Un Certain Regard – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

Women Winners @ Cannes 2026 – Diane Carson reports

May 27, 2026May 31, 2026 Diane Carson Camera d’Or, geena davis, Marié-Clémentine Dusabejambo, Monia Chokri, Tao Okamoto, Un Certain Regard, Valeska Grisebach, Virginie Efira

The 79th Cannes Film Festival award ceremony held May 23, 2026, began on a high note with presenter Geena Davis noting that women have truly made advances in the filmmaking world. Smiling, she pointed to the 2026 official poster, a tribute to Thelma and Louise which premiered May 1991 at Cannes. There self-assuredly sit Geena Davis/Thelma and Susan Surandon/Louise atop the front seats of their iconic 1966 Ford thunderbird convertible, the car in which they escaped, at least for a while, patriarchal power. Honoring the film’s thirty-five year anniversary, the poster celebrates the pair’s enduring friendship, their challenge to male dictates, and assertion of their power. protagonist.

Festivals Reviews

BEN’IMANA (Cannes 2026) – Review by Diane Carson

May 23, 2026May 23, 2026 Diane Carson Ben'Imana, Cannes 2026, Clémentine U. Nyirinkindi, Hutus, Kesia Kelly Nishimwe, Marié-Clémentine Dusabejambo, reconciliation, Rwandan films, Tutsis, Un Certain Regard

In Ben’Imana, Rwandan writer/director Marié-Clémentine Dusabejambo integrates the personal with the political to gain specificity for a collective trauma. The title Ben’Imana means “the children of God,” signifying that the Hutus and Tutsis shared their language and culture, a paired community until the tragic 1994 Tutsi genocide at the hands of the Hutu militia massacre. Now, in 2012, reconciliation proceeds through public trials. With hopes that forgiveness will help heal the legacy of the massacre of up to a million people,

Festivals Reviews

I’LL BE GONE IN JUNE (Cannes 2026) – Review by Diane Carson

May 21, 2026May 23, 2026 Diane Carson Cannes 2026, Giulia Schelhas, I'll Be Gone in June, Katharina Rivilis, Las Cruces, Naomi Cosma, Un Certain Regard

I’ll Be Gone in June sympathetically occupies the emotional and physical world of sixteen-year-old German exchange student Franny (Naomi Cosma) and her newly acquired friends, all high school students in 2001 Las Cruces, New Mexico. Accepted with curiosity by the local teenagers, Franny settles into a predictable, fairly typical year for a young woman maturing and exploring options. Through her intimate and public interactions, Franny’s days unfold with a myriad of encounters through which she’ll develop a more mature awareness of herself and the new cultural environment into which she’s been thrust.

Festivals Reviews

STRAWBERRIES (Cannes 2026) – Diane Carson reviews

May 21, 2026May 21, 2026 Diane Carson Cannes 2026, La Más Dulce, Laïla Marrakchi, Nisrin Erradi, Strawberries, Un Certain Regard

In its astute, straight-forward story, French-Moroccan director Laïla Marrakchi’s Strawberries/La Más Dulce does not break new ground on the personal and political victimization of migrant workers trapped in inequitable situations. But what Marrakchi does eloquently and compellingly achieve is immersing viewers in that world through a women’s community brought to life in a no-nonsense depiction of the multifaceted exploitation found there. Anchored in central protagonist Hasna Monjib (Nisrin Erradi), slowly and meticulously daily demands and unprincipled actions of those in power escalate into unbearable treatment.

Festivals Reviews

THE MELTDOWN (Cannes 2026) – Review by Diane Carson

May 21, 2026May 23, 2026 Diane Carson Cannes 2026, Chilean politics, El Deshielo), Maia Rae Domagala, Manuela Martelli, Maya O'Rourke, The Meltdown, Un Certain Regard

Writer/director Manuela Martelli’s Meltdown/El Deshielo is set in an isolated Andean ski resort hotel in 1992. Despite its focused, personal story seen through the eyes of nine-year-old Inés (Maya O’Rourke), parallels to Chilean political tragedies are transparent. The more one knows about Chile’s turbulent 1990s period, the better one grasps the multifaceted complexity of ideas. Nevertheless, on its own, The Meltdown offers an engaging story of needy Inés and the impact when her German friend, fifteen-year-old skiing superstar Hanna (Maia Rae Domagala), suddenly disappears.

Festivals Reviews

TITANIC OCEAN (Cannes 2026) – Review by Diane Carson

May 21, 2026May 21, 2026 Diane Carson Arisa Sasaki, Cannes 2026, japanese films, Konstantina Kotzamani, Kotone Hanase, mermaids, Titanic Ocean, Un Certain Regard

Greek writer/director Konstantina Kotzamani Titanic Ocean delivers a pitch perfect profile of teenage Japanese women training at an elite boarding school. Each hopes to prove her abilities as a seductive, professional mermaid. Leading up to the 23rd International Mermaid Championships, the hopeful swimmers will endure competitive pressures amidst strong bonding as they spend days in the pool under the direction of Coach Kotaro. All believe that, as a dreamy, soft voiceover asserts, “A professional mermaid is a giver of dreams, and those dreams can be well paid.”

Festivals Reviews

A FEW WORDS OF LOVE (Cannes 2026) – Review by Diane Carson

May 16, 2026May 17, 2026 Diane Carson A Few Words of Love, Cannes 2026, Ella Bedoucha, french films, Hafsia Herzi, Nour Salam, Quelques Mots d'Amour, Rudi Rosenberg, Un Certain Regard

Writer/director Rudi Rosenberg’s A Few Words of Love/Quelques Mots d’Amour is a heartbreaking film that delivers as many laugh out loud moments as the best comedies. Rosenberg’s witty script manages a high wire act of a devastating family issue balanced throughout by humorous repartee, much of that involving seven-year-old and then fourteen-year-old Abigaëlle, called Abi. The serious side of the story centers on Abi’s obsession with finding and talking with her one hundred percent absent father, a man who, in his own words, “never wanted a kid.”

Festivals Reviews

FOREVER YOUR MATERNAL ANIMAL (Cannes 2026) – Review by Diane Carson

May 16, 2026May 16, 2026 Diane Carson Cannes 2026, Daniela Marín Navarro, Forever Your Maternal Animal, Un Certain Regard, Valentina Maurel

In Forever Your Maternal Animal, French/Costa Rican writer/director Valentina Maurel doesn’t sugar coat the daunting challenges for twenty-eight-year-old Elsa who, returning home to San José, Costa Rica, from her anthropology studies in Belgium, faces the impossible. For Elsa must carefully navigate and repeatedly endeavor to negotiate a complicated relationship with her mentally unstable younger sister Amalia, her largely indifferent father, and her distracted mother. The narrative offers a unique, valuable opportunity to gain insight into fraught relationships and even the catalyst for constructive change.

Reviews

SOULEYMANE’S STORY – Review by Diane Carson

August 13, 2025August 17, 2025 Diane Carson Abou Sangare, Boris Lojkine, cannes film festival, paris, Souleymane’s Story, Un Certain Regard

Seldom does a film conclude with the viewer’s immediate impression being, “That was perfect, absolutely perfect.” But that’s an earned, reaction for director Boris Lojkine’s Souleymane’s Story told entirely through Souleymane Sangare’s experiences as a bicycle food delivery man in Paris. Racing through that city’s Lojkine consummately conveys the life of migrants in France through Souleymane and his acquaintances.

Festivals

Women @ Cannes FF 2025 – Christina Jeurling-Birro reports

April 23, 2025June 5, 2025 Christina Jeurling Birro Alice Rohrwacher, Cannes FF 2025, carla simon, Chie Hayakawa, Hafsia Herzi, Julia Ducournau, juliette binoche, june squibb, Kelly Reichardt, Kristen Stewart, lynne ramsay, Mascha Schilinski, Rebecca Zlotowski, scarlett johansson, Un Certain Regard, women at cannes

When the Cannes Film Festival opens for the 78th time on May 13, Juliette Binoche will preside over the main competition jury. A towering presence in international cinema, Binoche follows in the footsteps of another female film icon, Greta Gerwig. This marks the first time in over six decades that two women have consecutively held this prestigious role! All in all. 2025 is shaping up to be an exciting year for women at Cannes.