Cannes Film Festival 2015: What's buzzing in film and fashion

Cannes closed out the festival on Sunday with a long list of winners and a few surprises. The Palme d’Or went to director Jacques Audiard’s refugee drama Dheepan, which tells the story of Tamil refugees attempting to build a new life in France. Other big winners include Laszlo Nemes’ holocaust drama Son of Saul, which won the runner-up Grand Prix prize, and Rooney Mara and Emmanuelle Bercot, who shared the best actress award for their performances in Carol and Mon Roi, respectively.

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Director Justin Kurzel (The Snowtown Murders) hit the red carpet with Marion Cotillard,and Michael Fassbender for Saturday’s premiere of their Macbeth, which wrapped the festival's competition screenings. The update of the bloody, Shakespearean classic received largely positive reviews (see The Hollywood Reporter and Variety), many of which applauded the performances of Fassbender and Cotillard as Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, respectively. Coming up, the trio will reunite for 2016’s sci-fi flick Assassin's Creed.

Jane Fonda has only a few minutes on screen in Paolo Sorrentino's acclaimed comedy-drama Youth, starring Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel as old friends at a spa resort in Switzerland. In the film, she's unrecognizable in a big blonde Marilyn wig and bright lipstick, but the very recognizable 77-year-old turned heads at both the photo call for the movie and its premiere, where she dominated the red carpet with her puffy black and pink Schiaparelli Haute Couture gown.

Director Antoine Fuqua’s boxing flick Southpaw wasn’t able to compete at Cannes because its star, Jake Gyllenhaal (pictured above with Mary J. Blige), was selected to be part of the festival’s jury, but it still received plenty of praise at a screening on Friday, Variety reported, quoting festival general delegate Thierry Fremaux as saying: “This sport is so well-filmed on television that it’s very hard to get the same feeling in the cinema on screen like Martin Scorsese did with Raging Bull. But this film is so strong and credible. We believe Jake is a boxer first.” Adrien Brody, Michelle Rodriguez, and more, were also in attendance to see what sounds like a knockout performance from Gyllenhaal.  

Every five years or so, Cannes needs a scandalous title to spice things up, and that's when they call upon French-Argentine filmmaker Gaspar Noe. His previous two competition films Irreversible (2002) and Enter the Void (2009) were challenging works that divided critics and audiences. This year he returned with an out-of-competition midnight screening of the 3-D Love, an explicit foray into the themes of compassion and commitment, starring newcomers Klara Kristin, Karl Glusman, and Aomi Muyock (pictured, left to right, with Noe, second from left). Reaction, especially to a scene of male sexual climax aimed right at the 3-D glasses of the audience, was characteristically split.

The Oscar winner is a front-runner for Best Actress honors, thanks to her role as a 1950s housewife who falls for a store clerk (Rooney Mara) in Carol. And her Giles Deacon gown, with an intricate handmade design based on a photo of pearls, left the glitterati swooning.

The British beauty has earned rave reviews with the Croisette crowd—both for her turn as an FBI agent in the gritty drama Sicario (costarring Josh Brolin and Benicio Del Toro) and for her choice of festival fashion, like this brightly patterned Peter Pilotto shift.

No shaved head here! The South African actress (accompanied by her beau, Sean Penn) swapped her hardcore Mad Max: Fury Road look for a sleek, strapless Dior design paired with diamond-crusted Chopard earrings—and created a major couture moment at the festival premiere.

The Black Swan actress looked cheeky in a sheer peek-a-boo Rodarte dress to promote her directorial debut A Tale of Love and Darkness. Portman directed and stars in the Hebrew-language film, based on the memoir of Israeli writer Amos Oz. The film received mixed reviews during its premiere, but marks the beginning of a busy season for the Israel-born actress. She’s set to star in four upcoming films, including biopics on Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy.

The small screen star walked the red carpet at the Inside Out premiere in this stunning, two-toned dress from The Mindy Project costumer Salvador Peréz. Kaling landed on a number of best-dressed lists, while Pixar’s upcoming flick—about the anthropomorphized emotions that battle for control of a pre-pubescent girl’s mind—fared well too, earning sensational reviews from critics who praised the film's animation style and original premise.

Naomi Watts and Matthew McConaughey stars an unhappily married couple in Gus Van Sant’s suicide drama The Sea of Trees, also starring Ken Watanabe (Godzilla). The film was acquired by Roadside Attractions for U.S. distribution ahead of its Cannes premiere, where it had the uneasy distinction of being the first movie to be booed at by critics during the festival.

The Oscar-winning style star hasn’t been seen much since the end of awards season, but she made an exception to stride the red carpet at the La Tête Haute premiere, wearing a green Gucci gown with frothy, ultrafeminine layers.

The high-profile fashion designer has conquered the clothing world, and now Cannes, with the news that his film Nocturnal Animals was purchased by Focus Features for a whopping $20 million. It’s officially the highest price paid for a film at this year’s festival to date—not bad for Ford’s second outing as a filmmaker. Ford wrote and directed the film, which is based on Austin Wright’s 1993 novel Tony and Susan and features Amy Adams and Jake Gyllenhaal. It’s expected to hit theaters sometime in 2017.

Colin Farrell’s serious-actor cred just got a shot in the arm thanks to his performance as a crabby divorcée in Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Lobster, a satire of our obsession with coupledom costarring (clockwise from top) John C. Reilly, Rachel Weisz, and Ben Whishaw. It’s worth noting that Cannes has been kind to the Irish actor: His film Genius (directed by Michael Grandage with co-stars Colin Firth, Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, and Laura Linney) was picked up by Lionsgate the day before the famous fest even began.

The Weinstein Company emerged as the victor in purchasing the U.S. rights for the Jonathan Jakubowicz-directed boxing drama Hands of Stone. Ramirez stars as iconic fighter Roberto Duran, who was mentored by trainer Ray Arcel (De Niro). R&B singer Usher stars as Sugar Ray Leonard in the upcoming film, which is set to be released on 2,000 screens. The film is expected to knock out American audiences next winter.

The Swedish actress (Ex Machina) looked glamorous in a green leather-trimmed gown from Louis Vuitton’s Resort 2016 collection. Though still relatively unknown, Vikander is poised to become a household name: Her film The Circle was one of the most popular titles at Cannes and was sold for distribution in no less than 15 countries, including Taiwan, France, and Australia. Based on Dave Eggers’ 2013 novel of the same name, Vikander plays a college graduate who heads to work at an Internet company where she meets a mysterious stranger (Tom Hanks).

Director Asif Kapadia’s documentary on Amy Winehouse--compiled from hundreds of interviews, never-before-seen home video clips, and concert footage—premiered at the festival late last week. Warm reviews applauded the film for its candid treatment of the troubled songstress, who passed away from drug and alcohol abuse in 2011. Though the doc hasn’t been well received by the loved ones Winehouse left behind—the singer’s parents have called the film “misleading”–Kapadia stands by his work, though he recently admitted to The Associated Press that “there are maybe things that could have been done differently.”

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