Cannes 2021: ‘OSS 117 (From Africa With Love)’ starring Jean Dujardin set to close festival

The Cannes Film Festival announced today that OSS 117, Alerte rouge en Afrique noire (From Africa With Love), directed by Nicolas Bedos, will be shown at the 74th edition’s “Final Screening” on July 17 in the Grand Théâtre Lumière at the Awards Ceremony.

By renaming the closing film as the “Final Screening”, the Festival de Cannes aims to rekindle the tradition of the last screening, drawing inspiration from huge evening galas gone by like the screening of Steven Spielberg’s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (in the old Palais in 1982) or Ridley Scott’s Thelma and Louise (in the new Palais in 1991).

This year, the 74^th Festival will round off with the premier of the latest chapter in the adventures of Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath, code name OSS 117, played by Jean Dujardin who will appear onscreen alongside Fatou N’Diaye, Pierre Niney, Natacha Lindinger and the late Wladimir Yordanoff. The first two films of the new series – OSS 117 : Le Caire, nid d’espions (OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies) (2006) and OSS 117: Rio ne répond plus (OSS 117: Lost in Rio) (2009) – were directed by Michel Hazanavicius. This third instalment is still penned by Jean-François Halin and is directed by Nicolas Bedos, who was featured amongst the 2019 Official Selection with La Belle Époque, starring Daniel Auteuil, Guillaume Canet and Doria Tillier, who will play the role of the Festival’s Master of Ceremonies this year.

The Festival de Cannes will open on Tuesday, July 6 with Leos Carax’s film Annette. The Awards will be announced on Saturday, July 17 by the Jury which will be presided over by the American filmmaker Spike Lee.

Christophe Brachet / MANDARIN PRODUCTION – GAUMONT – M6 FILMS – SCOPE PICTURES

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

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