20/04/2005 - Gilles Jacob, Thierry Frémeaux and Véronique Cayla announced the other events which will take place on the famous Croisette : amongst them, the European Day, the traditional cinema lesson by the African director Sembène Ousmane, L'Atelier du Festival

Amongst yesterday’s great news about the 58th Festival de Cannes (11th-22d May), besides the official selection, the French triumvirat — Gilles Jacob (President), Thierry Frémeaux (artistic director) and Véronique Cayla (general executive) — announced the other events which will take place on the famous Croisette. Amongst them, the European Day (17th May) will gather for the third time all the European Cultural Affairs Secretaries and several personalities for a whole morning of discussion on the theme ‘European films and the information society’.
br> This year, the traditional cinema lesson (15th May) will be taught by the African director Ousmane Sembene (after Wong Kar-wai, Nanni Moretti, and Stephen Frears) while Catherine Deneuve will be in charge of the acting lesson (12th May) which will allow her to come back on the highlights of her carrier. Another interesting event is on the schedule : on the 13th of May, the Screening For Children will welcome young spectators from 8 to 12 years old for the world-premiere of a tale, taken from Kirikou et les bêtes sauvages by Michel Ocelot. As far as exhibitions are concerned, this year’s will be dedicated to James Dean and Jean Renoir ; the latter exhibition, the one which focuses on the cult-director, is organised by the French Cinémathèque Française, in a partnership with the Musée d'Orsay, and with the support of the BiFi (French film library). Last but not least, two brand new events already announced by Cineuropa were added to the traditional appointments : the L'Atelier du Festival, a workshop which allows 18 young directors selected by the Cinéfondation to present their projects to film professionals, and Tous les Cinémas du Monde, a section dedicated to films from all over the world and which consists in screening every day from the 14th to the 20th of May (one country and one theatre per day) films from selected countries ; this year’s selection includes Morocco, South Africa, Mexico, Austria, Peru, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines.

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Of course, the festival will be as glamourous as usual. Amongst this year’s prestigious guests, we find Scarlett Johannsson, Sharon Stone, Nathalie Portman, Tilda Swinton, Zhang Ziyi, Asia Argento, Jessica Lange, Viggo Mortensen, Ewan McGregor, Benicio del Toro, Gael Garcia Bernal, Val Kilmer, Samuel Jackson, Danny Glover, Bruce Willis, and Bill Murray.

(Translated from French)