Live From Cannes Film Festival With Pete Hammond And Todd McCarthy

Editors note: Deadline presents the 21st episode of its video series in which Pete Hammond and Todd McCarthy tackle the artistry of films. Each has reviewed and written about the craft for decades and built a remarkable breadth of knowledge of films past and present. What we hoped for when we asked them to do this was a concise, mature and thoughtful conversation comparable to what we saw from Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel.

On Tuesday in Cannes, Deadline Awards Columnist and Chief Film Critic Pete Hammond and Film Critic Todd McCarthy joined together on the beachfront at American Pavilion to assess what the first full week of the 75th Cannes Film Festival meant to them in terms of coming all the way back after the pandemic to the fest we knew and loved, but also of course the films on display.

Both give their opinions on what they have been seeing, from the starriest (Top Gun: Maverick) to the best of the English-language films on hand, to the best of what our hosts, the French, are offering, to potential Palme d’Or candidates. On the waterfront we cover the waterfront of all things Cannes 2022 so far.

What do we say is the best, and what do we say is the worst (and believe us, we do say)?

To watch our conversation, click on the video above.

Hammond has been Deadline’s Awards Columnist for the past decade, covering what now seemingly is the year-round Oscar and Emmy seasons. He is also Deadline’s Chief Film Critic, having previously reviewed films for MovieLine, Boxoffice magazine, Backstage, Hollywood.com and Maxim, as well as Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide, for which he was a contributing editor. In addition to writing, Hammond also hosts KCET Cinema Series and the station’s weekly series Must See Movies.

McCarthy is a veteran trade publication film critic, columnist and reporter who has also written several acclaimed books and documentary films. He served two stints on the staffs of Variety and The Hollywood Reporter and extensively covered film festivals internationally for both publications. His film Visions of Light: The Art of Cinematography won the best documentary prizes from the New York Film Critics and National Society of Film Critics associations, and he won an Emmy for writing the documentary Preston Sturges: The Rise and Fall of an American Dreamer. He also directed the documentaries Man of Cinema: Pierre Rissient and Forever Hollywood.