Cruz and Bardem to open Cannes

Everybody Knows by Farhadi in prime Competition slot

by Richard Mowe

Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem in Everybody Knows - opening film at this year’s Cannes Film Festival
Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem in Everybody Knows - opening film at this year’s Cannes Film Festival Photo: Memento
The new film by Asghar Farhadi, Everybody Knows, starring Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem and Argentinian actor Ricardo Darín will open the 71st edition of the Cannes Film Festival on May 8 and will be part of the Competition before its release in French cinemas on 9 May, it was announced by the Festival organisers today.

For the Iranian film-maker the screening of Everybody Knows (Todos Lo Saben) will mark his return to Cannes for the third consecutive occasion after The Past with Bérénice Béjo for which she received a best actress in 2013, and The Salesman which won best script and best actor for Shahab Hosseini in 2016 as well as the Oscar for best foreign film last year. Everybody Knows is only the second Spanish-language title to open the Festival following Pedro Almodovar’s Bad Education in 2004.

The opening ceremony and film will be screened live in select French cinemas at the same as the official screening on the Croisette. Everybody Knows is described as a psychological thriller in which Cruz, as Laura, returns from Buenos Aires with her family to her native village in Spain to encounter disturbing and life-changing events from her past. Cruz and Bardem were present earlier in the year at the César awards ceremony in Paris when she received a career achievement tribute.

Everybody Knows will not be released in Spain until the autumn. US and UK distribution remains to be confirmed but it has been sold already widely to territories from Germany to Japan and China.

The Cannes Film Festival runs from May 8 to 19 with the full programme details revealed on April 12.

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