally has an official release date. The romance film spanning decades will release this October 11th!
An employee of an American fashion rental company made a TikTok with pictures of white women wearing mid-length floral dresses and semi-sheer scarves and proceeded to say “It’s very European, it’s very classy” when it looked strikingly similar to Indian ethnic wear. The desi diaspora was quick to retaliate, stitching their videos in salwars and dupattas to the now-deleted video.
Another billionaire wants to emulate the OceanGate submersible and go down to the ruins of the Titanic. To each his own.
It’s the year of popcorn buckets, after the questionable Dune popcorn bucket, Deadpool & Wolverine have come out with their own weird creation.
Rumours are that the Hercules live-action movie will cast Austin Butler and Dua Lipa!
Timothee Chalamet was spotted filming the Bob Dylan biopic.
After much success this year, Nicholas Galitzine has been cast as the live-action He-Man in the Masters of the Universe movie…
Nasty Girl by Tinashe is the song that’s all over your reels.
Singer Raye won big at the Brit Awards, bagging the coveted Album of the Year!
Variety’s Actors on Actors series is celebrating its 20th year and this year’s pairings have just been announced!
Watch out
Hacks: The award-winning comedy drama’s first two seasons are now streaming on Netflix!
Geek Girl: Based on the book by Holly Smale, an awkward teenager gets scouted to become a model, now streaming on Netflix.
Dancing for the Devil: Netflix’s new docu-series looks inside the religious cult that targets young dancers and uses content creation as a means to control them and make money.
Kinds of Kindness: After The Favourite and Poor Things, Emma Stone and director Yorgos Lanthimos return with another absurdist dark comedy. With Jesse Plemons bagging Best Actor at Cannes, and Stone winning the Best Actress Oscar for Poor Things, this one’s gonna be a must-watch in the theatres in late June!
The Acolyte: A Star Wars spin-off following a young Padawan reuniting with her Jedi Master to investigate crimes across the galaxy. Releasing on June 5th on Disney Plus.
Becoming Karl Lagerfeld: Releasing on June 7th on Disney Plus, Daniel Brühl plays the iconic fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld, showcasing his journey through the cutthroat industry.
Hit Man: Glen Powell’s romantic action comedy releases on Netflix on June 7th.
The Boys: Season 4 will be released on June 13th, with a 3-episode premiere on Prime Video.
The Bear: Season 3 premieres on June 27th on Disney Plus. The first full-length trailer just dropped, and Carmy and the kitchen look more chaotic than ever!
A Family Affair: Basically The Idea of You in a different font. Starring Nicole Kidman, Joey King and Zac Efron, watch the trailer now. Releases on Netflix, June 28th.
Umbrella Academy: Watch the final season’s teaser trailer! Releasing on Netflix in late August.
Wolfs: George Clooney and Brad Pitt. Period. Releasing in theatres in late September. Watch the trailer here.
Moana 2: The teaser trailer is here, hitting theatres in November!
The Outrun: Saoirse Ronan is back, watch her play an erstwhile alcoholic and drug user, grappling with her tumultuous past.
All eyes on Rafah
You're not alone if you saw the image with these words on back-to-back Instagram stories from most people you follow. That Instagram Story was shared more than a whopping 47 million times on the platform. But what purpose does it serve? The immediate thought is spreading awareness, of course. The AI image was circulating after the Israeli airstrike on the civilian refugee camps in Rafah, the slogan indicating that the world is watching, and is cognizant of the atrocities, even though no part of the image conveyed this information directly. But as well-intentioned as the post may be, is it enough?
One can’t help but wonder if it’s coming from a place of performative activism, especially when those sharing the image have never previously expressed any views on the happenings in Gaza and the oppression that the people of Palestine are facing, and continue to not do so after sharing this one story. Everyone wants to be on the right side of history and especially in the age of social media, it’s human nature to use the platform to feed your own self-righteousness. Not that long ago something similar happened with the Black Lives Matter movement, where internet users posted black squares for Blackout Tuesday, in protest against racism and police brutality.
While such collective action is a great starting point to get the conversation going, it is also our responsibility to dig deep, not just cursorily glance over world issues but to try to make an impact if we have chosen to address the matter on our profiles. Do your own research and provide links to aids for those willing to donate, or share the posts explaining the situations or the infographics to simplify it for the uninformed, and contextualise your actions. There is also coverage being posted by Palestinian journalists and the on-ground aftermath, however, it has been known that Instagram shadowbans such creators and takes down graphic imagery. So while the AI nature of the All Eyes on Rafah story makes it easy to share without any algorithmic repercussions, it does present a sanitised and unrealistic version of a devastating reality. Yet another instance of whether AI is a boon or bane, but that’s a question for every other day, for the rest of our lives.
For now, if you are someone who has chosen to show solidarity through an Instagram story, you can’t also be self-serving and selective and palatable. Here are some posts you can consider reading and pushing forward.
These provide such great insight every week. Thank youu
Really appreciate your words on Palestine. I'd be remiss if i didn't share Operation Olive Branch.
https://linktr.ee/opolivebranch - this link is a great place to start helping even with just a few clicks. right from supporting families by donating to them directly (by accessing gofundme's in the spreadsheet) to helping journalists get their accounts back and more.