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As the star-studded Cannes 70th anniversary gala dinner wrapped up on May 23, a mariachi band came out to play “Cielito lindo,” “México lindo y querido,” and the Spanish version of “Happy Birthday” turning this year’s Cannes Film Festival into a celebration of #MexiCannes.2017 Cannes.. Photograph by Justin Bishop. Salma Hayek wears Yves Saint Laurent and a Boucheron necklace. Francois-Henri Pinault wears Gucci.Read more in Remezcla here. In a few red-tinted videos, Salma Hayek, Guillermo del Toro, Emmanuel Lubezki, Alfonso Cuarón, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, and BFFs Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal can be seen gathering around Table 46 to sing along with the mariachis. They also attracted other celebrities like Isabelle Huppert and quickly became the center of attention. As they loudly sang, a larger group surrounded them and recorded them on their phones. And with GdT giving the performance of a lifetime, it’s hard to blame onlookers.

"Calloused Hands" tells the near autobiographical coming-of-age story of director Jesse Quinones. This is a unique Latino film that showcases touching storytelling and deals with a12-year-old mixed and interfaith boy growing up in Miami. The acting alone behind Jesse's direction make this a must see film to support. (Also seeing my fellow Chilena Julia Grob in the film made me proud!).

LatinoBuzz: This is a deeply personal story, was there any fear of telling it?

Jesse Quinones: While I was writing it especially, that process was quite painful, and I wasn’t really sure if I wanted to delve back into some of those memories. It definitely brought up some stuff for me. Once I got into the pre-production and production side of things, there was so much to do, that there was little room to think about the fact that this was a personal story. At that point, we were just trying to make a film. But there were some moments during the film that definitely caught me off guard, where I had to step away from the monitor and gather myself. The actors and crew were really respectful of that, which I appreciated a lot. They knew they were telling a story based on my life, and they really worked hard to honor that.

LatinoBuzz: What is your background?

Jesse Quinones: My father is from Cuba and my mother is from Ireland and she’s Jewish. So I’m pretty mixed up!

LatinoBuzz: What was the fundraising process? Did it come from the UK or Stateside?

Jesse Quinones: Funding for the film largely came from private investors in the UK. And then we got some finishing funds from a private investor out of Miami. We also got a lot of in-kind support from the crew. They were amazing and worked tirelessly for very little.

LatinoBuzz: How did you get into the industry? Was there a particular filmmaker or film that influenced you?

Jesse Quinones: I had a real indirect way into the industry. I started off as a reporter in print journalism, then moved into theater, and from there into documentaries, and finally into feature films. You know I’ve had a lot of influences. I think my earliest memory of going to the cinema and just being so touched by what I saw was Malcolm X by Spike Lee. It was just such a powerful film, and really stayed with me. Spike Lee is a great story teller and definitely up there for me. More recent influences, Derek Cianfrance is a big inspiration to me. I loved both Blue Valentine and Place Beyond the Pines. I love the performance in his films, the pacing, the tone, when you see one of his films, you kind of get taken for this ride, he really goes there. I’d love my films to create that same feeling.

LatinoBuzz: Has any members of your family seen it?

Jesse Quinones: Yeah my mother saw it. She’s real proud of me. She’s no stranger to using her own life as a creative template, she’s a writer herself, and has written a book about her life. So when I started working on Calloused Hands she gave me her blessing. She’s been real supportive of it.

LatinoBuzz: What's the next project?

Jesse Quinones: I have a few projects in the pipeline. I'm working on a British set fight movie about a Cagefighter who has to fight his demons both in and outside of the cage. That is being produced by Paula Crickard, who also produced Calloused Hands. I'm also working on a romantic comedy called Carlito y Jane, which is about a British playwright that goes to Cuba and ends up marrying a young Cuban playboy. That has the Cuban ballet dancer Carlos Acosta attached. And then I'm attached to direct a project called The Nanny, which was written by Braulio Montovani, he also wrote City of God.

Also working on some short form stuff, I just shot a music video for a great singer named Kathrin deBoer, which I’m real excited about. You can check out some of her work at www.kathrindeboer.com . And recently I was signed to the agency Irresistible Films, who represent me for commercials and documentaries. So at the moment just trying to stay busy and creative!

LatinoBuzz: Luca and Andre have incredible and heartbreaking chemistry. How did you find them?

Jesse Quinones: Luca was found via a very traditional audition process. I had a staged reading in La about a year before we shot the film and we saw about 50 kids for it, and all of them were really good. But there was just something about Luca. I think he reminded me a lot of me. He’s serious, big for his age, kind of looks real quiet on the outside but has a lot going on underneath. Andre, we connected via a mutual friend Julia Grob, who also has a role in the film. She hit him up on Twitter, and asked if he’d be interested in reading my script. He was, and read it, and asked to meet me.

I live in London and he lives in La so I was hoping a ‘meet’ might be translated into a Skype. But he really wanted a face to face, I think he wanted to see if I was for real. It’s Andre Royo, he played the most favorite character (Bubbles) on one of America’s most favorite shows (The Wire). So I got myself on a plane, headed to La, and we met and talked about the project. He had lots of questions, lots of notes, but ultimately I think he saw enough in it. The film wouldn’t have been the same without those two, they brought a huge amount to their parts, stuff that wasn’t necessarily on the page.

Written by Juan Caceres , LatinoBuzz is a weekly feature on SydneysBuzz that highlights Latino indie talent and upcoming trends in Latino film with the specific objective of presenting a broad range of Latino voices. Follow [At]LatinoBuzz on Twitter and Facebook...

The BBC has launched a brand new competition to find the best Young Dancer.

The contest has four categories for young movers aged between 16-20 to enter: ballet, contemporary, hip-hop and South Asian dance.

The Category Finals will air on BBC Four, following each of the five semi-finalists in each category as they prepare and receive mentoring from dance experts.

The Grand Final - which will be held at Sadler's Wells on May 9 - will see the winners from each category and two wildcards battling it out for the title of BBC Young Dancer 2015, and will be broadcast live on BBC Two.

Matthew Bourne, Akram Khan, Wayne McGregor, Tamara Rojo, Kenrick Sandy and Alistair Spalding have signed up to be grand final judges, while ballet star Carlos Acosta will be an ambassador for the competition.

Meanwhile, in the run-up to the grand final the six finalists will work with a...

Two sisters search for their roots in Cuba in a gently moving drama with added ballet stardust in the form of Carlos Acosta

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Chalk-and-cheese Scottish sisters travel to Cuba to scatter their father's ashes during the titular festival in this surprisingly engaging and likably lively romantic melodrama. Eva Birthistle shines as the politically engaged Rosa whose fashionista sister, Ailie (Charity Wakefield), tags along for the ride as she attempts to trace her troubled family roots, both personal and political.

Carlos Acosta segues from dance to drama with ease, aided by Eirene Houston's thoughtful script that gently ties together a plethora of competing themes and ideas. Although occasionally the multiple plot strands seem to be pulling against each other, there's a warmth to the production that eases us over the structural cracks and makes us care about the outcome.

Rating: 3/5

DramaCarlos AcostaMark Kermode

theguardian.

Arts Alliance Media to distribute Royal Opera House season live to cinemas.

Live opera and ballet from the Royal Opera House (Roh) is to be distributed worldwide by Arts Alliance Media, beginning in September this year.

The exclusive long-term agreement was secured by Mr Wolf, a new alternative production and distribution outfit backed by Arts Alliance Ventures.

Mr Wolf will be Roh Cinema’s exclusive overall partner on a global basis and will work with its sister company, Arts Alliance Media, to handle worldwide sales and distribution, live transmission of the events from London, and global marketing services.

More2Screen will continue to handle sales for UK independent cinemas and selected overseas territories.

The 2013/14 Royal Opera House Live Cinema Season comprises five live operas and five live ballets.

The season opens with Turandot on September 17 and the first live ballet is a new production of Don Quixote, choreographed by Carlos Acosta on October 16.

Other highlights of the...

With 7 Days in Havana comes yet another portmanteau project. But if they don't excite the box office, what is their purpose?

Virtually every review I've ever read of an anthology film says something along the lines of "variable", "uneven" or "patchy" – and that seems to go double for the city anthology film, where the subject matter navigates the dinks, dips and cracks on the pavement of urban life. This week's release, 7 Days in Havana, a "contemporary portrait" of Cuba's capital in which Malibu-commercial cliches (Benicio del Toro's opening segment) sit alongside poker-faced pieces of absurdist excellence (Elia Suleiman's), is no exception.

Given the innate quality control issues and how laborious it must be to set up these portmanteau projects, why make them at all? Who exactly do they serve? Money doesn't seem to be the principal reason: they've only done tepid box office in the past. Think of 2006's Paris je t'aime.

This violent, intense and brilliant bulletfest from Indonesia puts western action movies to shame

It was in a delicate, almost feathery mood that I sat down to watch this film: apparently set in Indonesia, probably an evanescent arthouse piece, and called, The Rain, was it … ? Perhaps it would soothe my working London commuter's cares like a cup of elusively scented herbal tea. Perhaps there would be unhurried shots of treetops languidly disturbed by evening breezes, of skies on which mysterious cloudshapes would be inscribed, lakes whose surfaces would be disturbed by whorls from the titular rainfall. In the evening, perhaps there would be enigmatic silences between gentle characters accompanied by the plinkety-plunkety-plink of wind-chimes and later a full and plangent moon.

Actually, no. The Raid is a skull-splinteringly violent, uncompromisingly intense and simply brilliant martial arts action movie in a nightmarish and claustrophobic setting. It has something of Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs...

Read our top-rated entries to the Guardian's annual competition to find the best young talent in arts writing

Overall Winner

Visual art, under 14

Freddie Holker, 12 – Homage to Lucian Freud, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Disgusting. That's what I'm thinking; that's my gut instinct. It's reminiscent of the swimming-pool changing rooms back at school, where I'm scared to look at anything in case it offends someone. This is the Homage to Lucian Freud, one of Britain's best modern artists, who died on 20 July 2011. Seventeen paintings by Freud are displayed. I'm standing in an eerily plain room in the Metropolitan Museum of Art 3,000 miles away from where I'm comfortable.

The only painting I can easily look at is, funnily enough, Naked Man, Back View. The only one that doesn't contain full-frontal nudity offers full dorsal nudity. It shows a fat man plonked on a footstool. His sitting position pushing out roll...

It was a meeting of hot Brits last night as Clive Owen and Michael Fassbender both stepped out to attend the Emporio Armani Summer Garden Party! Clive arrived at the company's shop on Bond Street alongside his dancer pal Carlos Acosta. Michael playfully posed for photos alongside Jenny Eisthammer, while Julia Restoin-Roitfeld hung out with her male model boyfriend Robert Konjic. Clive was then off for some late fun at The Box, and he emerged last night still looking dapper in head-to-toe black. He wrapped up his latest fashionable evening after recently traveling to France for Jaeger-Lecoultre's 80th anniversary. There's more jet-setting to come in Clive's future. He'll head to Spain in mid-September for the San Sebastian Film Festival, where his thriller Intruders, from director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, will be the opening-night feature. View Slideshow ›...

London, Nov 26 – The Royal Ballet is all set to perform ‘Romeo and Juliet’ at the London’s O2 Arena in June, it has been announced.

It will be the first time the world famous company would perform in a UK arena and the cast includes dancers Carlos Acosta, Tamara Rojo, Alina Cojocaru and Johan Kobborg, reports the BBC.

The organisers said that.

From ballet to contemporary, dance is enjoying a real upsurge. But for poise, power and poignancy, who has the best moves?

Vaslav Nijinsky

Born in 1890, Nijinsky trained at the Imperial Ballet School in St Petersburg, where his amazing virtuosity swiftly became apparent. As the star of Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes,his intense characterisations in new-wave ballets like Scheherazade, Carnaval and Petrouchka won him a huge European following. "Nijinsky never once touched the ground, but laughed at our sorrows and passions in mid-air," wrote one spectator. His reputation grew with the choreography of several modernist works, but by his mid-20s he was displaying signs of the schizophrenia which, with brutal prematurity, would end his career.

Josephine Baker

Three-quarters of a century before Beyoncé, there was Josephine Baker, the "Black Pearl" of the Folies Bergères. Born into poverty in 1906, Baker became a chorus dancer in the jazzy vaudeville shows of the Harlem Renaissance before,...

Stevie Wonder hits the UK, Toy Story goes 3D, and it's the last ever Big Brother – our critics pick the unmissable events of the season

Pop

Stevie Wonder

Anyone who can't face braving Glastonbury to see the Motown legend's Sunday-night set can head to London's Hyde Park for this headlining show. It's likely to be heavy on the hits, but a little too heavy on the audience participation, if complaints from disgruntled punters at Wonder's recent shows are anything to go by. And be warned: Jamiroquai seems to have been enticed out of retirement to provide support. Hyde Park, London W2, 26 June. Box office: 020-7009 3484.

T in the Park

This beloved Scottish festival is prized as much for its atmosphere as its lineup. And they're certainly wheeling out the big hitters this year: Eminem, Muse, Kasabian, Jay-z, Black Eyed Peas, Florence and the Machine, La Roux, Dizzee Rascal and Paolo Nutini,...

Chicago – For film lovers unable to attend international film festivals, “Paris, je t’aime” provided an irresistible glimpse at world cinema. Eighteen celebrated filmmakers were each recruited to make a short subject set in the City of Love, thus allowing audiences to view the same town from different cultural perspectives. Some shorts worked better than others, but the resounding majority of them were utterly captivating.

It’s great to see this cinematic experiment continue with “New York, I Love You,” despite the fact that it isn’t anywhere near as artistically stimulating or dramatically satisfying as its predecessor. There’s only ten filmmakers this time, excluding Randy Balsmeyer, who handles the transitions. While “Paris” included Gus Van Sant, Alfonso Cuaron and the Coen brothers, “New York” offers directors like Shekhar Kapur (“Elizabeth”), Allen Hughes (“The Book of Eli”) and Brett Ratner (“Rush Hour”), whose very name inspires derisive laughter amongst film purists.

If you've seen Paris, je t'aime, you would know the basic concept of New York, I Love You. Some of the world's celebrated filmmakers create short tales of romance based in a metropolitan city, compiled in an anthology film. The stories stand on their own, but connected together by the common theme of love and the mood of its location.

What's different—and consequently better—about New York, I Love You is that the individual stories are interconnected, to illustrate a web of people that links New Yorkers in unexpected ways. It could be that two strangers hail the same cab, or go to the same Chinese laundromat, or know the same pharmacist. Furthering these links is Emilie Ohana, playing a video artist who circles the city with a video camera and continually runs into the other characters.

Unlike the segmented and showcasey Paris, je t'aime, this film is much more fluid.

Chicago – In our latest romance/drama edition of HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film, we have 35 admit-two passes up for grabs to the Chicago screening of the new film “New York, I Love You” from an eclectic group of some of today’s most imaginative filmmakers. This film also features a powerhouse of today’s hottest stars!

“New York, I Love You” stars Bradley Cooper, Justin Bartha, Andy Garcia, Hayden Christensen, Rachel Bilson, Natalie Portman, Irrfan Khan, Emilie Ohana, Orlando Bloom, Christina Ricci, Maggie Q, Ethan Hawke, Anton Yelchin, James Caan, Olivia Thilrlby, Blake Lively, Drea de Matteo, Julie Christie, John Hurt, Shia Labeouf, Ugur Yucel, Taylor Geare, Carlos Acosta, Jacinda Barrett, Shu Qi, Burt Young, Chris Cooper, Robin Wright Penn, Eva Ammuri, Eli Wallach and Cloris Leachman.

The film is directed by Natalie Portman, Fatih Akin, Yvan Attal, Allen Hughes, Shunji Iwai, Wen Jiang, Shekhar Kapur, Joshua Marston, Mira Nair, Brett Ratner and Randall Balsmeyer.

With the short film anthology “New York, I Love You” (a sort of sequel to “Paris, je t’aime”) set for release October 16th, Vivendi Entertainment has released a ton of clips and I’ve posted all of them after the jump. While most film’s get four to eight clips released for promotional purposes, due to how large the cast is and how each person needs a clip when promoting the movie on a talk show, the studio has released a whopping 16 clips and it’s about sixteen minutes of the movie. So if you’ve been waiting for the film, you can see a lot of it right now. If you’re not familiar with “New York, I Love You”, the film’s got a huge cast and eleven directors telling stories about New York City and love. Take a look:

Here’s the synopsis, cast and directors:...

Moviejungle.com has 12 clips available from Vivendi Entertainment's "New York, I Love You," starring Bradley Cooper, Justin Bartha, Andy Garcia, Hayden Christensen, Rachel Bilson, Natalie Portman, Irrfan Khan, Emilie Ohana, Orlando Bloom, Christina Ricci, Maggie Q, Ethan Hawke, Anton Yelchin, James Caan, Olivia Thirlby, Blake Lively, Drea De Matteo, Julie Christie, John Hurt, Shia Labeouf, Ugur Yucel, Taylor Geare,Carlos Acosta, Jacinda Barrett, Shu Qi, Burt Young, Chris Cooper, Robin Wright Penn, Eva Amurri, Eli Wallach and Cloris Leachman...