We have had a chance to reflect on a special Cannes Film Festival for us…
IT’S now exactly four weeks since the fest started and the bird landed back at home in London just over two weeks ago, and the memories of our tenth year making videos at the Cannes Film Festival remain vivid – in parts.
A particular high and hugely memorable collection of moments centre around personalities signing our Cannes 2025 poster – we purchased the official poster – which, unhelpfully, is double sided this year and of a couple in a loving clinch – yeah, don’t ask, one side is the man, on the other, you can see the woman*. (More in our final Reel from the festival).
This year we got all the big names we interviewed to sign and it all started with legend that is Shekhar Kapur…
No other director (yet) has made the transition from Bollywood or popular Hindi cinema into Hollywood…almost everyone in the West knows him for ‘Elizabeth I’ (1999) and ‘Elizabeth: The Golden Age’ (2007); fewer folks know that he also currently heads up India’s official equivalent of Cannes – the International Film Festival of India (known colloquially, as IFFI Goa), as Festival Director. Yes, it is hosted in Goa, mainly around the town of Panjim (Panaji), the administrative capital of the state. We covered 2018-19 and then again in 2023 at IFFI’s invitation.
In Cannes every year, the poster for the forthcoming IFFI – (held in November for eight days) is unveiled and this year was no exception. (See our picture below).
Kapur made an arresting opening address at the Bharat (India) Pavilion; he told the audience “Cinema is dead” and the age of double or second viewing is what filmmakers are up against.
You no longer make films to be seen on the big screen with a collective audience of strangers – you watch on a screen at home/work, and while you are doing other things…
Some filmmakers don’t seem to understand or appreciate that this is happening or are ignoring it altogether…
Kapur came up with some ideas in our interview (link below) – and Bollywood fans will be delighted to hear that he is about to start production on ‘Masoom 2’ – a follow on from his first hit film of 1983.
Another big Bollywood name obliged – Anupam Kher and the cast of ‘Homebound’ also honoured our poster – very thrilling for me as someone who has been covering independent Indian cinema for more than 10 years now.
Kher was launching only his second film as a director, ‘Tanvi The Great‘ in Cannes. It releases worldwide on July 18. It’s a heart-warming tale about an autistic girl, Tanvi, played by newcomer Shubangi Dutt.
After the huge success of Payal Kapadia’s ‘All We Imagine as Light’ last year, winning the Grand Prix and being the first Indian film to reach the Competition after 30 years and being there to record it all – ‘Homebound’ by Neeraj Ghaywan, as a film, was going to be a hard act to follow but it delivered.
While appearing in the Un Certain Regard section – just below the Competition category – and highlighting work from exceptional directors on the first or second films, it is a worthy companion piece to ‘All We Imagine as Light’, if you want to see films from India as part of a trend at Cannes.
There was a lovely symmetry for us too, as writer-director Ghaywan returned to Cannes after 10 years himself, following the success of ‘Masaan’ in 2015 – still regarded by many as one of the most influential independent films to have come out of India in recent times.
in official selection
We think many will respond similarly to ‘Homebound’; it is another deeply felt, more intense in tone film than ‘All We Imagine As Light’, but no less impactful and similarly centred around three friends – Shoaib (Ishaan Khatter), Chandan (Vishal Jethwa) and Sudha (Janhvi Kapoor) and set very firmly in North India.
We will be writing a full review and will deal explicitly with its themes – suffice to say, it is moving and says a lot about the ambitions of ordinary folk who don’t want to be millionaires or run the country – but simply want to make their family proud and live a relatively comfortable life that would allow their children to go further.
That’s a universal touchstone emotion and there were many in Cannes who were left in tears following the end credits. Janhvi Kapoor joked that she had never been so happy to see so many folks crying…
the world premiere screening of Homebound in Cannes
We hope like Kapadia’s ‘All We Imagine as Light’ – ‘Homebound’ will travel far and wide.
It deserves too – in our interviews all the actors spoke brilliantly and on point about their characters and the challenges of making it (See the link below). Both Khatter and Kapoor, especially, emanate from film families and are, in some respects, like Bollywood royalty. Kapoor is the daughter of one the most revered stars of her age – Sridevi (1963-2018), while Khatter’s half brother is the well established Bollywood actor, Shahid Kapoor.
In the same UCR section, we also saw two British films which won awards – ‘Urchin’ was handed the FIPRESCI prize, awarded by international film critics.
The film, by actor and now writer-director, Harris Dickinson is a superb debut and sustained by a brilliant central performance from Frank Dillane, as Mike – he won the Best Actor Award, for this section.
Akinola Davies’ Jnr first film, ‘My Father’s Shadow’ is a very personal, semi-autobiographical tale written by his brother Wale and it received the Camera d’Or Special Mention. The Camera d’or prizes are reserved for first time filmmakers. Set in Lagos, Nigeria, Davies’s skill is to make you care and fear for their Dad (Sope Dirisu) and his two boys in a tense city awaiting the outcome of 1993 General Elections there. (See our quick interview with Davies shortly after its world premiere screening in Cannes – link below or click on his picture below).
Both British directors seem destined to return to Cannes, we feel on the strength of these. The other British feature in this section also triumphed. ‘Pillion’ by Harry Lighton won the Best Screenplay award – we weren’t able to see it.
Elsewhere, we enjoyed meeting and talking to a number of star actors and directors, either returning to Cannes or making their first foray into international filmmaking – Makrand Deshpande talked about the making of ‘Monkey Man’ with Dev Patel (video forthcoming) and Bhuvan Lall (see link below), whose latest book, ‘Namaste Cannes’ charts the history and connections between Indian cinema and the festival itself.
The low point?
We continue to be interested in the subject of Diversity – and academic and one of the leading authorities on the subject, in the entertainment space, Dr Stacy L Smith, was in conversation with fellow American Taraji P Henson about the issue, as part of Kering – the luxury brand’s also 10-year-old innovative initiative – Women In Motion strand.
Sadly, it was on the morning of a thunderstorm (May 20) – and we actually overshot, got drenched and walked back to the media centre to dry off…
Almost obversely, the widespread and disruptive power failure on the last morning of the festival (Saturday, May 24) proved to be something of an unexpected boon – with no power for laptops, and little to no internet connectivity, we headed for the beach…
In all the 15 years** of covering the Cannes Film Festival, we have never had that opportunity and it took me back to my first evocative trip to the city, aged about 13, when my father and significantly older brother, drove the family (mum & two sisters) down from London to the South of France, on one of our mad annual summer road trips – and I took my first but not last dip in the Cote D’Azur.
A big thanks to all the production team who made this year’s coverage so special! Please take a bow, Natalie Barrass, Adrianne McKenzie, Anuj Deo, Brigitte Leloire Kerackian, Suman Bhuchar and Tatiana Rosenstein…
Roll on Cannes 2026!
*For the first time in its history, the Cannes poster is double-sided and features Anouk Animée and Jean-Louis Trintignant (JLT) in ‘A Man, A Woman’ (1965) – our signatures are where you can see JLT.
** I started covering Cannes from 2013 for www.asianculturevulture.com but the site did not go live until August 1 2013; we used our material in September when ‘The Lunchbox’ had its UK release. Prior to that I attended the festival first on a hospitality trip in 2009 and then 2010-12 as editor of Eastern Eye.
- Reviews to follow of all the films we saw – Homebound, Urchin, My Father’s Shadow, Sentimental Value, Sirat, Fuori. Sadly we were not able to view this year top prize winner, ‘It Was Just An Accident’ by Jafar Panahi.
- There are also video interviews with filmmakers Deshpande, Sukki Menon, Sajin Babu (referred to as Baabu as well), & translators Francois-Xavier Durandy (Hindi>French) & Jahan Bakshi (Hindi>English).
Our Gallery – from some 2.000 personal pictures! Some of these have appeared in Reels and pictures on our Instagram account – Follow and don’t miss!
We will be doing a page (or two) with all our video interviews and videos from Cannes 2025…
PICTURES GALLERY (best seen on a bigger screen)
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