Cannes 2024 Recap Part One: India’s Complicated Victories & Japan Comes Out Of Its Shell

This year’s Cannes film festival was relatively smooth and controversy free, despite all the speculation in the run-up to the event around France’s #MeToo movement, pro-Palestinian protests and striking film festival workers. Cate Blanchett may or may not have made a classy display of Palestinian solidarity with her dress on the red carpet, and the workers made their point without bringing the festival to a standstill (although their grievances have still not been resolved). Donald Trump threatened to sue the makers of The Apprentice, but then it would have been more newsworthy if he hadn’t.

The biggest drama was provided by Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof’s last-minute flight out of Iran to attend the screening of his competition title The Seed Of The Sacred Fig. Critics were divided on the film, about an Iranian family navigating the authorities’ repression, which left the festival with a Special Award (see here for a list of all the Cannes award-winning films). Rasoulof is now a…