Cannes 2021:“Rendez-vous with…” Jodie Foster, Matt Damon, Isabelle Huppert, Steve McQueen and Marco Bellocchio

Erik Anderson July 1, 2021

Conversations will run concurrently with this year’s festival from July 6-17

Launched in the 90s, “Masterclasses” became a highlight of the 12 days at Cannes over the years. The Festival even decided to rename them “Rendez-vous with…” in 2018 and to stage more of them, so that the personal visions and unique words of the major artists of our age could be imparted alongside the Official Selection screenings. Festival-goers and the audience will be invited to listen and converse with these highly distinguished guests from all over the world.

Six meetings will be held in the Palais des festivals during this 2021 edition, in the Buñuel Theatre: Jodie Foster, Matt Damon, Isabelle Huppert, Steve McQueen and Marco Bellocchio have been invited to share their work and their passion for cinema.

Here is the full schedule of “Rendez-vous with…” conversations.

Wednesday, July 7th at 11 am

A surprise guest, a major figure of worldwide cinema, and a great friend of the Festival de Cannes, who has made his mark on its history, will discuss with the audience. Unprecedented and still to be confirmed.

Jodie Foster
Wednesday, July 7th at 3 pm

Director, actress and two-time Oscar winner, Jodie Foster is also a Festival regular who has written several chapters of its history. Seven of her films have been shown here, including Taxi Driver (1976) by Martin Scorsese and The Beaver(2011). Jodie Foster has also been filmed in French – which she speaks perfectly – directed by Claude Chabrol in Le Sang des autres (The Blood of Others, 1984) and by Jean-Pierre Jeunet in Un long dimanche de fiançailles,(A Very Long Engagement, 2004). Guest of honor at the Opening Ceremony, she will be presented with an honorary Palme d’or on July 6th, the day before her conversation with the audience.

Matt Damon
Friday, July 9th at 3 pm

Intense actor with a unique style, Matt Damon is starring in Todd McCarthy’s Stillwater presented in Out of Competition. He has also agreed to take part in the “Rendez-vous” experience. His last time on the famous steps at Cannes was in 2013 for Steven Soderbergh’s Behind the Candelabra, shown In Competition. Actor, screenwriter and producer, he collects five Oscar nominations. He was awarded the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay alongside Ben Affleck for Good Will Hunting. He will reveal to the audience the secrets of his extraordinary career.

Isabelle Huppert
Tuesday, July 13th at 3 pm

Cannes and Avignon, cinema et theatre: who could embody the exciting dialogue between two art forms better than Isabelle Huppert, who has played so many roles on the Croisette and who will also open the Cour d’honneur at the Palais des Papes at the Avignon Festival on the 5th of July? She is at home in Cannes, having climbed the famous red carpet steps many times, been the master of Ceremony, Jury President, and a winner of many awards. Theatre or cinema actress? She will tell all.

Marco Bellocchio
Thursday, July 15th at 3:30 pm

The great Italian filmmaker, now in his 80s, is part of an exceptional generation. He is showing a touching and very personal documentary in the Official Selection, Marx può aspettare (Marx can wait), and will receive an honorary Palme d’or during the Closing Ceremony, allowing the Festival to pay tribute to his exceptionally productive career. A lifelong maverick, his first film became a classic (Fists in the Pocket, 1965) Marco Bellocchio, who is in the middle of a shooting, has agreed to this “Rendez-vous” to recount his five decades of cinema – always with freedom.

Steve McQueen
Friday, 16th July at 3 pm

Winner of the Camera d’or award for his hard-hitting first film Hunger in 2008, Steve McQueen is now a major filmmaker and a renowned contemporary artist. However, he has not been back to Cannes since his win. In 2020, two of his films were selected for the Festival, but couldn’t be shown. One of them, Lovers Rock, which has never been seen on the big screen, will be presented at the Cinéma de la plage on Thursday, 15th July at 9.30 pm, in his presence. He will also appear on the stage of the Buñuel Theatre to talk about his exciting approach to the art of cinema.

Photos: Jodie Foster © DR – Matt Damon © V E Anderson / WireImage – Isabelle Huppert © Peter Lindbergh (Courtesy Peter Lindbergh Foundation, Paris) – Steve McQueen © John Russo – Marco Bellochio © DR

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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), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) 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.