Some of the most significant film premieres in the program of the 74th Cannes Film Festival, one of the world’s most spectacular movie forums, will have their Bulgarian premiere screenings at CineLibri IFF in October 2021. After the end of the festival they will most probably be distributed in Sofia and other Bulgarian cities.
After having been originally scheduled from 11 to 22 May 2021, the annual Cannes Film Festival took place from 6 to 17 July 2021. American director Spike Lee was invited to be the head of the jury for the festival for a second time, after the COVID-19 pandemic in France thwarted the plans for the 2020 Cannes Film Festival. So in July, once again, some of the most famous filmmakers in the world passed on the red carpet. The Honorary Palme d’Or was awarded to American actress and filmmaker Jodie Foster, and Italian filmmaker Marco Bellocchio. The Palme d’Or went to Titane, directed by Julia Ducournau, who became the second female director to win the award and the first to win not jointly with another director.
It turned out that this year nearly 70% of the films included in the main selection of Cannes Film Festival 2021 are based on literary works – a clear sign that in times of crisis, art turns to quality content and classics. CineLibri will offer to the Bulgarian audience the new film of the Hungarian director Ildikó Enedi – “The Story of My Wife”, an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Milán Füst, treated as a peak in his oeuvre. Enedi is known in Bulgaria for her film “On Body and Soul” from 2017, which was awarded the “Golden Bear” at the Berlin Film Festival, and was also nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.
Among the selected titles is the provocative French-Dutch biographical drama “Benedetta” directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by David Birke, an adaptation of Judith C. Brown’s book “Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy”. The director of “Elle”, “Black Book” and “Basic Instinct” is popular in Bulgaria because he is infinitely inventive in his capability to confuse critics and challenge the general public.
Thanks to CineLibri, local venerators of François Ozon’s style will not be disappointed as well. His new film “Everything Went Fine” also had its premiere in Cannes and will have its Bulgarian premiere screening at CineLibri IFF in October. The main role in this refined drama, based on a true story, is entrusted to the charming star of French cinema Sophie Marceau. Her partners are the dignified actors André Dussollier, Charlotte Rampling and Hanna Schygulla.
CineLibri’s audience will also have the opportunity to appreciate the dramatic thriller Flag Day, an adaptation of Jennifer Vogel’s autobiographical book. Directed by Sean Penn, Flag Day stars Penn and his real-life daughter Dylan Penn in an intimate family portrait about a young woman who struggles to rise above the wreckage of her past while reconciling the inescapable bond between a daughter and her father.
Among the film productions selected in Cannes is Nanni Moretti’s long-awaited dramatic comedy “Three Floors” based on Eshkol Nevo’s bestseller. The Israeli writer is already well known in Bulgaria and around the world thanks to this moving masterpiece, which is a brilliant experiment with the novel as a genre, but also with the attempts of a diverse society to discover its identity.