CANNES, France -- Are you familiar with the Raoul Effect? Probably not, because it's a phenomenon that's known only to those people who've been to the Cannes Festival and watched films tendered in the official selection.

Someone, it's unclear who, screams "raoul" at the beginning of the daily 7pm screening in the Debussy theater. No one knows why. It's unclear who the author of the scream is, or

CANNES, France – Seems like French actor and host of […]

In Mark Cousins's STOCKHOLM MY LOVE Alva Achebe (Neneh Cherry) is a passionate Swedish architect who is fascinated by the way buildings can influence lives. And yet, she's haunted by an event from her past. A year earlier, Alva was involved in an accident, the weight of it still affecting her today. On the anniversary of the accident, she reaches breaking point. She gets lost in Stockholm,

Entrenched in a small village in Italy's Umbria region, under the close supervision of her protective father, young Gelsomina sees little of the outside the world. She doesn't ask too many questions, either. On the farm where she lives with her young and sisters and her parents she helps out in the family's beekeeping business. Her fate appears sealed. And yet, two events will soon inject some much-needed chaos: her family hosts a young man who's right out of juvie, as part of a social rehabilitation program, and a reality show comes to the area to do an on-site taping.

Notwithstanding the lack of one film trailblazing the others as was the case in previous years (MOMMY or LA VIE D'ADELE, as recent examples, HOLY MOTORS a little bit earlier), 2015 has borne a tremendously-strong Cannes vintage. So yes, credit--much of it--goes to Thierry Frémaux and his team for having bravely assembled such an inventive slate of films by filmmakers who express themselves genuinely on the larger issues

This year's Cannes Festival selection will be revealed during a press conference given in Paris on April 16th. At this time about a third of the contending films have been identified, according to the festival's general delegate (and programmer) Thierry Frémaux. A whopping 1,800 films have been submitted this year. "Everything happens in the next two weeks," Frémaux told the French National Assembly's Committee on Cultural Affairs on Wednesday here in Paris.

Today, after a six month-press war launched by filmmaker Abel Ferrara against his chief financier, Vincent Maraval (French distributor Wild Bunch's head honcho) and IFC Films, the R-rated cut of Ferrara’s originally unrated “Welcome to New York” is opening theatrically—to Ferrara’s chagrin—in the US.

It is, however, only showing at one theater: The Roxie, in San Francisco.

Pierre Lescure, the new president of this upcoming 68th edition of the Cannes Festival, quickly took to the media this week after it was announced that this year’s jury would be presided over by the Coen Brothers. "These geniuses of dark humor, these portrait artists we love so, cutting and tender all at once, a balance between popular and independent.” is how Lescure described the Coens in a brief interview given to French radio RTL.

This year's selection in Cannes, while not being particularly exceptional in terms of big-name wattage, could lead to some interesting results. For example, this marks Xavier Dolan's first year bringing a film to the competition series (he's been at Cannes before, but was never in line to compete for the Palme D'Or). A win for Dolan would validate years of efforts and progress. This year also marks Jean-Luc Godard's return, so to speak.

In four unrelated chapters “A Touch of Sin” tells the […]