Cannes welcomes celebrities, but on a smaller red carpet

The red carpet has been reduced in size, and many after-parties have been postponed until the post-Covid era, but the French city of Cannes was buzzing with excitement Monday as the famous film festival returned.

Matt Damon, Nicole Kidman, Sean Penn, and Timothee Chalamet are among the Hollywood celebrities set to appear in front of the cameras during the next two weeks at the first full-fledged film festival since the coronavirus outbreak began.

Due to the health issue, last year’s edition was canceled, leaving the globe thirsty for its yearly infusion of Cote d’Azur elegance.

This year’s festival appears to be more somber, with social distance contributing to the push to tone down the extravagant parties that have been Cannes’ calling cards in the past.

On Monday, the last touches were being applied to the festival palace, a squat, concrete structure known as “the bunker,” which was covered in a poster depicting this year’s jury president, Spike Lee, peeking between two palm trees in gigantic glasses.

On Tuesday, the recycled red carpet, which has been reduced in size as part of a green makeover, will be unveiled.

‘Packs a punch’
For the first time, the event will be held in July instead of May, coincide with the relaxation of Covid restrictions such as the requirement to wear a mask outside, which threatened to derail picture opportunities.

Stars coming for gala premieres in party attire will be meeting paths with sunbathers in flip-flops trudging home from the beach now that the tourist season in Cannes is in full gear.

“Things are slowly getting back on track,” remarked one of the drivers of the city’s tourist train.

The Palme d’Or, the festival’s highest prize, will be awarded on July 16 to one of twenty-four films.

Nanni Moretti of Italy, with his latest picture “Tre Piani,” Jacques Audiard of France (“Les Olympiades”), and Thailand’s maestro of the slow burn, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, with his English-language debut, are among the filmmakers contending for the prize (“Memoria”).

Sean Penn, whose Africa-set humanitarian love story “The Last Face” bombed at Cannes in 2016, Iran’s two-time Oscar winner Asghar Farhadi, and Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov, who is barred from leaving the country due to an embezzlement conviction widely seen as retaliation for his criticism of President Vladimir Putin, are among the other contenders.

Thierry Fremaux, the festival’s director, has guaranteed that the lineup “packs a punch.”

Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard star in the opening night picture, “Annette,” a musical by France’s Leos Carax about a celebrity couple and their mystery child.

The jury, which comprises Tahar Rahim, star of Audiard’s 2009 film “A Prophet,” and US actress Maggie Gyllenhaal, is chaired by US filmmaker Spike Lee, who is the first black man to lead the jury.

The festival’s tendency to choose the typical (male) suspects of the arthouse elite is once again under investigation, with just four female filmmakers in the competition.

In 73 editions of the festival, only one woman has received the Palme d’Or: Jane Campion for “The Piano” in 1993.

On July 14, 2005, a Tunisian extremist drove a vehicle into a throng of people enjoying Bastille Day on the seafront of Nice, killing 86 people.