Things were a lot queerer than usual at the recently concluded Cannes film festival on the French Rivera. With as many as 22 films in multiple competition and sidebar sections, it was a strong year for queer films at Cannes even though a lack of big Hollywood names — over and above a few — prompted major media outlets to call it a ‘muted’ year.Muted it maybe in terms of Hollywood star power but Cannes this year more than made it up with a strong expression of queer solidarity. Films with unambiguously queer themes or subplots, dominated the competition section.
A still from La Bola Negra (The Black Ball)
| Photo Credit:
Cannes Film Festival
This year’s Palme d’Or winner Fjord by the Romanian director Cristian Mungiu featured a teen queer subplot. The shared Best Director award went to the queer couple duo Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo for the Spanish film La Bola Negra (The Black Ball), a sweeping resistance drama with multiple storylines switching between the Spanish Civil War and the present. For their portrayal of queer soldiers in the Lukas Dhont directed war drama Coward, Emmanuel Macchia and Valentin Campagne jointly won the best actor award.Fjord by Romanian director Cristian Mungiu won this year’s Palme d’Or
