Two Shot: Cannes 2022 Preview – Big Stars And Movies Return, How The Fest Is Changing, And Special Memories Of The World’s Most Famous Film Festival

Editors note: Deadline presents the 20th episode of Two Shot, a 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.

Todd McCarthy has been going to Cannes now for over half a century. Pete Hammond has been going every year during this century. Together, in advance of actually heading to the 75th Cannes Film Festival which begins next week, they muse on all things about this most famous of any film festival in the world. That includes their own favorite memories of Cannes. For McCarthy it includes seeing the very first screening of Pulp Fiction in 1994  and then accidentally running smack into its director Quentin Tarantino just a few streets away. He also talks about an encounter with one of the greatest directors in Hollywood history at a four hour dinner he just stumbled into. For Hammond a key memory was of something he  missed and still can’t hide his regrets. Among other highlights of our Two Shot Cannes preview is discussion of this year’s lineup including the return of big stars and studio movies like Top Gun Maverick and Elvis. Also we wonder if Cannes can still be the primo place for genuine auteurs or if the landscape is changing, plus what will the Russian presence be this year including all those Russian owned yachts usually parked right there in the water.  We also compare Cannes as it tries to recover of two years affected by the pandemic to other key festivals on the calendar. Plus much more.

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.