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Siddhant Adlakha A self-portrait and cinematic essay, Leos Carax‘s “It’s Not Me” is perhaps the most accurate impression of a late-era Jean-Luc Godard experiment anyone has ever attempted. From Carax’s raspy voiceover to his jaggedly assembled combination of archival footage and absurd original snippets, the 41-minute short probes a variety of personal and political subjects, but it never quite beats with the furious heart and provocative spirit of Godard’s twilight era.

Selena Kuznikov Jeremy Renner spoke to the L.A. Times about returning to the “Mayor of Kingstown” set after his near-fatal snow plow accident. In January 2023, Renner was run over by his own snowcat, which weighs at least 14,330 pounds, and suffered from significant chest trauma — including a collapsed lung — and 38 broken bones.

Ben Croll Premiering out of Critics’ Week in Cannes, Alexis Langlois’ debut feature “Queens of Drama” is a musical blast of queer culture euphoria, telling a decades-spanning, impossible love story between a pair of pop idols who begin as fans and then become lovers, who climb the charts and permeate the culture as enemies, and who end up forgotten, as time moves forward and a new generation of teenage fans claim new idols for themselves. The film’s familiar rise-and-fall rhythms struck a chord with filmmaker Alexis Langlois, who cites Vincente Minnelli and George Cukor as inspiration.

Cate Blanchett blew kisses to the Cannes Film Festival audience as her new film, “Rumours,” earned a four-minute standing ovation at Cannes Film Festival on Saturday night. The crowd welcomed the film’s dark humor, laughing throughout the entirety of the late-night screening. While some of the auditorium emptied out while the credits rolled, the majority of filmgoers waited patiently to pay their respects to the film’s stars.

Michaela Zee Alice Stewart, a CNN political commentator and veteran political adviser who worked on several Republican presidential campaigns, has died. She was 58. Stewart’s body was found outdoors in a northern Virginia neighborhood early Saturday morning, CNN reported.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic SPOILER ALERT: The following review contains some spoilers. Like a rose blooming amid a minefield, it’s a miracle that Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Pérez” exists: a south-of-the-border pop opera about a most unlikely metamorphosis and the personal redemption it awakens in a stone-cold criminal. With a Palme d’Or to his name and the cojones to tackle his third movie in a culture and language that are not his own (after “Dheepan” and “The Sisters Brothers”), the director of “A Prophet” takes audiences into the macho realm of Mexican cartels, where Manitas del Monte — a fearsome drug lord with a silver grill and a voice like gravel — wants out, not because he’s had a crisis of conscience, but because he’s decided to embrace his true self … as a woman.

Ben Croll Noemie Merlant’s sophomore feature “The Balconettes” plays as a raunchy horror-comedy with a greater social conscience. The film follows three roommates – an actress, played by Merlant, a camgirl played by “Dune: Part Two” breakout Souheila Yacoub and a frustrated writer played Sanda Condreanu – who are initially infatuated and eventually repelled by a lothario neighbor from across the yard. Exploring questions of coercion and consent with a healthy dose of blood and guts, “The Balconettes” wants to entertain and energize in equal measure.

Selena Gomez and Karla Sofía Gascón, has earned the biggest standing ovation of this year’s Cannes Film Festival so far. Gomez wiped away tears as the Palais clapped for a full nine minutes, accompanied by plenty of hooting, whistling and cheering. During the standing ovation, director Jacques Audiard waved his hat at the balcony as stars Saldaña and Édgar Ramírez shared an emotional hug.

Annika Pham Back in Cannes a year after presiding over the main Cannes jury, the two-time Palme d’or winner Ruben Öslund unveiled more details about his next mega-project, English-language “The Entertainment is Down,” which he said should be ready for Cannes 2026. The press conference, attended by the hottest talent and producers from the Nordic region and beyond, was hosted by Film i Väst, one of Europe’s largest regional film funds.

Selena Kuznikov Neon has acquired the North American rights to “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” directed by Mohammad Rasoulof. The thriller is set to premiere In Competition in Cannes on May 24, and marks Rasoulof’s first return to the Cannes Film Festival, after being barred from traveling.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Brazil’s Spcine, the city of São Paulo’s film-TV body, is launching the third edition of its cash rebate program, which prioritizes international projects looking to shoot in the vibrant city and state. Municipal support for the program has already been renewed, now totalling US$ 3.8 million, while negotiations with the state of São Paulo are still ongoing, said Luiz Toledo, Spcine director of investments and strategic partnerships.

Steven J. Horowitz Senior Music Writer “What you are about experience may or may not be real,” reads a caption on a TV that Justin Timberlake gazes upon during an introductory vignette for his Forget Tomorrow world tour. At Los Angeles’ Kia Forum on Friday night, the pop star existed in the throes of fantasy and spectacle — an arena where he continually thrives — away from all the headlines and critiques of the past few years.

Marta Balaga Spanish director Jonás Trueba wants you to celebrate the endings, not just the beginnings. That includes the demise of a serious relationship, because Ale and Alex (Itsaso Arana and Vito Sanz) have been together for 15 years. Now, they want only two things: to go their separate ways and to have a proper fiesta.

Marta Balaga The “Mavka” franchise is just getting started. Ukraine’s FILM.UA Group is now developing a live-action film based on the character already spotlighted in “Mavka. The Forest Song,” Variety has found out.

Selena Kuznikov Casey Wilson and Adam Pally, who starred in the ABC sitcom “Happy Endings,” are launching an eponymous recap podcast. The joint endeavor is set to release May 21. Per the podcast’s logline: “Casey Wilson and Adam Pally sit down with the creators, cast and writers from ABC’s failed sitcom, ‘Happy Endings.’ It had a cult following….is what we tell ourselves.

Naman Ramachandran Raven Banner Entertainment has launched sales at the Cannes Film Festival‘s market on the reboot of Roger Corman‘s cult sword and sorcery film series, “Deathstalker,” which is currently shooting in Canada. Daniel Bernhardt (“John Wick,” “The Matrix Reloaded”) stars as the titular character in this reimagined instalment, directed by Steven Kostanski (“The Void,” “Psycho Goreman”). Bernhardt plays a barbarian cursed by a magical talisman, leading him into conflict with a malevolent wizard and monstrous assassins.

K.J. Yossman “Baby Reindeer,” the Netflix series that has taken the world by storm since dropping last month, boldly opens with the claim that “This is a true story.” (Unlike another Netflix series, “Inventing Anna,” which opens with the title card: “This whole story is completely true.

Jessica Kiang The Chinese title of Jia Zhangke‘s mesmerizing “Caught by the Tides,” a masterfully poetic and pioneering fusion of the old and the new, can be translated in several ways. Jia himself suggests “The Drifting Generation,” but it can also mean “The Romantic Generation” with the etymology of “romantic” lying in the Chinese words for wind and current.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer Yorgos Lanthimos can’t stop (won’t stop!) working with Oscar winner Emma Stone, casting the actress once again as leading lady for his next project “Bugonia.” The drama will also star Jesse Plemons who, along with Stone, appears in Lanthimos’ forthcoming “Kinds of Kindness.” That three-chapter feature just premiered on Friday at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. “Bugonia” follows two conspiracy-obsessed young men who kidnap the high-powered CEO of a major company, convinced that she is an alien intent on destroying planet Earth. The script is from heat-seeking “Succession” and “The Menu” writer Will Tracy.

Tatiana Siegel British actor Janet Montgomery has landed a starring role as a young Faye Dunaway in Jonathan Baker’s supernatural love story “Fate,” a film that is shooting in Vancouver for Baker Entertainment. The film will toggle between a yesteryear version of the character (Montgomery) and a present-day incarnation (Dunaway), spanning much of the protagonist’s entire lifetime.

J. Kim Murphy Paramount’s family comedy “IF” is leading domestic charts in its opening after earning $10.3 million from more than 4,041 locations across Friday and preview screenings. But the John Krasinski-directed fantasy feature has decidedly fallen behind its projections heading into the weekend, which had originally forecast a debut around $40 million.

Variety that they are investigating the incident. The bomb scare comes amid heightened security during the festival.

Brent Lang Executive Editor Paramount Global may be a direct competitor, but NBCUniversal Studio Group Chairman and Chief Content Officer Donna Langley will be disappointed if the media giant goes away. “It’s sad,” Langley said at the Kering Women in Motion talk at the Cannes Film Festival, noting that a sale of Paramount means there will be fewer Hollywood studios. “These companies have been great and I’m a big believer in this competitive landscape — kind of ‘all boats will rise.

Marta Balaga Irish director Lorcan Finnegan – already behind “Vivarium” – returns to Cannes with “The Surfer.” Starring Nicolas Cage, it follows a man who just wants to surf on a beach next to his old childhood home in Australia. But he is not a local anymore and he will have to fight for it – or lose his mind. Nic’s character actually references “surfing as a metaphor for life.” Why did you want to explore – and maybe also mock – this philosophy? I met Thomas Martin, who wrote the film, years ago.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Martin Moszkowicz, who recently segued from being CEO of leading German film and TV company Constantin Film to a producing role at the company, has been honored with the Carl Laemmle Producer Award. The award, presented by the Alliance of German Producers – Film & Television e.V.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer The unstoppable Paul Schrader, the 77-year-old auteur who just brought his latest movie “Oh, Canada” to Cannes, has announced his next project. The director revealed he intends to start production this fall on “Non Compos Mentis,” a noir film he is currently writing.

Annika Pham Unspooling May 18 as part of an overall Swiss Focus at the Marché du Film, Solothurn Film Festival Goes to Cannes marks the first collaboration between the long-standing Swiss festival and the Cannes market, but also a first for many of the talents and producers carefully picked for the event. Two of Switzerland’s top documentary filmmakers Jacqueline Zünd, winner of a 2019 Crystal Bear nominated for “Where We Belong,” and Nicholas Steiner, director of “Above & Below”, ranked among Variety reviewer Peter Debruge’s Top 10 films of 2015, are set to attract buyers, sales agents and programmers’ attention with their star-stubbed fiction debuts.

Anna Marie de la Fuente With Maite Alberdi, twice Oscar nominated for her last two docus, “The Eternal Memory” and “The Mole Agent,” and Tana Gilbert whose feature debut “Malqueridas” won the Grand Prize at Venice’s Critics’ Week, Chilean documentaries are having a banner year. Five documentaries participate in the May 20 Chilean Docs-in-Progress Showcase at the Marché du Film’s docu section, Cannes Docs.

Paul Schrader had a special job on the set of his latest film, “Oh, Canada”: drawing on the jockstrap that Jacob Elordi wears in one of the Vietnam War drama’s pivotal scenes. There’s a choice at the heart of “Oh, Canada,” when the fictional filmmaker Leonard Fife (played as a young man by Elordi, and older man as Richard Gere) dodges the Vietnam draft and escapes to Canada. The script leaves breadcrumbs as to what exactly happens until very late in the film, but finally Elordi is seen reporting for an Army physical.

Yorgos Lanthimos film knows they wont be resting on their laurels. Literally. One of his trademarks is a kind of heightened physicality — whether its Rachel Weisz and Joe Alwyn twerking in “The Favourite,” Emma Stone “furious jumping” in “Poor Things” or Nicole Kidman lending a man a hand, so to speak, in a parking lot in “The Killing of a Sacred Deer.” This kind of movement, be it awkward, sexy or just bizarre, came up on Saturday during the Cannes Film Festival press conference for Lanthimos’ latest, “Kinds of Kindness.” Reunited with Stone, Willem Dafoe and Margaret Qualley, and newcomers Jesse Plemons, Mamoudou Athie, Hunter Schafer and Hong Chau, the new project sees the acting troupe engage in group sex, hardcore breakdancing, reckless driving and some light cannibalism.