Cannes 2024 – Poster reveal; ‘Sister Midnight’, ‘The Shameless’; our Cannes last year - Urvashi Rautela controversy

THERE are just over THREE weeks before the Cannes Film Festival gets underway on May 14 and we bring you a round-up of the latest developments and look back briefly at our coverage from last year.

🎥 Festival unveils its poster for 77th edition (2024) yesterday (April 19)

🎥 Indian film ‘Sister Midnight’ selected for Directors’ Fortnight

🎥 ‘The Shameless’ features the in Un Certain Regard (UCR) section – the film has a Bulgarian director Konstatin Bojanov and was shot in Nepal. It was announced along with the other official selections on April 11 – ‘All That We Imagine’ appears in Competition by Payal Kapadia and ‘Santosh’ by Sandhya Suri features in Un Certain Regard (UCR) See here… We will be covering in Cannes…

🎥 An honorary Palme d’or will be presented for the first time to a group – the legendary Japanese animation house, Studio Ghibli.

🎥 French actor Emmanuelle Béart and Belgian- Congolese polymath Baloji will preside over the Caméra d’or jury for the festival. This award is given to first time film directors from any of the official selections.

🎥 Announced on Thursday (April 18) that Cannes Classics – section showcasing the best of films from a bygone era will open with ‘Napoléon’ (1927) by French filmmaker Abel Gance

🎥 www.asianculture.com will be in Cannes 2024 and we look back on last year’s Uravashi Rautela interview which sparked off controversy…

With almost three weeks to go till the festival starts, the Festival de Cannes (FdC), as it is officially refers to itself, unveiled its poster yesterday (April 19).

Taken from the great Japanese auteur Akira Kurosawa’s ‘Rhapsody in August’, the film was presented in Cannes in 1991, out of competition.

Cannes said it mirrored a movie theatre and “celebrates the Seventh Art, with naivety and wonder”.

The official poster of the Cannes Film Festival (2024) the 77th edition – © Shochiku Co., Ltd. / Kurosawa prod. / Création graphique © Hartland Villa | Rhapsodie en août d’Akira Kurosawa (1991)

Earlier in the week, ‘Sister Midnight’ was announced as one of the selections in the sidebar, Directors Fortnight, known formally since 2023 as Quinzaine Des Cinéastes. This festival runs from May 15-25 and the screenings are at the JW Marriott Hotel along the Croisette in Cannes – in a slightly different area to the Red Carpet and main screenings at the Palais.

The film stars Radhika Apte – who is well known to Indian audiences – she appeared in the Bollywood film ‘Merry Christmas’ (2024) which features leads Katrina Kaif and Vijay Sethupathi.

Radhika Apte (Instagram) stars in ‘*Sister Midnight*‘

Described in various quarters as a comedy, and part funded the British Film Institute’s (BFI) global filmmaking fund, the official synopsis reads like this: “A small town misfit in a newly arranged marriage attempts to navigate an awkward spouse, nosy neighbours and her own feral impulses.”

The film is written and directed by Brit Karan Kandhari, who has made a few short films, such as ‘Sidney’ (at London Film Festival in 2013). These have featured at international film festivals and he has also directed music videos for bands, The Vaccines and Franz Ferdinand.

Apte appears alongside Ashok Pathak (‘The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel’) in ‘Sister Midnight’ which is also backed by Film4, Wellington Films, and Griffin Pictures.

There are 21 feature films in this section, which has been rebranded since last year as La Quinzaine des Cinéastes, under a new artistic director Julian Rejl. He disclosed the selection of these features and six shorts at a press conference on Tuesday (April 16).

Bojanov’s ‘The Shameless’ is about Rani, a sex worker who embarks on a piligrimage to a remote temple where she wrestles with the memory of a past lover who is now serving time for murder.

The film has both Indian and Nepali talent – and among them are Anasuya Sengupta, Omara Shetty, Auroshika Day, Rohit Kokate, Tanmay Dhanania, Kiran Bhivagade and Mita Vashisht. (See Instagram links for more).

Vasisht who spoke to www.asianculturevulture.com (link) about the genius of Bhanu Athaiya, India’s first Oscar winner for ‘Gandhi’ (1983), and also posted about ‘The Shameless’. (See link below).

Thierry Frémaux, the director of the Cannes Film Festival, at the press conference revealing the main Competition and UCR selections last Thursday (April 11) said it was important to keep abreast of cinema from India and China.

Just some of the stars we interviewed and reported on at Cannes 2023

ACV will be in Cannes covering the festival from May 14-25 – we have not covered the festival in its entirety; we will be on the ground interviewing and reporting – make sure to follow us on Youtube and click 🔔 to watch the latest as soon as we put out videos (and on the site) and our socials for real time information.

Last year there three films in official selection and we interviewed a bunch of Indian film stars – see our picture collage above, among these was Urvashi Rautela – whose interview with Sailesh Ram, acv editor, in what was a fashion closet at the Martinez Hotel in Cannes, made something of a splash.

Popular Indian Youtube culture channel The Spill Bee picked up on the interview and commented on Rautela’s answers. We think the channel is being a bit hard on her – everyone has an accent – but thanks to Spill Bee and see you all in Cannes very soon!