To celebrate its 75th anniversary, the Cannes Film Festival brought together dozens and dozens of winners and special guests tonight at the Palais des Festivals. Inside the Théâtre Lumière, the artistic director and general delegate of the festival, Thierry Frémaux, and the outgoing president of Cannes, Pierre Lescure, proceeded to call the actors and star directors who left their places and are directed to the stage.

The group included filmmakers and talents such as Guillermo del Toro, Michel Hazanavicius, Paolo Sorrentino, Isabelle Huppert, Mads Mikkelsen, Diane Kruger, Nicolas Winding Refn, Ethan Coen, David Cronenberg, Viggo Mortensen, Daniel Bruhl, the Dardenne brothers, Claude Lelouch, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Peter Sarsgaard, Jake Gyllenhaal. and many others.

Fremaux said: “Cinema will never die”. He told the packed audience that for the 75th celebration, “We don’t want to go to the past, but to look to the future… We have to fight to help cinema come back into our lives after the pandemic.” He continued, “Cinema is still alive…cinema will never die.”

The special nod to the 75th anniversary of Cannes precedes the official out-of-competition screening of Louis Garrel The Innocent with Garrel, Noémie Merlant, Roschdy Zem and Anouk Grinberg.

And, boy, did they find the right time. After a sun-dappled red carpet and with everyone inside the Light, the skies opened up to a major thunderstorm outside.

The festival has already recalled past winners for its milestone anniversaries and also hosted a State of the Industry Symposium today with notables such as del Toro, Lelouch, Costa-Gavras, Gaspar Noé, Paolo Sorrentino, etc