All the Highlights From the Cannes Film Festival 2023
The world’s most prestigious, glamorous, and sometimes controversial film festival, Cannes is a can’t-miss event even if you’re thousands of miles from the Croisette. This year features high-profile premieres ranging from star-studded Hollywood fare (Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City) to the auteur-driven work the festival is famous for (see: virtually everything in competition). Last year’s festival debuted future Oscar contenders Elvis, Top Gun: Maverick, Aftersun, and Palme d’Or winner Triangle of Sadness, which means that, yes, awards season in some ways starts here too.
This year, Vanity Fair’s Richard Lawson and Rebecca Ford will be on the ground at Cannes to catch all the gala premieres, headline-making interviews, and all the moments that will define Cannes this year. Of course, the festival is as famous for parties as for its films, and Vanity Fair has a major one to look forward to this year. In our live blog below, we’ll be chronicling the films, the fashion, and the moments from inside our party you can’t find anywhere else. On se voit au cinéma!
The Making of a Monologue
After Natalie Portman was sent the script for May December, she knew there was only one director who could pull it off: Todd Haynes. “I read it and was like, ‘I'd love to do this, but only if it were Todd making it, because this needs a vision to match the subtlety and nuance of the script,’” she told Vanity Fair in Cannes. I sat down with them both the day after the premiere to talk about the unusual methods they used to make the film (they began with the score) and how Portman pulled off an incredible monologue. For those who didn't catch it in Cannes, it's expected to be released this year after Netflix scooped it up in a big buy at the festival.
Cannes You Hear Me Now?
On Tuesday, Rita Wilson took to her Instagram Stories to clear up any confusion surrounding photos of herself and husband Tom Hanks at the Asteroid City premiere after the Daily Mail reported the couple had a “terse interaction" with a staffer on the red carpet.
Over a screengrab of an article calling Hanks “Raving Private Ryan”, Wilson set the record straight.
“This is called ‘I can’t hear you. People are screaming. What did you say? Where are we supposed to go?’ But that doesn’t sell stories,” she wrote over the article. “Nice try. We had a great time! Go see Asteroid City!”
Spotted: Joe Alwyn
Calling all Swifties: Taylor Swift's most recent ex-boyfriend Joe Alwyn has made his first appearance since news of duo’s split in April at Cannes.
While the rumor mill continues to churn about Swift, Alwyn, the reasons for their breakup and what’s next for each of them, one thing seems to be sure: Joe Cannes and will have adventures of his own.
What’s The Buzz?
As the festival winds down, talk has naturally turned to Saturday’s awards ceremony. There are still some competition features yet to be screened—perhaps most notably two-time Palme winner Ken Loach’s The Old Oak; recent Cannes favorite Alice Rohrwacher’s La Chimera; and Perfect Days, from Paris, Texas Palme winner Wim Wenders—but prognosticators have already picked their horses.
The frontrunner seems to be Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest, a harrowing and formally rigorous Holocaust drama that was all anyone at the festival could talk about on the day of its premiere. One of that film’s stars, Sandra Hüller, also has Anatomy of a Fall at the festival, a legal thriller of sorts directed by Justine Triet. The thinking seems to be that Hüller will win best actress for the latter film, while Glazer’s will take the top prize.
But these awards are virtually impossible to predict—with a different jury every year, there is no historical pattern to consult. Maybe Cannes mainstay Todd Haynes—who received raves for May December—will finally net a Palme win, but I think one of his stars, Natalie Portman, is the film’s best hope. (The same could be true at the Oscars. We’ll see how the film’s new owner, Netflix, does with their campaign.) Or Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City could have caught the fancy of jury president Ruben Östlund and his peers.
At present, the scuttlebutt is that not a lot of films in a language other than English have managed to catch fire. That could change when Rohrwacher’s film debuts on Friday. Or, the winner has already premiered and all of us theorizing Americans are just turned in entirely the wrong direction. To that end, we should keep an eye on Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki’s Fallen Leaves, which earned rave reviews on Monday. The film is a comedy, but it exists within the heavy context of Russia’s potential threat to Finland. Östlund is himself a purveyor of humor flecked with doom, so perhaps he’ll want to reward a like minded filmmaker, and a fellow Nordic artist.
The Stars Are Out
Asteroid City landed in Cannes with quite a bit of fanfare. With a cast this big, they had to take a bus to the premiere. Tom Hanks was having lots of fun whistling and playing around on carpet. He brought his wife Rita Wilson, while Scarlett Johansson brought her own VIP plus one, Colin Jost.
It took some time for a cast this large to take their seats and when they were seated Anderson noticed that Johansson was missing. She rushed in a bit late, but to a large applause. After the film and a warm standing ovation (our critic Richard is also a fan), Anderson spoke to the audience: “Thank you to our cast of stupendous actors playing actors.” He added many of them, like the Cannes audience, were seeing the completed film for the first time.
Getting Ready with Diana Silvers
Ever wonder what goes into all that glam? Go behind the scenes with Diana Silvers as she preps for Vanity Fair and Prada's party at the Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc.
The actor donned a full Prada look for the event, wearing a slate-colored wool canvas dress with black organza and ostrich feather embroidery detail, paired with white spazzolato leather kitten heels. She carried a black Prada Re-Edition 1995 brushed-leather mini handbag, and wore earrings, a ring, and bangle bracelets from the Eternal Gold collection for added sparkle.
Irina Shayk-in' It Up
From the looks of things, Irina Shayk is having a lot of fun with fashion at Cannes.
On Monday, the Russian supermodel was spotted leaving very little to the imagination at the Hôtel Martinez in a Gucci lingerie set emblazoned with the brand's signature monogram motif and a see-through chiffon overlay. She topped the eye-popping look with – what else? – a dramatic sparkling necklace with cascading jewels.
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A day prior, Shayk opted for an ensemble from Mowalola – the brand from designer Mowalola Ogunlesi that recently collaborated with Kanye West — for the premiere of Firebrand (Le Jeu De La Reine).
For more fashion from the Cannes Film Festival, check out our gallery here:
Idol Thoughts
It may still be hard to adjust to a splashy Cannes premiere being a TV series, but The Idol was a dominant force at the festival on Monday night, writes Richard Lawson in his review. It may not be as sexy or provocative as early buzz suggests, but there's appeal all the same: “The Idol offers up enough regular old entertainment to balance out his aggressive flourish and the bluster of his thematic ambitions.”
A Rising Star
Lily Gladstone first gained attention for playing a lovelorn rancher in Kelly Reichardt's feature film Certain Women. But her astounding work in Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon has anointed her as one of the most promising new talents to come out of Cannes in a long time. I spoke with Gladstone at the festival the morning after her big premiere. She's a thoughtful and serene interview who revealed how her own past (especially her grandmother) informed her performance. I think we'll be seeing a lot more from Gladstone in the coming year, so get to know her better now.
(Jude) Law of the Land
Jude Law's transformation into King Henry VII for Firebrand required lots of research, along with a dramatic physical transformation that required hair and makeup work, weights put into his clothing and, yes, a stinky perfume he brought to set. As he tells Vanity Fair, he also brought in a gang of actors he knew from the stage to play King Henry's privy council, so that he'd be as close and comfortable with his entourage as Henry was. The result is a eerily threatening king that becomes increasingly paranoid toward the end of his life. “He was a tyrant. He was a gangster, really,” Law tells me. “And he was paranoid and deluded and terrifying.”
Michelle Yeoh Looks Back
On Sunday evening in Cannes, Michelle Yeoh was honored with the Women in Motion award for her accomplishments both over the past year and for the past four decades. The Oscar-winning actor arrived at the starry event (Leonardo DiCaprio, Alfonso Cuaron and Brie Larson were among the seated guests) after attending the Firebrand red carpet premiere earlier that night. In her acceptance speech, she reflected on the opportunities for women in film today, compared to earlier in her career. “I have watched the currents throughout my entire career, and I am watching the tides turn now,” Yeoh said.
It's a Mads, Mads World
I sat down with Mads Mikkelsen the day after the premiere of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. The Cannes veteran says that iconic carpet never gets old. He also reveals what he thinks about the de-aging used in the film. “It's a little weird. I think they did a hell of a job,” he says. “I sense a smell of plastic, but it's amazing they can do it.” Plus, he talked to me about running into Johnny Depp (he replaced Depp in the Fantastic Beasts franchise) on opening night and what Depp has to say about all of it.
The Party Don't Stop
After the big premiere for his film Killers of the Flower Moon, what did Robert DeNiro do? He made his way to Vanity Fair's party at the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc. Our first time holding this celebration of international film and its talent since 2019, the late-night fete was packed with a celebratory mood that was no match for the dreary weather outside. Among those joining in on the good times were Bryan Cranston, Mia Wasikowska, James Mangold, Naomi Campbell and Sam Levinson. Though I have to tip my hat to Jeremy O. Harris, who was a major social butterfly at the event.
'Killers of the Flower Moon' Lands at Cannes
Martin Scorsese can't seem to shake his fascination with America’s dark economy. The director's latest film, which made its debut on Saturday, adapts David Grann’s nonfiction bestseller, a chronicle of the murders of Osage people in 1920s Oklahoma.
Read VF chief critic Richard Lawson's review:
Steve McQueen, Past and Present
I saw down with director Steve McQueen at the festival, to talk all about the past and the present. He reminisced about his first time in Cannes, with his directorial debut Hunger. He also talked to me about his current film, Occupied City, a four-hour documentary that both captures present-day Amsterdam and tells a detailed story about the Nazi occupation of the city in the 1940s. It's an ambitious project that demands a lot of its audience. But McQueen says he knows no other way to make a film. “Our responsibility is not to be comfortable, but to push. You have to throw yourself off kilter.”
Rising Stars for Chopard
At an elegant beachside event on Friday night, Natalie Portman served as Chopard's Godmother, bestowing the 2023 Trophee Chopard onto I Wanna Dance With Somebody actor Naomi Ackie and Good Luck to You, Leo Grande star Daryl McCormack.
The annual event, which spotlights two rising stars, is a star-studded affair, with actors, filmmakers, and jury members all in attendance. Past honorees include Marion Cotillard, Gael García Bernal, Diane Kruger, Shailene Woodley, and Anya Taylor-Joy, so the future looks bright for this year's pair of honorees.
An Unflinching Look at the Banality of Evil
Will appreciating Jonathan Glazer‘s new film also make you feel a little queasy? Yes, and that seems to be the point, writes Richard Lawson in his review of The Zone of Interest. Loosely adapted from the Martin Amis novel, the film finds a German family living in a bucolic setting during World War II — even with Auschwitz right next door. Read more in Richard’s review:
