Hollywood has come together to ban Russia from all of its content; Credits: The Wrap

The Cannes Film Festival is official for 2022 as inaugurated by the artistic director of the 2022's Official Selection on the Champs Elysees. Director Thierry Fremaux had a talk with Variety and shared all the latest news in Tinsel Town. 

The most major event at the point in Hollywood is its widespread ban of Russian films and filmmakers. The culture presently has no representation in the American film industry, whatsoever. 

Additionally, there is an upsurge in the efforts to help female directors and creators come to the front light. Then, there is also the matter of the controversial stance of Hollywood when it comes to streamers like Netflix and more. 

The latest Cannes Film awards will have four directors with the Palme d'Or honor and include Kore-Eda Hirokazu, the phenomenal Japanese director famous for his work in "Japan." The list also features Swedish film director Ruben Ostlund is known for Triangle of Sadness. 

Others are "Crimes of the Future" director David Cronenberg, "Showing Up" director Kelly Reichardt, "Armageddon Time" director James Gray and "Tchaikocski's Wife's" helmer and Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov. 

The names in the list feature one of the most diverse collections of filmmaker lineups in Cannes history. The films surely reflect the genius these creators possess. 

The list of the films to be debuted at the film festival contains only 49 films as of yet, though there are usually 55 to 60 films in the lineup. Hence, the director is hopeful that the list would expand to provide space for around 10 more works of brilliance. 

Similarly, the Cannes film festival competition usually has a collection of 20 films in the arena. Presently, there were 18 announced titles for the competition and there is still space for 2 more films to make it to the competition. The best part is that the collection ranges over films from all over the globe, including Egypt, Iran, Korea, and Costa Rica. 

Coming to the political situation in the world, the director made sure to point out that the Cannes film festival has thrived to separate artistic endeavors from political persuasion and manipulation. Yet, there is no way that a major world event like Russia's invasion of Ukraine would not have an impact on the film industry. 

Art has an uncanny way to represent the political, social, and environmental structure of any given time and also impact it. Cannes has always stood up to withhold the integrity of art and creation. 

The festival will feature a premiere of Butterfly Vision, a film by Maksim Nakonechnyi. Yet, the festival management understands that they can never please everyone with their choices. 

Still, it is important to mention that Paris is just removed from the warzone by a distance of a three-hour flight, and hence, celebrating creation at such a place and time requires careful consideration of what's at stake. The festival is to debut two Ukrainian films to show its solidarity with the war-riddled country. 

Then, there is the premiering of Holy Spider, an Iranian film, and Boy From Heaven, a work from Egypt. The first film is not strictly a political movie considering that it's about a serial killer being chased by the police. Still, the film does bring attention to some of the hidden aspects of the said society and everything that happens behind the scenes. 

Boy From Heaven, the Egyptian feature focuses on the discontent between a religious community and is already hailed as a great work for the subject matter. Art could shed light on the problem and still stay unproblematic, a lesson yet to be learned by many critics and even filmmakers. 

But the festival will also debut with an appearance by Kirill Serebrennkov, a director who will find himself in the middle of a politically charged conversation. Though his presence at the film festival could be justified, he will be making his way to the place from Germany and was banned from travel in Russia for three years. 

It is unfortunate that when the director finally found the ban to be lifted and travel outwards, he will come from a country that has invaded a peaceful nation. It would not make for pleasant conversations at the Cannes. 

His film “Tchaikovsky’s Wife” will be presented at the festival, which is a period piece about the 19th century. Embuing both a world from the modern era and from the time back then, Canness is more than willing to let the Russian artist have a stage at the festival this year. 

Though the director of the festival did welcome the one particular director from Russia, he said that there is nothing particularly the film festival holds against artists from the country. 

Another point of conversation for the awards event is that Canness has not yet made a recognizable increase in the number of film-directed films in the festival. Year and year again, there are only about three of four films directed by women to be featured in the competition. 

Thierry Fremaux explained that the competition is not subject to any regulation quota that demands the number of women-helmed projects to be increased in their representation. The only credible point of entry into the competition is solely the merit the work holds and its artistic prowess.

Still, it is important to mention that women won most of the top categories at the Cannes awards event last year. The awards for the Competition, Un Certain Regard, and Cinefondation were all taken home by women. Hence, a considerable change can be seen in the dynamics of the festival compared to the past 40 years. 

Another major question gripping the Hollywood film culture is streamers. Exhibitors have strongly voiced their opinion against streamers like Netflix, yet Cannes Film Festival does not seem to oppose these.  

Reasoning his stance on the situation, the artistic director revealed that while French exhibitors are not for the popularity of streamers, he himself as the director of the event will have to side with the festival itself. 

While he himself might have an opinion that suggests that does not advocate for streamers, he will presently not voice his concern against them. Yet, he hopes he will succeed in changing the minds of the board members. 

Theirry Fremaux shared all the details of the Canne film festival; Credits: Deadline

Speaking on the behalf of Netflix, the streamer has produced some seriously epic content over the past few years. With films like Blonde by Andrew Dominik and more, the streamer takes true consideration when stepping into the competition and has aired works akin to the genius of theater films.