Cannes Film Festival 2014 Day 9: Ken Loach's 'Jimmy's Hall' Open to Mixed Reviews; Critics Week Sidebar Names 'The Tribe' the Best Film
The ninth day of the Cannes Film Festival saw the premiere of Ken Loach's "Jimmy's Hall" and also saw some of the sidebar's hand out their awards.
The Palme D'Or competition continued as Loach's latest film premiered. The film marked his 24th feature and also marked his 12th in competition film at Cannes. The director last competed in 2012 with "the Angel's Share" and won the Palme d'Or in 2006 with "The Wind that Shakes the Barley." This time around the director came with "Jimmy's Hall" about Political activist Jimmy Gralton, who is deported from Ireland during the country's 'Red Scare' of the 1930s.
The film opened to mixed reactions, with many critics stating that it has no passion and is ultimately uninvolving. The Hollywood Reporter's Neil Young wrote, "Loach's underwhelming return to interwar Ireland is more corn than 'Barley.'" However, there were a few critics who liked the film, including Scott Foundas from Variety. He wrote "The latest activist drama from the elder statesman of British political cinema is a heartfelt portrait of ideological warfare in 1930s Ireland."
While the movie is unlikely to win the Palme d'Or after the reception, it already has distribution for the U.S. Sony Pictures Classics took the rights for the film and are planning on releasing it this year.
While the competition slate continued, the festival sidebar Critics' Week announced the winners of the year. The sidebar has helped discover a number of filmmakers including Guillermo del Toro, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, and Jeff Nichols. This year the first prize went to Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy's for his film "The Tribe." The Ukranian film took home the Nespresso Grand Prize, the Gan Foundation Support for Distribution Prize and the France 4 Visionary Award. "The Tribe" revolves around a deaf-mute teenager who enters a specialized boarding school, where he becomes part of a wild organization prone to bullying and prostitution. The film is one of the most unique works as it does not have a single word of dialogue and is completed spoken in sign language without any subtitles. The jury for Critics' Week was headlined by director Andrea Arnold, who is best known for her work on "Fish Tank."
Meanwhile, the Cinefoundation awards were handed out with "Skunk" winning the top prize. The award was given to Annie Silverstein of the University of Texas. Meanwhile the second prize award was given to "Oh Lucy!" from NYU student Atsuko Hirayanagi. The third prize was shared by "Levito Madre" from Italy's Fulvio Risuleo (Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia), and "The Bigger Picture" from U.K. director Daisy Jacobs (National Film and Television School). The award is given to college students and the jury was presided over by director Abbias Kiarostami.
In the market, the competition film "The Homesman" obtained a U.S. distributor. The new company that was announced at Cannes Saban Films will take North American rights and plans on releasing the film in the fall in time for awards season. According to Deadline the deal was made for $3.5 million and "The Homesman" will be the first film that the company releases. It was also reported that Sony Pictures Classics was attempting to get the rights but failed to do so because Saban promised a big awards campaign. The film has been on the radar for quite some time but reviews were a bit mixed and that made some distributors avoid it all together. With Saban playing the awards game this fall, it will be interesting to see how much impact the distributor will have the coming year.
The other big acquisition of the day came from Focus Features, who took North American rights to David Goyer's "The Forest." The supernatural thriller already has a release date for January 2016 and has Lava Bear Films and Phantom Four as the production companies that will produce the movie.