“We are the first surprised.” This is how the Cannes festival responded in a brief statement to Víctor Erice’s open letter published in EL PAÍS this Wednesday in the early afternoon, in which the Spanish director explained that the reason he did not attend the screening of his film on Monday was due to a lack of dialogue with the organization during the selection process. “The selection of the film Cerrar los ojos by Víctor Erice took place under the usual conditions of the selection process. The invitation of his film to the official section was notified to the director on April 12. From the beginning, the dialogue was permanent between Thierry Frémaux [delegado general del festival] y Christian Young [su ayudante en la programación] with the Spanish producer and the French distributor, and Thierry Frémaux himself had contact with Víctor Erice”, the statement reveals. “The Cannes Film Festival is the first to be surprised by the considerations made around the selection of the film because it is above all proud and happy to have welcomed Close Your Eyes by Víctor Erice in its 76th edition.” Hours before, asked by EL PAÍS at the start of the morning, Frémaux had evaded the question: “I don’t know, I don’t know. I have to read it, ”he replied, before immediately heading to his office.
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As Erice explains in his text, his absence on Monday is due to the lack of dialogue during the selection process of the films for the competition that prevented him from considering other options to release it in other competitions after learning that it had not been selected in the section of competition: “Between March and April, pending what the Official Selection Committee decided, I received from the prestigious Quinzaine des Cinéastes section […] the proposal to open the Quinzaine in Cannes with my film, in a special session. An event that in previous editions has been offered to established directors, such as Francis Ford Coppola. I immediately wrote to Thierry Frémaux to tell him that if Close Your Eyes was not going to be selected, he would notify me in good time (it is something that is customary), so that I could consider the other options that were offered to the film. In Cannes (Quinzaine des Cinéastes), and outside of Cannes (Locarno Festival or Venice Mostra). But in that waiting time, Frémaux never gave signs of life. The Quinzaine committee kept offering him for weeks, until the time of their protocols ran out ”.
Thierry Fremaux (left) poses with Martin Scorsese on the red carpet in Cannes on May 21. SARAH MEYSSONNIER (REUTERS)
Although Erice’s text does not question the selection system, but only the lack of information on the part of the festival about in which section Close Your Eyes was going to be screened, it does highlight its complexity and how decisive it can be for the future of a movie that opens there. The French contest has, within its official section, several sections: competition, special sessions, out of competition, Cannes Première (created after confinement) and Un Certain Regard, which for two years has focused on first and second films by directors So they start their career. In total, almost sixty titles. In turn, in Cannes, the Filmmakers’ Fortnight (this year it has changed its name, after being called Directors’ Fortnight for decades), the Critics’ Week, Acid and the Film Market, are held in parallel, although without organizational connections. the largest in the world, and which takes place in the basement of the Palacio de Festivales, while the festival takes place upstairs. For the digital box office and accreditations, all these events share computer and web supports.
selection announcement
There are few more tense moments for auteur cinema than a Thursday morning in April, when Thierry Frémaux, accompanied by the festival’s president, a position in which the German Iris Knobloch made her debut this year, announces most of the titles who will participate in the contest and in which sections. At the press conference on April 13, Frémaux said that when he called Ken Loach to announce his inclusion in the contest, the 86-year-old Briton replied: “Are you sure of the decision?” That day he assured that they had received close to 200 films from French cinema alone, and that he had finished the puzzle a few hours before, at one in the morning, early even for their usual schedules (in previous editions they had completed the grid at 3 A.M). And that there were titles to be announced. Days later, the consequent programming announcements for the Fortnight and the Week arrived, which have their own selection committees.
Closing Your Eyes ended up at Cannes Première, a decision that, after seeing the film, has stirred up Spanish critics and the international press. Reviewing Erice’s drama in The Hollywood Reporter, Jordan Mitzer writes: “One day Frémaux should explain why he has scheduled such a powerful and talented tribute to cinema in a minor section like Cannes Premiere instead of in competition.” . Closing Your Eyes is a consummate film work by a great artist.”
“Every self-respecting filmmaker wants to participate in Cannes,” Albert Serra recounted a few days ago on La Croisette, the promenade where the event’s activities take place. The easiest door to access a selection in any section is the same one that Beatriz Navas, general director of the ICAA, the Institute of Cinematography of the Ministry of Culture and Sports, used to enter the contest a few days ago: “If one analyzes the films in competition, it is obvious that they have a strong link with France. Either they are co-produced with France, or French sales agents are behind them. [las empresas que ofertan las películas a las distribuidoras mundiales]”.
Meeting of European festival directors at the Venice Film Festival in September 2020. From left, Karlovy Vary Artistic Director Karel Och; the person in charge of the Rotterdam contest, Vanja Kaludjeric; José Luis Rebordinos, from San Sebastián; Locarno Artistic Director Lili Hinstin; the general delegate of Cannes, Thierry Frémaux, and the director of Venice, Alberto Barbera.YARA NARDI (Reuters)
By prestige and by industry: the media and economic echo is brutal. Cannes is the best possible showcase. Hundreds of title seekers for other festivals or exhibitors come to the French contest, due to the large number of films programmed, the market projections and the possibility of meeting with producers and sales agents from all over the world. José Luis Rebordinos, director of the San Sebastián festival, the only one of the fortnight of class A (the best) that is celebrated in Spain, and present these days in Cannes, explains: “Cannes is the most important festival in the world, without no doubt, due to the media, industrial and artistic repercussions. It is the great audiovisual market, and at the same time it has different programs with the best of the moment, from the most artistic to the most popular”.
His choice of films is similar to that of the French competition. “In the selection process we do not speak with the directors, but with the producers, who are the ones who register the film,” explains Rebordinos. In his case, for the next edition, which starts on September 22, he already has three films by well-known filmmakers closed and he assures that he has not spoken to any of them. The festival programmers always meet with whoever has the sales rights to the films, which are almost never the filmmakers, an excuse that doesn’t work in the case of Erice because he is a co-producer of Close Your Eyes.
Fans greeting Wes Anderon at the entrance to the gala session of ‘Asteroid City’ in Cannes. SARAH MEYSSONNIER (REUTERS)
If a festival is big, it has a selection committee. If your size is medium, you will have three or four scout programmers. And there is competition between them to see who gets the best films for their event. “In our case,” explains Rebordinos, “we are 12 who make up the committee.” They are attending passes or advances of the titles. “This process, I insist, is done through whoever has the international rights to the film or its producers, in the Spanish case. They are the ones who register the film. Sometimes they send it to us in San Sebastián, other times we go to see them in Paris on two annual trips, London, Madrid and Barcelona. Cannes an appointment to meet and see a movie in private screenings. To get an idea of the number of offers received by Cannes, suffice it to say that last year in San Sebastian they saw 3,900 films, 600 of them shorts.
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