Cannes Film Festival: India Named to be the Official Country of Honor 

Cannes Film Festival’s 75th Anniversary coincides with India’s 75th year of Independence. 

For this year, Cannes Film Festival (Cannes Film Market) has made India the Official Country of Honor. The Cannes honors are scheduled to be conferred from May 17 to May 25. This marks the first time India has been given this honor. 

India celebrates its 75th year of independence this year, which coincidentally also happens to be the 75th anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival. On May 18, the Cannes Market celebrations will be launched at Majestic Beach. Jerome Paillard and Guillaume Esmiol, Market executive directors, will also be seen participating during the festival.  

At the movie gala, a stunning new restoration of Indian cinema legend Satyajit Ray’s rare film ‘Pratidwandi’ will be presented in an exclusive screening. According to the festival’s press release, Pratidwandi is being restored as part of the National Film Heritage Mission, a project spearheaded by India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. 

The restoration was executed by Prime Focus Technologies in Mumbai, while the grading was resolved by Sudeep Chatterjee, a well-known Indian cinematographer. The National Film Archive of India presents the restored version (NFDC). 

Alongside Pratidwandi, there will be a whole new 4K restoration of the Hollywood classic Singin’ in the Rain. The Boulevard de la Croisette will host a screening of the 1952 Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen picture, which chronicles the transition from silent to talkies. At the gala, the Indian film Thampu (The Circus Tent), directed by Aravindan Govindan in 1978, will receive its Restoration World Premiere. 

Deepika Padukone, a renowned Bollywood actor, has been announced as a member of the competition jury for the festival’s upcoming edition, alongside prominent names like actor-filmmaker Rebecca Hall, Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi, Swedish actress Noomi Rapace, Italian actress Jasmine Trinka, French director Lado Lee, American director Jeff Nichols and Norwegian director Joachim Trier. 

Deepika Padukone is one of the eight members of the jury that will award the prized Palme d’Or to one of the 21 films in competition during the closing ceremony on Saturday, May 28.

Published by: Diwakar Kumar

Edited by: Aaradhana Singh