Cannes: Neon Partners With Direct Relief for ‘The Year of the Everlasting Storm’
The anthology film features arthouse headliners Jafar Panahi, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, David Lowery, Laura Poitras, Dominga Sotomayor, Anthony Chen and Malik Vitthal exploring the pandemic in seven offbeat stories.
Neon is partnering with Direct Relief for it anthology feature, The Year of the Everlasting Storm, which made its world premiere at the Cannes Festival on Wednesday. The company also will donate to the organization’s worldwide COVID-19 relief efforts.
“As many wealthy countries are able to reunite and celebrate in Cannes this week, many more countries are not able to participate due to the global disparity in how vaccines are being developed and distributed,” Neon said in a statement from Cannes. The company added that its donation and collaboration with direct relief will support real-time Covid-19 direct response and assistance through the distribution of funds, tests, supplies, and vaccines to the countries and areas that are hardest hit worldwide.
The Year of the Everlasting Storm, which will be released theatrically later this year, made its debut at Cannes as part of the festival’s Special Screening section.
Helmed by acclaimed filmmakers Jafar Panâhi, Anthony Chen, Malik Vitthal, Laura Poitras, Dominga Sotomayor, David Lowery and Apichatpong Weerasethakul, the film follows seven stories shot during the unprecedented time of the pandemic, serving as a love letter to the power of cinema and storytelling.
The film is executive produced by Panâhi, Tom Quinn and David Kaplan and produced by Brad Becker-Parton, Andrea Roa, and Jeff Deutchman.
“Our partnership with Direct Relief builds on the mission we started with when we embarked on this project — creating global collaboration and connection during an unprecedented moment in history,” Deutchman said.
Neon has two other high-profile films at Cannes this year, including Apitchatpong’s competition feature, Memoria, starring Tilda Swinton, and Julia Ducournau’s Titane, a horror starring Vincent Lindon, Agathe Rousselle, Garance Marillier and Laïs Salameh.
The company, famous for its theatrical handling of Bong Joon-ho’s world-wide smash and Oscar winner Parasite, has an interesting slate that includes Pablo Larrain’s Spencer, Jamila Wignot’s Ailey, Céline Sciamma’s Petite Maman, and Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s Flee, executive produced by Riz Ahmed and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau
