Nothing captures my Cannes experience this year better than this: In the morning I fought a boisterous crowd to get into the screening of Pedro Almodóvar’s short film Strange Way of Life; later that night, as I walked back to my apartment a little after midnight, I spotted Almodóvar and some friends walking down the street.
I’m Rebecca Ford, and I’ve just returned to Los Angeles after 10 wild days at the Cannes Film Festival, where the parties, red-carpet premieres, and glamour of the festival is outshined by one thing: the films. It’s a mecca for film lovers, and often our first peek at some of the coming awards contenders. It’s the sort of place where hundreds of film lovers wait outside in the rain for four hours to watch a 30-minute short. Or where filmmakers are moved to tears by the standing ovations for the films that often took them years to make. It’s full of chaos and drama, but also unique moments with international auteurs all gathered in one place.
This year was no exception, with several films earning rapturous applause and strong reviews. I was incredibly surprised and impressed with Todd Haynes’s May December, which features knockout performances from Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore. My colleague Richard Lawson called it “a wicked, complex delight,” and I believe, with the right release, there’s real potential for it as a contender in the acting and screenplay categories, if not more (Netflix bought it out of the festival, so all eyes are on what they decide to do with it). At the festival, I spoke to Haynes and Portman about what it took to make the film, which features a surprising score and some unusual choices in storytelling.
The other major awards contender premiered on the same night in Cannes. Killers of the Flower Moon, Martin Scorsese’s three-plus-hour epic based on the true story of murders in Oklahoma’s Osage Nation in the 1920s, had a star-studded premiere with Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, and Jesse Plemons all in attendance. But the actor I couldn’t take my eyes off of was Lily Gladstone, who stars as Mollie, an Osage woman whose friends and family are murdered. I sat down with Gladstone the day after the premiere, to talk about how her own family inspired her portrayal of Mollie. Gladstone, most well known for appearing in Certain Women, is the definition of a breakout from the festival. I also think we’ll be seeing a lot of her this awards season, and while other Native American actors have been nominated in the past, none have ever won (Wes Studi received an honorary Oscar in 2019). So it could be a historic moment for her.
I caught a few other potential awards contenders too, though their paths may be a little trickier, including one of the festival’s most widely regarded films, Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest and Alicia Vikander–starrer Firebrand, which features a unique performance by Jude Law. The festival awards ceremony will be tomorrow, and, though rare, the Palme d’Or winner can sometimes go on to be a real player in the Oscar race (both Parasite and Triangle of Sadness won the Palme). So all eyes will be on tomorrow’s results, though we all know it’s a long road to the Oscars from here.
