Star Gillian Anderson and ‘Squid Game’ Creator Hwang Dong-hyeok Expected on the Pink Carpet

Fictional events and many stars on its pink carpet! While the 4th edition of the Riviera festival took place from October 8 to 13, 2021 due to the pandemic, season 5 of Canneséries will be held from April 1 to 6, 2022 online and on the Croisette. “It was a real challenge to go back on the attack after only five months”, confides to 20 minutes Albin Lewi, the artistic director of the event, who unveiled this Tuesday at a press conference in Paris a very promising program.

“We can once again look forward to partying after two years of cultural scarcity and this festival is party time!” “, declared Jean-Michel Arnaud, president of the Palais des Festivals and Congresses. “We are very happy to see that the reputation of Canneséries on the international stage is growing”, welcomed Michel Vilair, general manager of RX France. “It’s a comeback. There is a need and a very strong desire for talents who have been blocked at home to come and present their series at Canneséries”, explained Albin Lewi to 20 minutes. ” It is free and open to all. The ticket office opens this Wednesday for Cannes residents and this Friday for everyone,” recalled Benoît Louvet, Managing Director of Canneséries.

Gillian Anderson, the star of the festival

The pink carpet will be illuminated by the presence of Gillian Anderson, the star of the cult series of the 1990s X-Files, The Crown and Sex Education, who will receive the Variety Icon Award. Festival-goers will be able to meet the star at the Espace Miramar as part of the Canneséries meetings. “She is for me one of the greatest personalities in the world of series, rejoices Albin Lewi. She embodies a golden age, class, risky choices. It’s just amazing to watch the diversity of roles she’s had.” The American actress will discuss two news items in particular: season 2 of The Greatavailable on Starzplay and the role of Eleonore Roosevelt, which she plays in the The First Lady, series expected soon on Showtime. Actress Sydney Sweeney, one of the stars ofEuphoria and The White Lotuswill receive the Madame Figaro Rising Star award during the opening ceremony.

The creator of “Squid Game” at the MIP

“We wanted to focus on Korea, one of the territories we talk about the most. The Korean series are no longer aimed only at coreophiles, but at everyone, underlined Albin Lewi. And who better than the creator of Squid Game to talk about it ? »

Hwang Dong-hyeok “will come to meet professionals, and we will show three Korean series that reflect the diversity of Korean creation, series that are not necessarily intended to travel. »

“The highest level of selection we have ever had”

“We had doubts about the number of series we were going to receive. We have observed a stability in the number and above all a very high quality of content, ”he says with satisfaction. The Côte d’Azur festival will offer ten short series and ten long series in competition, selected from 200 series received from 34 countries.

“In competition, we have all genres represented: intimate, spectacular or UFO-esque series, series focused on narration or staging, this shows the inventiveness present in all nationalities. The highest level of selection that we have ever had”, estimates the artistic director of Canneséries, including “eight world premieres”.

Oscar-winning designer Jean Xavier de Lestrade will represent France with the sequel to his hit Arte series Influence gamesa chilling dive into the heart of lobbies led by Alix Poisson, entitled Games of influence, the fighters. The Oscar-winning German filmmaker for The fall, Oliver Hirschbiegel, will come to present his anthology Punishment. Andrea Di Stefano will show “a visually flamboyant series”, created for Amazon Prime Video, bang bang baby set in the Calabrian mafia of the 1980s.

José Manuel Lorenzo will represent Spain with The Immortalwhich follows “the advent of a Madrid kingpin in an atmosphere between Pusher and Gomorra”.

Canneséries presents for the first time in long competition a Canadian series, entitled Audrey came back by Guillaume Lambert, which follows a woman (Florence Longpré) who miraculously wakes up from a 16-year-long coma after being found unconscious on a country road.

Also in the running is the Danish series The Dreamer – Becoming Karen Blixenconceived from an idea by Connie Nielsen and Karoline Leth and created by Dunja Gry Jensen follows the return of Karen Blixen, the author of The African Farm who inspired the film Out of Africa (played by Connie Nielsen), in Denmark after many years in East Africa.

The German series souls, created by Alexander Eslam, follows the story of Allie, Hanna and Linn, three women whose lives are turned upside down when Hanna’s son, Jacob, is involved in a serious car accident and claims he remembers his previous life as an airliner pilot disappeared. Will be presented at Canneséries, the Israeli series The Lessonwhich has become “a social phenomenon in Israel”.

The Norwegian series Afterglow, created by Kjetil Indregard and Atle Knudsen, to whom we owe bloodride for Netflix, which follows the ordinary story of an extraordinary woman with cancer, will make festival-goers “laugh and cry”, assures Alban Lewi. Finally, the 100% Belgian 1985 series, since it led the country’s two public channels to work together for the first time, will return to the terrible news item of the mad killers of Braban, also called the Nivelles gang. “There is a diversity of content which is the strength of Canneséries”, rejoices the artistic director. The jury for the long competition will be announced at a later date.

Anthony Horowitz, president of the short series competition jury

The list of short programs in the running will be unveiled this Wednesday at a conference in Cannes. “We have our first Chinese series in competition and our first 100% animated series”, slips the artistic director.

British writer, screenwriter, playwright and journalist Anthony Horowitz, behind some of Britain’s most beloved series (IInspector Barnaby, Foyle’s War, Collisionetc.) will chair the jury for the short series competition.

His best-selling book series, Alex Riderwas brilliantly adapted for television, as was his complex crime novel Magpie Murders. Its sequel, Moonflower Murders, will also be suitable for the small screen. The shooting of his last series, Nine Bodies in a Mexican Morguewill begin later this year.

To assist him in his mission, two figures well known to series fans: Marc Ruchmann, who embodies Jules, the leading male role in Heart mapthe first successful French series from Netflix and Chinenye Ezeudu, which portrays Viv in Sex Education.

“Soprano, to life, to death” in preview

Around twenty encounters, with screenings, discussions and encounters will be organized during the Canneséries meetings at the Espace Miramar. After never show that to anyonethe documentary by Clément Cotentin on Orelsan, Soprano, to life, to death, the Disney+ documentary series, will be screened at Espace Miramar as part of the Canneseries events. “Eventually, we hope to have documentary series in competition”, announces Alban Lewi.

Dreama documentary that tells “how college students have been confronted with the pandemic” and Skateboard: vertical horizonwhich follows “a young French skateboarder preparing for the Olympics” will also be screened.

Festival-goers will also have the opportunity to discover season 2 of Derby Girl (France.tv Slash) in the presence of the team, The Island of 30 Coffins (France 2) in the presence of Charles Berling and Virginie Ledoyen and the director Frédéric Mermoud, a new episode ofAstrid and Raphael (France 2) in the presence of Sara Mortensen and Lola Dewaere, Very ordinary peoples, the new series by the talented Ovidie for Canal+ in the presence of the creator, marion, the new detective series from 13e Rue worn by Louise Monot. Festival-goers will also be able to meet the “essential talents of their daily lives”, that is to say the stars of daily soap operas Tomorrow belongs to us, here everything begins and More beautiful life. A meeting with the author and creator of myth, Anne Berest, is also scheduled.

The sequel to “La Flamme” at the end

The series presented out of competition “reflect the diversity of Canneseries content with series that are expected, popular and more accessible than in competition”, considers Albin Lewi.

Out of competition, festival-goers will be able to preview “a TF1 event fiction” entitled Visions, produced in 2021 by Akim Isker on a screenplay by Jeanne Le Guillou and Bruno Dega, and worn by the popular Louane, expected on the pink carpet. The American science fiction series Halo“a series eagerly awaited by gamers”, specifies Albin Lewi, will also be presented on the Croisette.

The new original creation of Canal+ Infinity will be screened during the opening ceremony. A breathless investigation and an initiatory journey from the shallows of the former Soviet city Baikonur to the sanitized modules of the ISS, the International Space Station. “An extremely ambitious series”, promises the artistic director.

After parodying the Bachelor in The flameJonathan Cohen proposes The Torch: Raiders of Chupacabraa pastiche of the typical adventure shows Koh Lanta. The Canal+ series will be presented at the end of the festival. “We finish by closing the loop. We launched The flame at Canneséries there is one and a half, with the well-deserved success that we know. This is an opportunity to see Marc again in a completely new season, since season 1 was an adaptation, ”concludes Albin Lewi.