Current issues
Stanislaw Zeman, president of the ecumenical jury at the International Film Festival for Children and Youth in Zlín 2024, reports about his impressions of the city and the competition programmes.
In April 2023, INTERFILM organised a seminar in Budapest focussing on the history of Hungarian cinema. Karsten Visarius introduces the films presented in the programme and attempts to bring up some aspects of their political and social background.
2024 was the year of women in Cannes, and this was clearly reflected in the awards. Although the Palme d'Or went to a man, to the American Sean Baker, his film "Anora" however has a combative female protagonist in Mikey Madsen. In his acceptance speech, Baker dedicated the award to all female sex workers.
A political highlight was saved for the finale in Cannes, the film "The Seed of the Sacred Fig" by Mohammad Rasoulof. Under the conditions of Iranian censorship, Rasoulof's film seems like a suicidal project.
As the Cannes Festival draws to a close, speculation is rife as to who might win the Palme d'Or this year. The New York Times sees two films at the forefront that are universally regarded as favourites. A preliminary summary.
Cannes loves the big names of international auteur cinema and is happy to invite them to the competition - this year Paul Schrader and Jia Zhang-ke, among others. Continuation of the festival coverage by Peter Paul Huth.
Perhaps the cinema is the ideal place to present questions of fluid identity. In current debates, linguistic sensitivity for particular identities is demanded under the label 'gender-appropriate language'. On the other hand, in 'liquid modernity' (Zygmunt Bauman), gender-specific boundaries are being abolished.
In his reporting from Cannes, Peter Paul Huth writes about Sean Baker's "Anora" and Kirill Serebrennikov's "Limonov: The Ballad".
Peter Paul Huth looks at the films of George Miller, Francis Ford Coppola and Ali Abbasi in his coverage of the Cannes Film Festival 2024.
The first few days in Cannes saw a promising start to the festival with impressive female protagonists, according to Peter Paul Huth in his opening report on Cannes 2024.
