Cannes Film Festival 2018 to Open with Asghar Farhadi's New Film

The Cannes International Film Festival office in France officially announced on Thursday, April 5, that it will kick off next month with the screening of Asghar Farhadi's new film titled "Everybody Knows." According to Agence France-Presse, Farhadi's new film, made in Spanish, will be shown in Cannes on May 8. Variety magazine, citing the film's French producer, reports that Farhadi's work will be screened simultaneously with the Cannes opening in 350 cinemas across France. "Everybody Knows," featuring the golden couple of Spanish cinema, Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz, will then compete with other films in the competition section of the 71st Cannes Festival. In the past ten years, only one film has participated in both the opening and competition sections of the Cannes Festival, making Farhadi's new film the second in a decade to have this distinction. A brief synopsis of the film's story has been released: a Spanish woman living in Buenos Aires travels with her Argentine husband and children to her hometown outside Madrid, where unexpected events reveal secrets from her past. If Asghar Farhadi wins the Palme d'Or at Cannes for this film, described as a "psychological thriller," it will be the first time he receives this prestigious cinematic award. Farhadi has previously won two awards at Cannes: Best Actor and Best Screenplay for his film "The Salesman," which received widespread acclaim in 2016. As reported by Agence France-Presse, this is the first time in six months that a film opening Cannes is also participating in the competition section. Asghar Farhadi gained international recognition with his film "A Separation," winning nearly all major cinematic awards, including the César in France, the Academy Award, and the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 2011. With "The Salesman," he also won two awards at Cannes and again received the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, placing Iran among the countries that have won two Oscars. "Everybody Knows" has two producers, one French and one Spanish, and has been pre-sold to several countries, including Germany, Japan, China, the Czech Republic, and Israel. Iran is not mentioned in Variety's list of these countries. The Cannes Festival typically opens with a film from France or Hollywood, making this one of the rare occasions that a non-French and non-American film will open the festival.