About the Festival
Every spring, the Festival de Cannes brings the cinema to life.
Or perhaps the opposite is true...
Acclaimed directors flock to the red carpet to reveal their latest films, standing side by side with up-and-coming film-makers whose nerves and excitement are always palpable. All are welcomed in with the same love, care, and decorum, from the scarlet steps to the photocall and press conference.
Each edition is bursting at the seams with variety: cultures meld, worlds collide, and perspectives clash in an enriching melting pot of colour.
All the works showcased here are screened as world premieres, in an event that embodies the apex of a long and winding journey to Cannes, a lonesome path the director must walk before being joined by fellow travellers on the steady march to the big screen – the spiritual home of film. The Festival de Cannes’ calling is to accompany them every step of the way with rigour and kindness.
This lengthy process, from discovery to revelation and promotion, is one we engage in through our film selections, residences, and workshops, forever spurred on by a desire to keep film alive, generation after generation. Yet to ensure that the magic of Cannes survives, and most importantly, that the beauty of film thrives, passion, expertise, means and resources are all needed – and are made possible by support from Les Amis du Festival.
In an age when sound and fury drown out all else, these artists’ voices are now more precious than ever.
The Festival de Cannes is a dazzling platform where the cries of the world echo loud and clear, and our one and only goal is to promote, nurture, and safeguard the voices that sound out here, from soft whispers to turbulent torments, from frenzied rants to poetic ponderings, voices that are intimate yet universal, and above all, courageous.
​By speaking out, by sharing glimpses of their inner lives and opening up to others, by weighing up the risk of being loved or hated and choosing to take it, artists are living testaments to everything that is right in this world: difference, and its spell-binding ability to bring us together.
Iris Knobloch & Thierry Frémaux
President and General Delegate of the Festival de Cannes
