Paris--Ever since the launching of French television network and film distributor CanalPlus in the early eighties (of which he was a central part) media capitan Pierre Lescure has led the charge in terms of edgy programming and driving audiences' expectations for top-notch entertainment ever higher. Whether it's entertainment or art (or both) and it is destined for the small or big screen or the stage, Lescure has had some hand in it these last three decades. Now, he wants the Cannes president job (2014 marks outgoing president Gilles Jacob's final year at the helm of the world's most famous film festival).

Power grab! Ooh la la ...

Sixty eight year-old Lescure, a businessman who holds stakes in a number of different media holdings, has chaired the jury of the Deauville American film festival

Adèle Exarchopoulos seems to have unlimited amounts of energy and charm. Will she follow Mélanie Laurent ("Inglourious Basterds")  and Léa Seydoux ("Mission Impossible") to Hollywood, too? Considering the fabulous triumph she experienced in May in Cannes, a career in the movies is hers, if she wants it. She appears in Abdellatif Kechiche's "La Vie D'Adele" ("Life of Adele") alongside with Léa Seydoux, an intense love story between two young girls which is sure to move even the most stone-cold moviegoer. Against all odds the film earned the Palme D'Or. What's striking about Exarchopoulos is the pout

Abdelatif Kechiche’s "Blue Is the Warmest Colour," a graphic but incredibly haunting and beautiful lesbian love story, has won the Palme d’Or, as was just announced during today's closing ceremony. The jury, presided over by Steven Spielberg (the other members: Daniel Auteuil, Vidya Balan, Naomi Kawase, Nicole Kidman, Ang Lee, Cristian Mungiu, Lynne Ramsay, and Christoph Waltz), presented the following awards as well:

I'd like to thank the Coen Brothers for giving me the opportunity to write this post. I've just waited sixty minutes in the pouring rain for a chance to get inside the Debussy theater and watch "Inside Llewyn Davis" but the theatre filled up and we got left out in the cold. Fortunately I was with my three colleagues from the French site Abus de Ciné so we got a chance to exchange about the day's discoveries (there was a lot to cover).

France figures highly this year at the Cannes Festival. As Auréliano Tonet noted in his lead article in the special Cannes edition of Le Monde, out of the 75 or so films competing for various prizes across all official and parallel programs, 33 are French. And that’s a boon for cinephiles, indeed. Because as the American majors have been busy turning out a circus-styled sequel-and-3-D performance and some key indie-minded filmmakers

The Cannes Festival isn’t just the greatest film festival in the world: it’s also a major commercial player driving the local economy and ensuring the livelihood of thousands.

Here's a look at the arithmetic:

$25,000: that's the estimated value of the Palme D'Or; $50,000: poney up and you will the most expensive penthouse

It's hard not to feel trepidations after our most successful film auteur has become designated to head the world's most beloved film festival. In a rare convergence of schedules, Steven Spielberg has been nominated to preside over the 66th Cannes Festival. “My admiration for the steadfast mission of the Festival to champion the international language of movies is second to none. The most prestigious of its kind, the festival has

What would the Cannes Festival be without a little fracas? Some kind of polemic has been making the rounds of the French media this week concerning the lack of women filmmakers in the official selection at the Cannes Festival--twenty-two films, by male directors all, are vying for awards this year. Things turned nasty when Virginie Despentes, Fanny Cottençon, and Coline Serreau (a screenwriter-director, actress and director respect-

The Cannes Festival announced this morning that Marilyn Monroe would be gracing us with her presence this year--at least, virtually. The festival poster, which gets unveiled around this time of the year, will feature a Marilyn blowing on a birthday cake's single candle, marking this year as a landmark, this festival being the sixty-fifth. The festival's press release accompanying this poster states, "fifty years after her death, Marilyn is still a major figure

“Midnight in Paris” a new film by Woody Allen, will […]