Guillermo del Toro, Gael Garcia Bernal, Jake Gyllenhaal
The Cannes Film Festival celebrated its 75th anniversary Tuesday evening with over 100 stars and filmmakers from all over the world.
Some of them, notably del Toro, took part in a symposium earlier Tuesday to discuss the new challenges that cinema is facing today.
The roster of talents at the gala ceremony also included stars and filmmakers presenting films at this year’s festival, including Kristen Stewart, Lea Seydoux, Viggo Mortensen and David Cronenberg (“Crimes of the Future”), among others.
Cannes general delegate Thierry Fremaux and president Pierre Lescure took turns calling each guest to join them on stage.
The guests then posed for a Cannes family portrait, and Garcia Bernal took the microphone to sing “Ella” (by José Alfredo Jiménez) with del Toro.
Fremaux opened the ceremony by talking about the resilience of cinema and the importance of Cannes in promoting the moviegoing experience. “Cinema is not dead! Cinema is alive and will never die,” said Fremaux, stirring cheers and applause.
Lescure, for whom this year marks the last edition as Cannes president, received the first standing ovation of the evening and made a speech talking about the legacy of film festival.
Former Warner top executive Iris Knobloch will soon succeed him as festival president.
The ceremony was followed by the world premiere of Louis Garrel’s L’innocent in which he stars opposite Roschdy Zem.