Cannes 2026 wrap – Bird’s Eye view – a personal take…
Sailesh Ram, editor of www.asianculturevulture.com takes a look back at the week just gone…
London 11.30pm BST
IT’S now been just over a week since the Cannes Film Festival came to a close with the awards ceremony and the Best Film moniker – in the form of the Palme d’Or going to ‘Fjord’.
Directed by Romanian Cristian Mungiu, this is a film about border clashes – not in the physical sense – but culturally. Romania V Norway. See more in our review page (pending).
We didn’t see the film when we were there – as is the case these days – it’s rare to get the time and opportunity to see anything – except those for strictly professional purposes.
This year, that meant seeing a 40 year old movie – and it was the first one Bird No1 saw at Cannes 79.
The film, ‘Amma Ariyan’ (‘Report to Mother’), will feature in our reviews page (pending).
Both editor of the film Bina Paul and lead actor Joy Mathew talked to us about how the film was made, restored and its relevance today.
Where are the political films?
All around us – but these are films essentially with small p – politics – as opposed to Politics.
Seemingly, they are not very political at all – ‘Amma Ariyan’ is a classic in that sense and late writer-director John Abraham, something of a genius in that regard.
Cannes by selecting this Malayalam language film for its Cannes Classic section was surely firing a subtle signal – the film got an introduction from the Thierry Frémaux – he introduced it in English – last year, when the more illustrious and better known Satyajit Ray classic, ‘Days and Nights in the Forest’ screened in the same section – he spoke in French; perhaps with no Hollywood’s Wes Anderson to introduce this time being the essential difference.
‘Report to Mother’ is another loving restoration by the Film Heritage Foundation, based in India, its sound and picture quality is terrific and a big dollop of gratitude to all involved in converting to 4K – and for Cannes to platforming. About a man going to report the death of a friend to that man’s mother is a road journey full of surprise, discovery and wonder and poses some deep questions for us all but in such a way that is entertaining and not intellectual.
The only other Indian film in official selection was in the La Cinef section which is made up of recognised Film School students.
Mehar Malhotra from the Film & Television Institute of India (FTII) in Pune, appeared to get a good reception for her short, ‘Shadows of the Moonless Nights’.
Sadly, scheduling clashes meant we couldn’t catch up with Malhotra in person but we shall certainly be following her progress – and for both these films/projects, there is the connection of Payal Kapadia. This year the this Cannes Indian favourite was the head of the Jury on the Critics sidebar section.
Kapadia was also a student at FTII and first came onto the fest’s radar with a short film which led to her first feature, ‘A Night of Knowing Nothing’ screening in 2021, and winning the Cannes documentary prize that year.
Her triumphant Competition Grand Prix Jury Winner in 2024 – ‘All We Imagine as Light’ has a similar more subtle political edge to it as ‘Amma Ariyan’.
All the while, it’s politics with a small p – and both narratives are enhanced by a commitment to story and character and ‘Amma Ariyan’ has the same hybrid feel of ‘A Night of Knowing Nothing’ – though in the Cannes Classic Kerala-based film, it’s more overt and disruptive without being jarring. The nurses at the centre of the action in ‘All We Imagine as Light’ are migrants working in Mumbai, from Kerala. Most film students in India are aware of ‘Report to Mother’. Don’t say we didn’t tell you…
The tiny Himalayan Kingdom of Nepal came, saw and conquered with Abinash Bikram Shah’s ‘Elephants in the Fog’.
Its Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard section is a sure sign that transgender issues from South Asia generally play well in Cannes.
Remember ‘Joyland’ from Pakistan and its two central protagonists – one, a married man – Haider (Ali Junejo), the other a transgender woman Biba (Alina Khan) – fall in love.
In ‘Elephants in the Fog’ – there is more of a community element and the environment plays a considerable part too.
Forest land is being eroded to make way for human settlement but who tells the elephants? And how far can communities, such as the Kinnar, survive and prosper without respect and understanding? Pirati, who is at the core of the film and played by transactivist Thing Lama deserved some form of recognition but we didn’t see any of the other films in this strand, so can’t say any more.
Away from the hardcore filmmaking, there was the usual hullabaloo surrounding Bollywood stars in Cannes.
Our followers on Facebook and Instagram will have seen our many short clips – we do prefer interviews where they are possible – with Urvashi Rautela, we wanted to do something different after two years of relatively straight interviews (2023 & 2024).
She is something of a fixture in Cannes and holds her own in the Hotel Martinez, alongside its many L’Oréal Paris ambassadors. Most wannabes come and go… She is far above that.
As for the most famous Indian ones – what can we say?
More than seven million views for our non Alia Bhatt interview…in restrained paparazzi style, if we can put it like that, we followed her out after she left to helped to launch the Bharat (India) pavilion and another enterprising fellow from the media pressed her… we were also primed in interview mode…
We would still rather have done ‘a proper interview’ but the views and comments do show an appetite for the less managed approaches. We will keep striving…
As for the Aishwarya Rai Bachchan (Ash) v Alia Bhatt debate – they both won plaudits for their Red Carpet appearances and Ash’s caught by us, in all its glory, on both evenings caused perhaps the greater stir, all things considered – The Queen of Cannes was back! But there is little doubt that Bhatt’s stature has grown…
There are still some bits and pieces to come from us on Cannes – the drawback of being a site with a small team with a commitment to cultural journalism, both in the UK and further afield; stay with us, if you’ve just joined and if you’ve been with us for a time, more changes are afoot to make us stronger and more nimble as the media landscape continues to change and evolve.
Our phenomenal numbers from Cannes – more than 5K new followers and views running into millions on Instagram and Facebook, are a testament to the power of Cannes and Bollywood – but also to Meta (the parent company behind both Facebook and Instagram) being part of Festival De Cannes and perhaps, altered algorithms – we aren’t complaining!
Roll on Cannes 80, L’Oréal Paris 30 years of sponsoring the, festival and ‘Devdas’ 25 – yes it will be 25 years since this classic Bollywood film hit the Croisette. L’Oréal Paris marked 15 years – not 20 – will they now recognise 25?
It promises to be a bigger and glitzier show next time around – most thought it wasn’t a vintage Cannes and looking at everything in the round, you couldn’t help feel they are saving some things for 2027…
More backlinks & pictures will be added shortly…
