Cannes Film Festival 2022: Who is Thierry Frémaux?
A strict boss doesn’t like selfies
Cannes Film Festival: Who is the man at the top of the red stairs?
Known as Dieter Kosslick as President of the Berlinale in Germany, Thierry Frémaux serves as President of Cannes all the time in France. There is hardly a French media that has not published a picture of him yet. Except that Frémaux is not the lovable bear type, but rather a cultured Frenchman with a clear instinct for power.
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For a week and a half, Frémaux, born in 1960, will once again be atop the red steps in front of Festival Palace welcoming stars from Tilda Swinton to Tom Cruise. Some on screens around the world might ask themselves: Who is the skinny man in the tuxedo with the semi-square glasses, who speaks familiarly with movie celebs and seems to be out here in the background?
First person shooter games
Frémaux should also make sure his guests don’t wave their phones too often (hardly afraid of Swinton, but more so with Cruise). A few years ago, Frémaux imposed a ban on selfies on the red carpet, arguing that “the city of Cannes is there to be seen, not to be seen.” It took a long time for all the first-person shooters to find their way into cinemas.
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The Red Carpet on the Cote d’Azur: Opening of the 75th International Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival is back and opens Tuesday on the French Cote d’Azur.
© Source: Reuters
He was nearly executed on social media because of the ban. However, criticism appears to stem from his playful demeanor, even when he is reprimanded for his choice of programme, which is still male-dominated today. At his inaugural press conference in Cannes earlier this year, he quickly turned things around: “Should we rule out a good movie just because it’s a man-made?”
However, he also sees younger female directors on the rise and wants to open new paths for them. Now he can seize the opportunity: For the 75th, he says he wants to focus more on cinema’s difficult future than on its glorious past.
judo black belt
By the way, Frémaux is also physically armed against attacks: he calls the judo black belt his belt. The year before, he had written a book on the sport called Judoka (Koslick once wrote a book on bagel pastry). “Judo taught me a dedication — to cinema, too,” says Frémaux.
He is primarily responsible for the design of the program. He travels the world from one festival to the next and watches movies, definitely in a four-figure range all year round. Its most important goal: to keep Cannes at the forefront of the international festival scene. The real competition comes mainly from Italy: in September Venice grabbed a springboard for Oscars hopefuls.
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More stricter rules apply in Cannes than in Lido: Frémaux has set himself up against Netflix like any other festival director. As long as the streaming platform does not regularly show its films in (French) cinemas, Netflix does not belong to it in competition. The rifle did not pay attention to such subtleties for a long time. But Frémaux also understands that the film is undergoing fundamental changes, if only because of the numerous viewing platforms.
He doesn’t see himself as a fundamentalist: “I prefer a good commercial movie to a bad author movie,” he said. The cinematic heritage is particularly close to his heart. Hobby Horse is the Cannes Classics series with restored cinema classics.
In Cannes, the art of cinema is almost religiously valued: Frémaux is, well, like the stern high priest of the cinema chapel.
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