Welcome back to our coverage of the Cannes Film Festival episode 2! This year is the 79th edition of the Cannes International Film Festival and marks our ( Eliana and Patrick (Twitter)) fourth time covering it.

In episode two, we discuss:

• Fatherland by Pawel Pawlikowski
• Siempre soy tu animal materno | Forever Your Maternal Animal by Valentina Maurel
• Double Freedom | La libertad doble by Lisandro ALONSO

Credits:

Sound:

EFF Open Audio License for Le Carnaval des Animaux (Saint-Saëns, Camille - Aquarium) by Neal O'Doan (Piano) Nancy O'Doan (Piano), and Seattle Youth Orchestra Pandora Records/Al Goldstein Archive.

Extro: Former Quinzaine des Cineastes Intro Music: Cyril Moisson | Piano: Frédéric Fortuny

Manipulated cover:

79th Cannes festival poster, Double Freedom Screenshot, Unsplash

Welcome back to our coverage of the Cannes Film Festival! This year is the 79th edition of the Cannes International Film Festival and marks our ( Eliana and Patrick (Twitter)) fourth time covering it.

In this episode, we discuss:

• The opening ceremony
• A Woman's Life | La vie d'une femme dir. Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet (Competition)
• Butterfly Jam dir. Kantemir Balagov (QdC)
• I can't Sleep | J'ai pas sommeil dir Claire Denis (Carrosse d'or récipient 2026)

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Credits:

Sound:

EFF Open Audio License for Le Carnaval des Animaux (Saint-Saëns, Camille - Aquarium) by Neal O'Doan (Piano) Nancy O'Doan (Piano), and Seattle Youth Orchestra Pandora Records/Al Goldstein Archive.

Extro: Former Quinzaine des Cineastes Intro Music: Cyril Moisson | Piano: Frédéric Fortuny

Manipulated cover:

79th Cannes festival poster, J'ai pas sommeil poster, Unsplash

Eliana and Patrick (X | LB) are joined by Öykü Sofuoğlu and Lawrence Garcia to look back at our top 5 favorite films of 2025.

Follow Öykü (X | LB) & Lawrence (X | LB) on Twitter/X or Letterboxd

Find Öykü's work with Emitaï, and as co-host of new film podcast Outskirts

& Hong Sang-Soo Die-hard Lawrence's review on What Does that Nature Say to You, as well as Ways of Worldmaking: Hong Sang-soo’s Late Period, and more notes on Hong's 'Late Period' Double Takes

Lawrence

• The Currents (Las corrientes) | Milagros Mumenthaler
• Peter Hujar’s Day | Ira Sachs
• Bugonia | Yorgos Lanthimos Γιώργος Λάνθιμος
• What Does That Nature Say to You? (그 자연이 네게 뭐라고 하니) | Hong Sang Soo 홍상수
• Dry Leaf (ხმელი ფოთოლი) | Alexandre Koberidze ალექსანდრე კობერიძე

Öykü

• The Love that Remains (Ástin Sem Eftir Er) | Hlynur Pálmason
• Secret Agent (O Agente Secret) | Kleber Mendonça Filho
• The Mastermind | Kelly Reichardt
• Remake | Ross McElwee
• Dry Leaf

Patrick

• Peter Hujar’s Day
• Resurrection 狂野时代 | Bi Gan 毕赣
• Dry Leaf
• I Only Rest in the Storm (O Riso e a Faca) |Pedro Pinho
• Afternoons of Solitude (Tardes de soledad) | Albert Serra

Eliana

• What Does That Nature Say to You?
• Sirat | Olivier Laxe
• Landmarks (Nuestra Tierra) | Lucrecia Martel
• Peter Hujar’s Day
• I Only Rest in the Storm

Happy Year of the Fire Horse!~

Credits:

Sound:

Intro: EFF Open Audio License for Le Carnaval des Animaux (Saint-Saëns, Camille - Aquarium) by Neal O'Doan (Piano) Nancy O'Doan (Piano), and Seattle Youth Orchestra Pandora Records/Al Goldstein Archive.

Extro: Quinzaine des Cineastes Intro Extract Music: Cyril Moisson | Piano: Frédéric Fortuny

It's a wrap!

In the final episode of this year's Cannes Film Festival, Eliana and Patrick are once again joined by Öykü Sofuoğlu.

Together, they discuss:

• Jafar Panahi's Palme d'Or-winning It Was Just an Accident | یک تصادف ساده
• Joachim Trier's Grand Jury Prize-winner Sentimental Value | Affeksjonsverdi
• Nadav Lapid's Yes or Yes! | כן
• Kelly Reichardt's The Mastermind (which, alas, did not win any award)
• Kristen Stewart's The Chronology of Water
• Simón Mesa Soto's A Poet | Un Poeta
• Diego Céspedes | Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo | La Misteriosa Mirada del Flamenco
• and in passing : Alice Douard's Love Letters | Les preuves d'amours, Anna Cazenave Cambet's Love me Tender, Harris Dickinson's Urchin + Scarlett Johansson's Eleanor the Great

For more of Öykü's work, check out her reviews on Sentimental Value, Christian Petzold's Mirrors No. 3, or Hafsia Herzi's The Little Sister for InReview Online.

For those interested in more thoughts on one of our festival favorites, Pauline Loquès’, Nino, read Patrick's review or listen to one of our previous episodes.

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Credits:

Image: It Was Just an Acccident Film Poster

Frame by Kumiko Shimuzu - Free to use under the Unsplash License

Sound:

Intro: EFF Open Audio License for Le Carnaval des Animaux (Saint-Saëns, Camille - Aquarium) by Neal O'Doan (Piano) Nancy O'Doan (Piano), and Seattle Youth Orchestra Pandora Records/Al Goldstein Archive.

Extro: La Bouche - Be My Lover

Welcome back to our coverage of the 78th Cannes Film Festival!

For episode five, Łukasz Mańkowski join us (Patrick and Eliana) to discuss programming for Five Flavors film festival and the following films on day eleven of twelve:

• Renoir ルノワール by Chie Hayakawa 早川千絵 (Competition)
• Left-Handed Girl 左撇子女孩 by Shih-Ching Tsou 鄒時擎 (Semaine)
• A Useful Ghost ผีใช้ได้ค่ะ by Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke รัชฏ์ภูมิ บุญบัญชาโชค (Semaine de la Critique * Winner)
• Brand New Landscape 見はらし世代 by Yuiga Danzuka 団塚唯我 (Quinzaine)
• Love on Trial 恋愛裁判 by Kōji Fukada 深田晃司 (Cannes Première)
• Resurrection 狂野时代 by Bi Gan 畢贛 (Competition)

Łukasz Mańkowski is a film scholar, film critic, and film programmer for the annual Five Flavours Asian Film Festival which will be taking place in November this year in Warsaw. You can follow him on Twitter/X here!

Thanks for listening!

If you have any comments, suggestions, or want to get in touch: cannesversations@proton.me

Credits:

Image: Resurrection Film Poster

Officiel du 78e Festival de Cannes : © Les Films 13 – Un homme et une femme de Claude Lelouch (1966) / Création graphique © Hartland Villa

Frame by Kumiko Shimuzu - Free to use under the Unsplash License

Sound:

Intro: EFF Open Audio License for Le Carnaval des Animaux (Saint-Saëns, Camille - Aquarium) by Neal O'Doan (Piano) Nancy O'Doan (Piano), and Seattle Youth Orchestra Pandora Records/Al Goldstein Archive.

Extro: Quinzaine des Cineastes Intro Extract Music: Cyril Moisson | Piano: Frédéric Fortuny

Welcome back to our coverage of the 78th Cannes Film Festival!

For episode four, Maja Korbecka and Jakob Jurisch join us (Patrick and Eliana) to discuss the following films on day nine of twelve:

• The History of Sound by Oliver Hermanus (Competition)
• Sterne by Konrad Wolf (Cannes Classics)
• Magellan (Drifting Laurent) by Lav Diaz (Cannes Première)
• O Riso e a Faca (Only I Rest in the Storm) by Pedro Pinho (Un Certain Regard)
• Renoir ルノワール by Chie Hayakawa 早川千絵 (Competition)

Maja Korbecka is a film studies researcher and film critic who focuses on Sinophone and Southeast Asian cinemas. She has contributed to Senses of Cinema, The China Project, Easternkicks, Frameland, and EKRANy magazine. This year, she will write for the Chinese Print Film Magazine Da Zhong Dian Ying 大衆電影.

Jakob Jurisch is a Hessen-born Berlin-based film critic who writes for moviebreak.de. For German speakers, Jakob and Patrick's German-language cover of Cannes is also available on moviebreak.de. You can listen to their German-language podcast coverage here.

Thanks for listening!

If you have any comments, suggestions, or want to get in touch: cannesversations@proton.me

Credits:

Image: O Riso e a Faca Film Still

Officiel du 78e Festival de Cannes : © Les Films 13 – Un homme et une femme de Claude Lelouch (1966) / Création graphique © Hartland Villa

Frame by Kumiko Shimuzu - Free to use under the Unsplash License

Sound:

Intro: EFF Open Audio License for Le Carnaval des Animaux (Saint-Saëns, Camille - Aquarium) by Neal O'Doan (Piano) Nancy O'Doan (Piano), and Seattle Youth Orchestra Pandora Records/Al Goldstein Archive.

Extro: Quinzaine des Cineastes Intro Extract Music: Cyril Moisson | Piano: Frédéric Fortuny

Welcome back to our coverage of the 78th Cannes Film Festival episode three!

This is the first time that we have had the chance to sit down with a director at Cannes. The film, Imago, featured in the Semaine de la Critique side section and picked up two prizes this past week: The French Touch and the Golden Eye.

We talk to director Déni Oumar Pitsaev about some of the themes in this highly personal hybrid documentary film about the filmmaker's empathetic exploration and confrontation with a foreign yet familial place where culture, tradition, and displacement disparity between the symbolic and semantic: 'home' and 'house'; representing a universal entanglement with one's roots.

Thanks for listening!

If you have any comments, suggestions, or want to get in touch: cannesversations@proton.me

Credits:

Image: Imago Film Still

Officiel du 78e Festival de Cannes : © Les Films 13 – Un homme et une femme de Claude Lelouch (1966) / Création graphique © Hartland Villa

Frame by Kumiko Shimuzu - Free to use under the Unsplash License

Sound:

Intro: EFF Open Audio License for Le Carnaval des Animaux (Saint-Saëns, Camille - Aquarium) by Neal O'Doan (Piano) Nancy O'Doan (Piano), and Seattle Youth Orchestra Pandora Records/Al Goldstein Archive.

Extro: Quinzaine des Cineastes Intro Extract Music: Cyril Moisson | Piano: Frédéric Fortuny

Welcome back to our coverage of the 78th Cannes Film Festival!

We (Patrick and Eliana) share our first reactions and give a sneak peek at the festival's ongoing films and events.

Join us on day eight of twelve, episode two, as we rewind to a pre-festival recording to discuss the following films:

• Drunken Noodles by Lucio Castro (ACID)
• Nino by Pauline Loquès (Semaine de la Critique)
• Laurent dans le vent (Drifting Laurent) by Anton Balekdjian, Léo Couture et Mattéo Eustachon (ACID)

For those who are German speakers, you can also find Patrick on moviebreak.de and can listen to his German-language podcast coverage here: RSS | Spotify !

Thanks for listening!

If you have any comments, suggestions, or want to get in touch: cannesversations@proton.me

Credits:

Image: Drunken Noodles Film Still

Officiel du 78e Festival de Cannes : © Les Films 13 – Un homme et une femme de Claude Lelouch (1966) / Création graphique © Hartland Villa

Frame by Kumiko Shimuzu - Free to use under the Unsplash License

Sound:

Intro: EFF Open Audio License for Le Carnaval des Animaux (Saint-Saëns, Camille - Aquarium) by Neal O'Doan (Piano) Nancy O'Doan (Piano), and Seattle Youth Orchestra Pandora Records/Al Goldstein Archive.

Extro: Quinzaine des Cineastes Intro Extract Music: Cyril Moisson | Piano: Frédéric Fortuny