Sawt Falasteen - Scarlett Johansson to star at Cannes as festival unveils line-up

Johansson will appear in Wes Anderson's new movie "The Phoenician Scheme" alongside Benicio Del Toro and Tom Hanks, one of the films competing for the coveted Palme d'Or for best film.

She will also present her directorial debut "Eleanor the Great", about an elderly woman coping with the death of her best friend, in the secondary "Un Certain Regard" competition.

Organisers stressed they were taking seriously the hard-hitting conclusions from a French parliamentary inquiry into the entertainment industry which concluded that sexual and psychological abuse, particularly of women, was "endemic".

President Iris Knobloch said the festival was "attentive" and was approaching MPs' recommendations to improve the safeguarding of performers "with seriousness and determination".

"(Women) are no longer asking for their place, they are taking it," Knobloch told a news conference in Paris.

"We are honoured to amplify their voices, to shine a light on incredible talent that broadens our view of the world," she added.

Nevertheless, this year's main competition was still overwhelmingly male-dominated, with only six films from women directors among the roughly 20 announced by festival director Thierry Fremaux.

A little-known French female director Amelie Bonnin was given the honour of opening the festival on May 13 with her debut feature "Leave One Day".

"It's the first time that a debut film will open the Cannes Festival," Fremaux said.

- Heavy-hitters -

The main competition this year includes some heavy-hitting festival circuit favourites including Anderson, Iranian director Jafar Panahi, the Dardenne brothers from Belgium, and veteran American independent filmmaker Richard Linklater.

Panahi, who has been repeatedly detained and banned from film-making, will present his latest production, "A Simple Accident".

He "asked us not say anything about his movie", Fremaux explained, alluding to the pressures on him.

Other directors in-competition include American horror director Ari Aster, who has cast Joaquin Phoenix in his "Eddington", as well as a trio of leading French contenders, Cedric Klapisch, 2021 Palme d'Or winner Julia Ducournau, and Hafsia Herzi.

French screen legend Juliette Binoche will chair the jury, while Robert De Niro will also be on the Riviera to receive an honorary Palme d'Or.

Tom Cruise is set to appear for the world premiere of the latest and last instalment in the "Mission: Impossible" series entitled "Mission: Impossible -- The Final Reckoning". It releases worldwide from the middle of May.

In the documentary section, the eye-catching entries include a film about U2 frontman Bono, "Bono: Stories of Surrender", and another by Haitian director Raoul Peck about British writer George Orwell, entitled "Orwell".

- #MeToo report -

The build-up to Thursday's news conference was dominated by discussion of a French parliamentary inquiry into the entertainment industry.

MPs concluded that "moral, sexist, and sexual violence in the cultural sector is systemic, endemic, and persistent", according to the inquiry's chairwoman, Sandrine Rousseau, after six months of testimony from actors, agents and directors.

"The Cannes Film Festival must be the place where this shift in mindset happens; the place where we say loud and clear... amid the glitter and the red carpets... that finally, we all want things to change: every one of us, at every level of the industry," she told reporters on Wednesday.

The opening day of Cannes on May 13 is also set to coincide with the verdict in the first sexual assault trial of French film legend Gerard Depardieu, which gripped the country last month.

Depardieu, a tarnished hero of French cinema, is the highest-profile figure to face criminal charges in France's response to the #MeToo movement, which encouraged women to speak out against abuse.

He is accused of having assaulted two women on the set of a film in 2021. He denies the allegations.

J.Saleh--SF-PST