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Valerie Donzelli’s anticipated film “At Work” (“A Pied d’Oeuvre”), one of the three French movies set to compete at this year’s Venice, has been boarded by Gregoire Melin’s international sales banner Kinology.

Adapted from Franck Courtès’s autobiographical novel by the same name, “At Work” is headlined by Bastien Bouillon (“The Night of the 12th”), who stars alongside Virginie Ledoyen (“Just the Two of Us”), André Marcon and Marie Rivière.

“At Work” tells the true story of a successful photographer (Bouillon) who gives up everything to devote himself to writing and is confronted with poverty for the first time. “This radical account, blending clarity and self-depreciation, portrays the journey of a man willing to pay the ultimate price for his freedom,” reads the synopsis.

Kinology has acquired worldwide sales to “At Work” and will introduce it to buyers at the Venice Film Festival.

Donzelli described “At...

Every project that 25-year-old director Nathan Ambrosioni has made turns around families and their internal dynamics from his debut Paper Flags (about a brother and sister reunion) and Toni, with Camille Cottin as a single mother juggling with her brood of five.

His third feature is no exception to the intrigue families can exert. Here working with Cottin again he explores how this career woman Jeanne copes when her sister Suzanne (Juliette Armanet from Cannes opener Leave One Day) arrives out of the blue one day on her doorstep with her two children - and the next day is gone, leaving behind a note and the two offspring.

At first it seems that she may be trying to reconnect with her sister but it quickly emerges she intends to “disappear” - possibly for another relationship although Ambrosioni leaves her purpose deliberately ambiguous.

Instead the main thrust is about how Jeanne.

France’s box office continues to suffer through the start of summer with ticket sales dropping by 23% year on year to a total of 10.9 million admissions (€79.2m*), down from14.1 million admissions (€105.1m) in 2024, according to estimates from the Cnc.

Despite high hopes the box office would kick back into gear starting with the summer months after May saw ticket sales fall by nearly 25% compared to the same month last year, June’s box office results failed to deliver.

Fifty-three new releases opened in France in June including 31 French films and just four US films. The market share of French films...

Films by Richard Linklater, Oliver Laxe and Joachim Trier are among 53 titles selected by the Munich International Film Festival for its four main competition strands CineMasters, CineVision, CineRebels and CineCoPro.Munich runs from June 27 to July 6.

CineMasters

Oliver Laxe’s Sirat will be joined by another two Cannes 2025 Official Competition titles - Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague and Mascha Schilinski’s award-winning Sound Of Falling - to screen in the CineMasters competition for the €15,000 CineMasters Award. The prize is being sponsored for the first time this year by Dorint Hotels & Resorts and is presented to the director of the best international film.

Despite significant wins at major film festivals and policies enforced by the National Film Board (Cnc) aimed at boosting female representation behind the camera, male crew members still dominate the French film industry.

A study conducted by the organization Collectif 50/50 on 220 titles released in 2024 shows that the proportion of women in key below-the-line positions has remained mostly stagnant compared with 2023, rising rarely.

The only two fields where women lead in terms of representation are costume designers and casting directors with 90% and 80%, respectively.

The org 50/50 says these “jobs are historically perceived as feminine” and are therefore “still overwhelmingly occupied by women.” These are followed by editors with 50% of women, set designers with 47% (compared with 41% in 2023), music composers with 12% (compared with 8% in 2023), cinematographers with 13% (compared with 18% in 2023), music composers with 12% and sound engineers with 11%. While modest, the biggest year-on spike was seen in special effects where the number of female heads of...

After a difficult start to the month, France’s box office kicked into gear on May 21 as Disney’s Lilo & Stitch and Paramount’s Mission Impossible – The Final Reckoning opened to garner a combined near 3m admissions (approximately €21.9m* ) , accounting for 70% of the total box office for the month according to Cnc figures.

Lilo & Stitch sold 1.3 million tickets (€9.5m), making it the best opening week of the year to date, and Mission Impossible – The Final Reckoning attracted some 866,000 admissions (€6.3m).

Disney’s Thunderbolts, released on April 30, clocked just over 1 million admissions (€7.3 million).

Further Hollywood titles, Warner Bros.’ Destination Finale Bloodlines,...

By the end of this year’s Cannes Film Festival — well, technically, up until this Memorial Day when Netflix announced the streamer snapped up Richard Linklater’s “Nouvelle Vague” — 13 of the 22 films in competition had walked away with a stateside home.

That’s impressive, but there are still many more gems waiting out throughout the Official Selection, including even Harris Dickinson’s IndieWire-adored directorial debut “Urchin”. Kristen Stewart’s acclaimed Imogen Poots vehicle “The Chronology of Water,” one of three actor-turned-director efforts in Un Certain Regard along with Dickinson and Scarlett Johansson, doesn’t have a home yet, either. She’ll get there.

Surveying the Main Competition, either films like “Eddington” (A24) or “The Phoenician Scheme” (Focus Features) or “Sentimental Value” (Neon) came to the festival with deals in place, or a handful for stateside berth were brokered on the ground. Mubi took the buzziest buy of the festival...

The 78th edition of the Cannes Film Festival concludes today with the Closing Ceremony and presentation of the coveted award, the Palme d’Or, which was awarded to Jafar Panahi for the film It Was Just an Accident.

The Jury, chaired by director Juliette Binoche, was tasked with awarding the Palme d’Or to one of the 21 films in the Competition. The jury included Halle Berry, Payal Kapadia, Alba Rohrwacher, Leïla Slimani, Dieudo Hamadi, Hong Sangsoo, Carlos Reygadas and Jeremy Strong.

Related: Cannes Film Festival 2025: Read All Of Deadline’s Movie Reviews

The Croisette has been a buzz so far with glamorous parties and red carpet fashion statements. Director Amélie Bonnin’s debut feature, Partir Un Jour, opened the festival with other highlight premieres from this year’s slate including Paul Mescal in The History of Sound; Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest; A Private Life starring Jody Foster...

See all the best red carpet looks from the Cannes Film Festival, which is expected to welcome stars including Tom Cruise, Scarlett Johansson, Kristen Stewart and Robert De Niro. The jury is headed by Juliette Binoche, with members including Halle Berry, Jeremy Strong, Alba Rohrwacher, Payal Kapadia, Leïla Slimani, Dieudo Hamadi, Hong Sangsoo, and Carlos Reygadas.

The opening night film was “Partir un Jour” (Leave One Day), while Robert De Niro received his honorary Palme d’Or from Leonardo DiCaprio before the screening. On Wednesday, stars climbed the Palais steps for the “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” red carpet. On Friday, stars including Pedro Pascal, Austin Butler and Emma Stone hit the red carpet for the screening of Ari Aster’s Western “Eddington.” Saturday’s premieres included Lynne Ramsay’s “Die, My Love,” with Robert Pattinson and Jennifer Lawrence among those walking the red carpet.

Stars walking the carpet...

In this edition of Screen’s Cannes Close-Up interview series, director Hafsia Herzi talks about her first Cannes Competition experience as a filmmaker with The Little Sister, an adaptation of Fatima Daas autobiographical novel The Last One.

It’s the story of a young lesbian Muslim woman who lives in the Parisian suburbs. Herzi loved the book and decided to make the film because she had “never seen a character like that on the big screen” - she is played by newcomer Nadia Melliti.

In the interview she talks about the “surprises” Cannes always brings, like having lunch with Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson,...

Exclusive: Guillaume Canet will star as former French justice minister Robert Badinter, who led the fight to abolish the death penalty in France, in Simon Jacquet’s debut feature for French powerhouse studio Pathe which is handling international sales and will release in France.

Los Angeles and Paris-based Iconoclast will produce the film gearing up to shoot in 2026 about one of France’s most respected intellectual figures and defense lawyers, who died aged 95 last year.

Badinter is best known for enacting the 1981 law that put an end to capital punishment in France..

Jacquet recently penned the script for Karma, Canet...

In this edition of Screen’s Cannes Close-Up interview series, director Dominik Moll and actress Léa Drucker explain how they worked the real-life yellow vest protests into their Cannes Competition title Case 137.

The police corruption drama is set against the backdrop of the 2018 Paris protests against economic inequality, and Moll incorporated real-life footage into film.

“It’s not a documentary, it’s a work of fiction,” says Moll. “But the images that we see from the yellow vest movement is partly footage that we shot ourselves and recreated, and also partly footage from journalists at that time.”

Drucker also...

Top dogs from The Love That Remains, Sleepless City and Sirat are among the early frontrunners being considered for the Palm Dog 2025, as the cinematic canine competition celebrates its 25th anniversary this year.

Toby Rose, London-based founder of the Palm Dog as well as the year-round honours The Fidos, said it has been remarkable to witness the growth of the Palm Dog over the past decades. “It’s been embraced widely across the Cannes festival and beyond.We’re a Cannes fixture now.”

Cannes head Thierry Fremaux has an open invitation to attend but has not made it yet – although...

Screen’s Cannes Close-Up interview series talks to production designer Anne Seibel who is currently working on Netflix’sEmily In Paris.

Seibel discusses how she createsa “fairytale” version of Paris to “make people dream” and why the seriesgives her the opportunity to really express herself.

The production designer also reminisces on filmingMarie Antoinettein Versailles and the shock of receiving an Oscar nomination for Woody Allen’sMidnight In Paris,which opened Cannes in 2011.

Watch the full interview above.

This edition of Cannes Close-Up is sponsored by Film France by Cnc.

Cannes Close-Up: line producer Charles Audinet on shooting Chopin’s life...

The new psychological drama starring Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson has been well-received by critics. While Pattinson is perhaps best known for his franchise roles including Edward Cullen in the Twilight movies, Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and Bruce Wayne in The Batman, he has also starred in a variety of titles from auteur directors. This includes Robert Eggers' The Lighthouse, Christopher Nolan's Tenet, Bong Joon Ho's Mickey 17, David Cronenberg's Maps to the Stars, and Claire Denis' High Life.

Jennifer Lawrence movies have taken Pattinson's co-star on a similar career trajectory. She has held two major long-running franchise roles, playing Katniss Everdeen in the Hunger Games movies and Mystique in the most recent branch of the X-Men franchise, prior to the characters joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, she first rose to prominence off the back of her Oscar-nominated performance in 2010's Winter's Bone,...

This week on “Screen Talk,” we take you behind the scenes of the goings-on at the 78th annual Cannes Film Festival on the French Riviera, where we recorded on Day Two. Politics dominated the first press conferences with director Thierry Frémaux and the nine-member jury led by Juliette Binoche. They turned up for opening night as well, where Leonardo DiCaprio presented an honorary Palme d’Or to Robert De Niro, and Quentin Tarantino bounded onto the stage to declare the festival open. The opening night film “Leave One Day,” from French rookie Amélie Bonnin, a strictly local jukebox musical with the actors singing French pop hits of the ’80s, will not travel.

Later that night, DiCaprio attended the gala dinner with De Niro at the Palm Beach, where Anne enjoyed talking with “Anora” Oscar-winners Sean Baker and Samantha Quan, the hilarious Michael Covino (“Splitsville”), Amazon’s Scott Foundas, Michael Barker...

In this edition ofScreen’s Cannes Close-Up interview series, UK producer and executive Daniel Battsek recalls his favourite Cannes deals, and how he used to pride himself for getting into parties without an invite.

UK-born, New York-based Battsek is wearing “two hats” at Cannes year; as the newly appointed president of Film At Lincoln Center and also as chairman of Film London, representing the interests of British cinema.

Battsek, formerly chairman of Film4 after senior roles at Cohen Media Group, National Geographic, Miramax, Disney and Palace Pictures, is a true Cannes veteran.

On his favourite deals on the Croisette, he...

The 78th edition of the Cannes Film Festival continues on Day 4 with the world premieres of Eddington, directed by Ari Aster; Bono: Stories of Surrender, and Kristen Stewart’s directorial debut, The Chronology of Water.

Aster’s Eddington premiered today, featuring Joaquin Phoenix as a small-town Sheriff in a New Mexico conflict with Pedro Pascal’s Mayor. The film’s ensemble cast includes Joaquin Phoenix, Austin Butler, Emma Stone, Pedro Pascal, Luke Grimes, Clifton Collins Jr., Micheal Ward, Amelie Hoeferle, Matt Gomez Hidaka, and Cameron Mann, who all walked the red carpet at the Grand Théâtre Lumière on Friday, May 16th

Related: ‘Eddington’ Cannes Film Festival Premiere Photos: Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Emma Stone, Austin Butler & More

The Palais des Festivals played host this evening to the debut of Kristen Stewart’s The Chronology of Water, starring Imogen Poots, Thora Birch, Michael Epp, Esmé Creed-Miles, Kim Gordon, and Jim Belushi.

Hi there, hope you’re enjoying the opening Cannes week. Jesse Whittock here to curate the big news from the sunny Croisette and elsewhere. Sign up for the newsletter here.

Crusie In Cannes

Tom Cruise on the Palais red carpet

Workers rights and ‘The Final Reckoning’: Cannes 2025 opened this week in almost identical fashion to last year’s edition: With a tepidly reviewed French movie and staff protests. Amélie Bonnin’s Leave One Day was the movie this year, and Cannes staffers represented by the unofficial union Sous Les Écrans La Dèche were present at the opening night gala with placards and posters. The staffers were once again protesting to raise awareness about what they have described as their unfair working conditions. They’re hoping to finally be included in France’s unique scheme for seasonal cultural workers, which grants benefits like unemployment pay. Last-minute talks between Cannes and the French government broke down,...

In this edition of Screen’s Cannes Close-Up interview series, French actress and singer-songwriter Juliette Armanet talks about her new film Leave One Day that opened this year’s Cannes Film Festival, and picks out her favourite French films of all time.

Armanet plays a star chef in crisis going back to her parents’ roadside restaurant in the film directed by Amélie Bonnin.

In the interview she also recommends three musts for a Cannes first timer, and why the festival is so important: “A film can changes your life and the way you see the world. We need fiction to be able to survive.

Exclusive: French mini-major Pathé sent shockwaves through the UK cinema industry in 2023 when it emerged it was pulling out of film distribution and production in the country to focus uniquely on scripted TV series in the territory.

The move coincided with the retirement of longtime Pathé UK cinema-focused head Cameron McCracken and left Faith Penhale in charge as managing director of the refocused TV development and production subsidiary.

The development of English-language projects was shifted over to the Pathé HQ in Paris.

The French studio’s retreat from UK cinema was regarded as the end of an era. Pathé UK had left its mark on the local and international cinema landscape, having supported titles such as Slumdog Mllionaire, The Queen, The Iron Lady, Philomena and The Great Escaper, to name a few.

Two years later, Pathé President Ardavan Safaee has revealed that the company is mulling a return to film...

Exclusive: French mini-major Pathé is at the Cannes Film Festival this year with opening film Leave One Day as well as Martin Bourboulon’s August 2021 fall-of-Kabul action feature 13 Days, 13 Nights, which plays Out of Competition.

It follows on from a high-profile 2024 at the festival, when the company attended with The Count of Monte-Cristo, which was a hit at home and when on to gross more than $100 million, as well as Emilia Pérez and Partenope among other films.

Amélie Bonnin’s musical film Leave One Day made history on Tuesday evening as the first debut film to open the festival across its 78 editions.

The romantic musical builds on Bonnin’s 2023 César-winning short film of the same name. French singer Juliette Armanet stars as a rising chef in Paris who is forced to return to her small hometown to help out in her family’s roadside diner after her father suffers a heart attack.

Exclusive: Call My Agent! star Camille Cottin has reunited with Nathan Ambrosioni for his third film Out of Love about a woman whose sister disappears leaving behind her two young children.

It marks the actress’s second collaboration with the 25-year-old, self-taught director after starring in his second 2022 feature Toni about a single mother of five, contemplating a new life as her children leave home,

“He is writing, directing and editing everything himself. It’s all in his head. He’s really obsessed with cinema and has so many references and directors that he loves… which really enriches what he does,” says Cottin of Ambrosioni, who has cited influences such as Hirokazu Kore-Eda and Edward Yang in past interviews.

Out of Love also tackles themes of motherhood but in a more somber fashion.

Cottin plays a successful, self-contained career woman with no desire to have children, who suddenly finds her...

Gaetan Bruel, the new president of the Cnc, France’s National Film Board, has landed the job at a crucial time for the industry. While one of his goals is to boast the profile of France internationally and ramp up the volume of international shoots in the country, Bruel has, like most of the European film industry, been coping with a flow of alarming declarations by U.S. President Trump who proposed a 100% tariff on movies produced outside of the U.S.

The 37-year old executive, who knows the U.S. industry better than any of his predecessors at the Cnc. Indeed, Bruel lived there for several years as the former head of French Cultural Services, a division of the French Embassy with a footprint in nine American cities, from 2019 to 2023, and worked hand-in-hand with the Cnc to promote French talent and the country’s audiovisual sector in the U.

Sylvie Pialat (“Timbuktu”), the producer of Cannes’ opening night movie “Leave One Day” directed by Amelie Bonnin, is on the roll. The Cesar-winning producer, who runs the Paris-based banner Les Films du Worso, is currently developing a raft of new projects from renown European auteurs and up-and-comers, including Alain Gomis, Emmanuelle Bercot, Atiq Rahimi, Hu Wei and Felipe Gálvez.

Pialat will be working for the first time with Emmanuelle Bercot, the critically acclaimed French actress and filmmaker whose directorial effort “Leaving” world premiered at Cannes in 2021 and earned Benoit Magimel a best actor prize at the Cesar Awards in 2022. Bercot also had her 2015 movie “Standing Tall” open the Cannes Film Festival.

Bercot’s untitled next movie, which will reteam Pialat with Pathé Films, her partner on “Leave One Day,” is an adaptation of the book called “L’Enragé,” written by journalist Sorj Chalandon. The movie will tell the gripping true story...

Robert De Niro accepted the honorary Palme d’Or at Cannes on May 13 and used his platform to condemn the Trump administration’s proposed 100 percent tariff on foreign films. Leonardo DiCaprio, who presented the award and credited De Niro with launching his career during the “This Boy’s Life” audition, praised him for treating acting as a “physical transformation.” After DiCaprio’s introduction and a cheek kiss, De Niro addressed the audience.

“In my country, we’re fighting like hell for the democracy we once took for granted,” he said. “Art brings people together and seeks truth. That’s why it’s a threat to fascists.” Turning to the tariff, he added, “You can’t put a price on creativity, but apparently you can put a tariff on it. This move is unacceptable. These attacks affect everyone who values liberty. We must organize, vote and celebrate artistic expression.”

Festival director Thierry Frémaux...

Cannes opening night can be hit or miss, but lately, festival director Thierry Frémaux has used the occasion to import Hollywood luminaries like Meryl Streep, tributed by Juliette Binoche last year. (The French star returned in 2025 to preside over the Competition jury.) This year, Frémaux scored big as Leonardo DiCaprio showed up to present a tearful Robert De Niro with his honorary Palme d’Or. He was rewarded with a warm hug.

“It is a great honor to recognize someone who, for me and so many actors, has always been the archetype of who we look up to,” said DiCaprio. “That is Robert De Niro. It’s not just the roles he plays. He inspired actors to treat the craft not as performance but as physical transformation.”

DiCaprio recalled screaming during his “tough” audition for “This Boy’s Life” to break through, and that De Niro recommended him, thus launching his...

Exclusive: UK actor Jason Isaacs is set to join Djimon Hounsou and Ariyon Bakare in Donovan Marsh’s action drama The Bleeding Ground, due to shoot in South Africa early next year.

The White Lotus star will play an oil executive caught in a stand-off against a militant leader who is driven by personal loss and a quest for justice.

The Bleeding Ground is being produced by Jean-Luc Van Damme of Belgium’s Happy Moon Productions, with UK producer David P Kelly. The script is by UK screenwriter Mathew Bayliss.

Production is scheduled to begin in early 2026 for nine-weeks in Cape Town and Durban.

Exclusive: Cineart has taken Benelux rights to Critics’ Week title Reedland, the feature debut of Dutch director Sven Bresser, that is being sold by France’s The Party Film Sales.

Reedland is a dark drama featuring non-professionals and about a farmer who discovers a girl’s body in the reed land where he works. Marleen Slot’s Viking Film has produced the film which was presented as a work in progress in Les Arcs 2024.

Cineart has also pre-bought Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache’s coming-of-age drama, Just An Illusion, starring Camille Cottin and Louis Garrel from Gaumont.

Now part of the Mubi empire,...

Frequent festival-goers learn not to expect much from opening films. Quality is but one of many factors that lead to the selection for this symbolic slot. In order to avoid offending sensibilities and setting a controversial tone for the whole festival from the get-go, programmers tend to pick something less adventurous or challenging for their curtain-raiser. Even with reasonably lowered expectations,, French director Amélie Bonnin’s comic-dramatic musical Leave One Day, which opened the 78th Cannes Film Festival, is an underwhelming experience. There’s no question that this sweet, nostalgia-laced ode to life in the countryside has its heart in the right place, but a lack of nuance and creative risk-taking greatly hampered the delivery of its message.

Expanded from Bonnin’s 25-minute, César-winning short of the same name, the film centers around Cécile (Juliette Armanet), who has left her country home for Paris some time ago to pursue a career as a chef.

Cécile, a culinary artisan approaching the precarious meridian of her forties, stands poised before the theatre of her latest triumph: a Parisian restaurant, sculpted with her partner Sofiane from ambition and ephemeral tastes. Her ascent, a narrative etched in the public memory of a television cooking contest, seems an immutable script.

Yet, the universe, indifferent to such meticulous architecture, delivers its raw, uninvited ingredients. A nascent life quickens within, an unscheduled guest at the feast of her self-made destiny. Simultaneously, the frail cord of lineage tugs sharply; her father, back in the forgotten landscapes of Grand Est, falters.

Thus begins the reluctant passage backward, not merely to a place, but to the echoing chasms of what was, what might have been. Before her lies no simple homecoming, but an encounter with the spectral ingredients of a life left behind, a dissonant melody played on the heartstrings of identity.

The Gravity of Return

Life,...

Eva Longoria Eva Longoria (Credit: Jb Lacroix/FilmMagic) Eva Longoria (Credit: Stephane Cardinale – Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images) Heidi Klum Heidi Klum (Credit: Jb Lacroix/FilmMagic) Heidi Klum (Credit: by Monica Schipper/Getty Images) Julia Garner Julia Garner (Credit: by Mike Marsland/WireImage) Erin Kellyman Erin Kellyman (Credit: Daniele Venturelli/WireImage) Sean Baker & Samantha Quan Sean Baker and Samantha Quan (Credit: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images) Halle Berry Halle Berry (Credit: Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images) Halle Berry & Hong Sang-Soo Jury Member Halle Berry and Jury Member Hong Sang-soo ( Credit: Tristan Fewings/Getty Images) Jury Members Carlos Reygadas, Payal Kapadia, Dieudo Hamadi, Jeremy Strong, Juliette Binoche, Alba Rohrwacher, Leïla Slimani, Halle Berry and Hong Sang-soo attend the red carpet for the opening ceremony and “Partir Un Jour” (Leave One Day) screening at the 78th annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 13, 2025 in Cannes, France. (Credit: Tristan Fewings...

Chef’s Kiss: Bonnin Uses Familiar Recipe in Pleasant Debut

For her directorial debut, Partir un Jour (Leave One Day), based on her own 2021 Cesar Award Winning short film, Amélie Bonnin whips up a crowd pleasing confection which could have used a little less sugar and a little more tart. In the annals of French cinema, sporadic musical numbers utilized to enhance the emotional interiority of characters navigating life’s foibles happens to be one of the country’s specialities, a legacy including Jacques Demy and Christophe Honore, both of whom come to mind in Bonnin’s scruffy, likable addition to the subgenre.…...

Leonardo DiCaprio presents Robert De Niro with his honorary Palme d’Or Photo: Courtesy of Cannes Film Festival The opening of the 78th edition of the Cannes Film Festival last night was a fairly muted affair with a first time French film Leave One Day, a musical comedy, kicking off proceedings. Although the cast, including Juliette Armanet as well as director Amélie Bonnin, looked the part it took the legendary Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio to bring some Hollywood chutzpah to the proceedings.

DiCaprio was presenting De Niro with his honorary Palme d’Or but this year’s mega star Tom Cruise (in town for the global launch of the latest Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning) was conspicuous by his absence. Instead we had Quentin Tarantino striding out alongside last year’s Palme d’Or winner Sean Baker (for Anora) and jury president Juliette Binoche and her cohorts...

“Leave One Day,” Amélie Bonnin’s feature film that opened the Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday evening, is an unusual film for a Cannes opener in several ways.

It’s a musical, only the third to open Cannes in this century, after Leos Carax’s twisted “Annette” in 2021 and Baz Luhrmann’s lavish “Moulin Rouge!” in 2001. It’s directed by a woman, Bonnin, again only the third time that’s happened in the 2000s, after Maïwenn in 2023 and Emmanuelle Bercot in 2015. And it’s a first-time feature from a female director; the last time Cannes opened with one of those was, well, never.

In one major way, though, “Leave One Day” is quite similar to other recent Cannes openers, in that it’s likely to be largely forgotten a few days into the festival, quickly overshadowed by other films. A slight character study that strains to be charming but only occasionally gets there,...

Amélie Bonnin’s romantic dramedy Leave One Day (Partir un Jour) made history at the Cannes Film Festival this evening, becoming the first debut feature to ever open the event.

It also got a five-minute-plus ovation from the crowd.

Leave One Day builds on Bonnin’s 2023 César-winning short film of the same name. The romantic musical revolves around rising chef Cécile (Juliette Armanet), who is about to fulfill a lifelong ambition of opening her own signature gourmet restaurant in Paris.

Cécile is forced to put the project on hold when her father suffers a heart attack and she is called back to her small hometown. Exasperated at being cut off from her bustling life in Paris, she unexpectedly reconnects with a teenage crush, Raphaël (Bastien Bouillon). The meeting rekindles long-buried memories and leads Cécile to question past choices and the current direction of her life.

Related: Standing Ovations At Cannes: How We Clock Those Claps,...

With America not only spinning out of control but threatening to take the rest of the world with it, the Cannes Film Festival can be a place to play out that tumult, to see it writ large — on the big screen, where over the next two weeks it inevitably will be. It hardly matters that the films showing at Cannes were made before Trump took office. Movies are psychic, and always have been. It’s all but assured that a number of Cannes offerings this year — and, indeed, the very vibe of the festival — will channel the new world disorder.

But there’s another side to Cannes. Each year, the festival presents itself as a sanctuary, a ritzy oasis, a cinematic shelter from the storm. That’s the cozy bourgeois side of Cannes. Just look at the official poster for this year’s festival. You might have expected it to...

Robert De Niro criticised president Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs on films made outside the US at the Cannes Film Festival’s opening night ceremony, which took place tonight (May 13).

De Niro, receiving the honorary Palme d’Or, said: “In my country, we’re fighting like hell for the democracy we once took for granted. And that affects all of us here because the arts are democratic. Art is inclusive. It brings people together, like tonight. Art looks for truth, art embraces diversity and that’s why art is a threat — that’s why we are a threat — to autocrats and fascists.

Opening Cannes, like closing it, has traditionally been a poisoned chalice. The festival has tried a few moves to address the latter, mostly predicated on the fact that, by the end of nearly two exhausting weeks, nobody cares anymore. But first night is still a tough nut to crack, and with the selection of a very local first-time film — a modest, low-key character study with no traditional red-carpet movie stars — festival chief Thierry Frémaux might seem, at first glance, to be giving into the idea that it’s a graveyard slot.

Leave One Day, however, is a smarter choice than it might first appear — a stealth charmer, if you like — and almost certainly a film to baffle the international festivalgoers who descend on Cannes for the meatier stuff, whether that’s the Hollywood A-list fare or the more punishing arthouse discoveries. It will mean much, much more to the French, evoking memories of a country that’s fast disappearing while, at the same time, being fully cognizant of its evolving, multicultural present.

Directed by first-timer Amélie Bonnin, Leave One Day isn’t so notable just for being a musical, since Leos Carax’s Annette filled the same slot just a few years ago. But it is rare to see a film that uses its music choices so playfully and so cleverly. It’s title song, for instance, is a deconstruction of boyband 2Be3’s cheesy 1996 hit; while another key sequence involves French rapper Yannick’s 2000 hit “Ces Soirées-là,” a hip-hop version of Claude Francoise’s 1976 hit “Cette Année-là,” itself a version of The Four Seasons’ 1975 hit “December, 1963” and one of the few songs recognizable to non-French audiences. It sounds fresh, maybe even new. But it’s not new — like K. Maro’s infectious “Femme Like U,” which also features — Yannick’s hit is over 20 years old, and the way pop music distracts us like that, creating a big, blurry disjunct between what was then and what is now, between nostalgia and reality, is central to Bonnin’s film.

The lead in her story is Cécile, played by singer Juliette Armanet, best known for performing John Lennon’s “Imagine” at the opening of the Paris Olympics last year. If you didn’t know that, you might not even guess she was a professional, since Leave One Day isn’t a showcase for slick, show-stopping numbers. Rather, it’s a film that wears its ragged edges with pride, matching music to the cast with a poignancy that will resonate with the French far more than others, who may balk at the clunky translations of songs such as Claude Nougaro’s “Cécile Ma Fille,” a soppy but affecting ’60s chanson sung by Cécile’s father. The same could be said of the story, which as old as time, or at least romantic fiction.

When we meet Cécile, she is just about to find out that she is pregnant. It’s the worst possible moment; she’s something of a foodie star (a regular on cooking show Top Chef) and getting ready to open her own restaurant in two weeks’ time. Her father has just been hospitalized, having suffered a heart attack (his third), and on top of that, she has yet to figure out her new eatery’s signature dish. Nevertheless, she takes to the road and goes home, leaving her business partner/lover Sofiane (Tewfik Jallab) to hold the fort.

Cécile’s backstory is a bit on the nose; her parents, Fanfan (Dominique Blanc) and Gérard (François Rollin), are the proprietors of a roadside diner called The Pitstop, serving the kind of food that Cécile has snootily dismissed as being to haute cuisine “what flip-flops are to haute couture.” Cécile knows she said this because Gérard has made a note of all her Top Chef witticisms, especially one that cut so deeply he knows it by heart: “Truck stops are by the road so you can make a fast getaway.” It’s an awkward homecoming, but Cécile reconnects with some old friends, notably hot grunge mechanic Raphaël (Bastien Bouillon), an old flame of sorts, albeit one she never hooked up with. “We live in a time warp,” his friend says. “Nothing moves.” Which is how Cécile comes to realize that Raphaël, despite his too-cool-for-school demeanor, is still in love with her.

The ensuing love triangle among Cécile, Sofiane and Raphael plays out much as you might expect, which may sound a little underwhelming for a film that’s been given such a high-profile slot at an international festival. This is Cannes, though, and the audiences there are less likely to dwell on the details of such a familiar story and respond more viscerally to the way that it’s being told, triggering memories of all kinds of inter-generational music, all kinds of food and so many things even they wouldn’t think they’d ever see anymore, like a dog having the run of a working kitchen.

Some may wonder why Cannes would open with such a film, but festivalgoers with longer memories will remember the olden days, when someone there thought that three whole hours of The Barber of Siberia would make an awesome curtain-raiser. Compared to that, Leave One Day is a joy; a very particular kind of crowd-pleaser that doesn’t do anything especially new, and, even then, doesn’t really do it in a very distinctive way.

Crucially, though, it has heart, capturing a sense of time having passed and an optimism for the time to come. The cheesy, stopped-clock setup of The Pitstop will be instantly recognizable to any tourist who’s ever found themselves in some backwater bar that’s all Johnny Hallyday this, Pernod that and lots of Gauloises cigarettes. But Bonnin’s film not only embraces those clichés, it celebrates them, and the unexpected, emotional strength of the film lies not in its nostalgia for the past but in its touching belief in our capacity to make peace with the things we have to lose in order to get on with our lives.

Title: Leave One Day

Festival: Cannes

Sales agent: Pathé

Director: Amélie Bonnin

Screenwriters: Amélie Bonnin, Dimitri Lucas

Cast: Juliette Armanet, Bastien Bouillon, Dominique Blanc, François Rollin

Running time: 1 hr 33 min...

Chalk it up to Cannes’ unique position that you’re reading this review.

Which isn’t to say that Amélie Bonnin’s locally flavored jukebox musical “Leave One Day” is anything close to a wash — nor does this year’s Cannes opening film dishonor the (at best) checkered legacy of recent predecessors such as Michel Hazanavicius’ “Final Cut,” Quentin Dupieux’s “The Second Act,” and the botched Johnny Depp comeback “Jeanne du Barry.” Hell, by way of pleasure and ambition, this slight-but-winsome dramedy offers a step-up from recent vintages; by way of international resonance, however, this latest opener seems unlikely for a world tour.

Taking a sturdy, mainstream premise — a big-city careerist reflecting on her life path during a trip back to the holler, in a setup that faintly echoes “Sweet Home Alabama,” among a hundred other rom-coms — and shading it with moral grays, natural light, and a more unvarnished turn from a well-known star,...

The 78th edition of the Cannes Film Festival got off to both a politically charged and Hollywood start on Tuesday evening as Robert De Niro was presented with an honorary Palme d’Or by Leonardo DiCaprio.

An impassioned De Niro used his acceptance speech to address issues he said are facing the artistic community and threatening democracy under the presidency of Donald Trump.

“In my country, we are fighting like hell for the democracy we once took for granted. That affects all of us here because the arts are democratic. Art is inclusive, it brings people together. Art embraces diversity and that’s why art is a threat, that’s why we are a threat to autocrats and fascists,” he said.

“America’s philistine president has had himself appointed head of one of our premier cultural institutions,” he continued. “He has cut funding and support to the arts, humanities and education.

The Cannes Film Festival kicked off its 78th edition with the Opening Ceremony and the world premiere of Amélie Bonnin’s debut feature, Partir Un Jour (Leave One Day), led by Juliette Armanet, Bastien Bouillon, and François Rollin.

The premiere was attended by the cast of the film, including Quentin Tarantino, Rossy De Palma, Julia Garner, Nava Mau, Zahra Amir Ebrahimi, and Leonardo DiCaprio, who presented the honorary Palme d’Or to Robert De Niro.

Leave One Day follows Cécile, a budding restaurateur whose ambition to open a gourmet haven in Paris takes an unexpected detour. A family crisis compels her return to her rural roots, where, amidst the echoes of her youth, she reconnects with a long-lost love.

Related: ‘Leave One Day’ Review: Amélie Bonnin’s Nostalgic Musical Debut Is A Stealth Charmer – Cannes Film Festival

The festival formally kicked off on Monday with the poster installation, then moved to the Hotel Martinez,...

What about Bob?

The 78th edition of the Cannes Film Festival launched with lots of politics and a special tribute to Robert De Niro that saw the Oscar-winning legend slam Donald Trump as “America’s philistine president.”

On the red carpet, the main attraction — the French musical comedy “Partir un Jour,” which ended up earning a five-minute standing ovation — took a backseat to paparazzi scrambling to land a shot of De Niro, who made the trek to France to accept an honorary Palme d’Or from Leonardo DiCaprio. Past winners of the Palme d’Or, the festival’s top prize, such as Quentin Tarantino and Sean Baker, walked through a gauntlet of photographers, along with Eva Longoria, Julia Garner, Heidi Klum, and Alessandra Ambrosio. But Tom Cruise, who is in town to premiere “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning,” was nowhere to be found.

Juliette Binoche, who serves as jury president,...

This evening’s opening night gala in Cannes was briefly interrupted when festival staffers staged a labor protest next to the red carpet.

Around a dozen Cannes staffers, covertly stationed next to the red carpet, blew whistles and held red Sous Les Écrans La Dèche placards as the Cannes jury led by Juliette Binoche made their way into the opening night gala.

The protest was almost immediately shut off by armed police. We captured footage of the brief demonstration, which you can view below. However, Deadline’s journalist was barred from filming the demonstration by a festival official. The official told us on the ground, “Sometimes you’re allowed to film but sometimes not.”

Festival workers protest during the #Cannes2025 opening ceremony.

Advocacy group Sous Les Écrans La Dèche are launching a fresh call to action over what they describe as precarious and unfair working conditions pic.twitter.com/PUscAmrIPO...

Re-elected for a second mandate earlier this year, Cannes Film Festival President Iris Knobloch is kicking off the 78th edition in high spirits. Her arrival at the helm of the festival two years ago has coincided with Cannes’ renaissance and closer-than-even bonds with Hollywood. Curated by longtime artistic director and general delegate Thierry Fremaux, last year’s selection premiered a record number of Oscar nominations with movies such as Sean Baker’s “Anora,” which made history by winning four major statuettes including best picture and best director; as well as Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance,” Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Perez” and Gints Zilbalodis’s “Flow.” A year prior, Cannes was also behind two best picture nominees, Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall” and Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest.” In an interview with Variety on the eve of the festival’s kick off, the hands-on Knobloch, who previously headed Warner Bros. in Europe,...

Exclusive: Cannes Film Festival organizers have urged all staffers to remain politically neutral while on the job in a series of guidelines sent out ahead of this evening’s opening-night gala.

The instructions, which were sent to all staff members working on this year’s event and have been reviewed by Deadline, list guidelines on social media use and dealing with the press alongside instructions on steering clear of political discussions. News of the updated guidelines comes as we learn a selection of Cannes staffers aim again to mount demonstrations during this year’s event, including at the opening ceremony, to raise awareness of their working conditions.

“Maintain a certain political neutrality in your exchanges with festival-goers,” reads the instructions sent in the pre-festival letter from organizers. We understand the specific note on politics is a new addition to advice traditionally shared with festival staffers.

Multiple Cannes staffers we spoke...

Just hours before the Cannes Film Festival opening gala, jury member Halle Berry revealed she had to swap her planned gown after organizers unveiled strict guidelines banning nudity and oversized trains on the red carpet. Speaking at the Palais des Festivals press conference on May 12, Berry said her custom Gupta dress featured a train deemed too large. “I’m not going to break the rules,” she said, adding that the ban on nudity “is probably a good rule.”

Cannes officials issued a statement explaining the measures align with the festival’s charter and French law. Attire that risks blocking other guests’ passage or complicating seating in screening rooms may be refused entry. Festival programmers say the guidelines formalize long-standing practices rather than introduce new mandates.

Berry sits alongside jury president Juliette Binoche and peers Jeremy Strong, Payal Kapadia, Hong Sangsoo, Alba Rohrwacher, Leïla Slimani, Dieudo Hamadi and Carlos Reygadas. The...

Juliette Binoche said Gerard Depardieu is “no longer sacred”, following the French actor’s conviction for sexual assault earlier today.

Speaking at the Cannes Competition jury press conference, Binoche fielded multiple questions about Depardieu.

“For me, what is sacred is when something happens, when you create, when you act, when you are on stage,” said Binoche. “We have no grasp of the sacred; and now he is no longer sacred. That means you need to think hard about the power wielded by certain people who take that power; and the power may lie elsewhere.”

Depardieu was handed a suspended 18-month prison sentence,...

Halle Berry, Jeremy Strong, and Cannes jury president Juliette Binoche were immediately pressed on all things Trump at the festival’s first press conference on Tuesday.

They were joined by Alba Rohrwacher, auteur directors Hong Sangsoo, Payal Kapadia, and Carlos Reygadas, French Moroccan writer Leïla Slimani, and Congolese documentarist Dieudo Hamadi.

Of course, the conversation swiftly moved to the looming shadow of President Donald Trump whose spate of tariffs has upended the global economy. He has, in recent days, turned his attention to Hollywood: a 100 percent movie tariff on international films putting the fear of god into every producer flocking to the Croisette.

“I’m not sure I’m capable to answer that because it requires an analysis of the industry and cinema in the world,” Binoche said when asked how the proposed tariffs threaten the international film industry. “I understand President Trump is trying to protect… he was trying to protect his country,...

Leonardo DiCaprio will present Robert De Niro with the honorary Palme d’Or for lifetime achievement at the Cannes Film Festival’s opening ceremony on Tuesday evening, Variety has confirmed.

DiCaprio and De Niro first starred together in the 1993 film “This Boy’s Life,” and reunited for “Killers of the Flower Moon,” which screened in official selection in Cannes in 2023.

De Niro will also participate in a masterclass on Wednesday at the Debussy theater in the Palais. “The Raging Bull” and “Godfather Part II” Oscar winner is a Cannes veteran and presided over the Cannes jury in 2011, the year the Palme d’Or went to Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life.”

When the honor was first announced, De Niro said in a statement, “I have such close feelings for Festival de Cannes…Especially now when there’s so much in the world pulling us apart, Cannes brings us together — storytellers,...