Over 4000 journalists were accredited, representing 2000 media from 90 countries.

The artistic value of the award-winning productions and the presence of the major professionals in the sector make the CFF an unmissable event, for two reasons. First of all for its social value, because the works present on the Croisette are the mirror of contemporary conscience.

But also for the economic interests it mobilizes, because in the coming months we will find the productions and protagonists present at the French festival at the cinema or by connecting to digital media, and they will stand out for the awards they have received.

We highlight the winners of the first eight of the thirty-nine award categories foreseen by the transalpine film selection.

The Palme d'Or was awarded to the film Anora , by American Sean Baker.

The Grand Prix was instead awarded to the international co-production All We Imagine as Light , by Indian director Payal Kapadia.

French director Jacques Audiard's film Emilia Perez won the Jury Prize.

Miguel Gomes received the Best Director award for the film Grand Tour.

The Seed of the Sacred Fig, by Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof, won the Cannes Film Festival Special Award.

The award for the best female actor category was won by actresses Adriana Paz, Karla Sofia Gascon, Selena Gomez, and Zoe Saldana, for the film Emilia Perez.

Best male actor instead went to the American Jesse Plemons, for the film Kind of Kindness.

The Best Screenplay award was instead awarded to the British film The Substance, by French director Coralie Fargeat.

Now we comment on the movie industry at the end of the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, addressing industry experts for whom the film industry represents a professional commitment and also a personal life experience.

We remember that the Cannes Film Festival 2024 was important for our country, given that this year the delegation of cinematography Switzerland, led by Federal Councilor Elisabeth Baume-Schneider, was invited to the Croisette as guest of honour.

This is an organizational choice that perhaps anticipates the effects and likely even the benefits of what we know in Switzerland as the Netflix Lex. Approved by popular vote in 2022 , starting in early 2024, this law contributes to the financing of domestic film productions and also requires foreign producers present in Switzerland to offer at least 30% of their productions to Swiss audiences from European sources. However, for the Swiss film industry, this is a development that, while positive, must still be interpreted with caution.

This is the opinion of Doris Fiala , President of ProCinema , the trade association that represents Swiss film production companies and distributors in political and economic spheres.

"The Netflix law," Doris Fiala recalls, " was approved only a few months ago, and the data we have suggests we'll have to wait a few more years before we start seeing its effects, although we can predict that Swiss productions will ultimately benefit from the opportunities this law will open up."

While the future of movie industry Swiss film can be expected to be positive, now let's hear the opinion of two other professionals who frequent the world of cinema due to a lifestyle choice that sees them as protagonists on a global level. Let's start with Dr. Christian Jungen, Zurich film critic and historian, whose work “Hollywood in Cannes” is recognized by the moviecommunity worldwide as one of the most authoritative and in-depth analyzes of the relationships between the cinematography of the old continent, Europe, and the new continent, America.

Let us remember that Dr. Jungen is also known in our canton for having promoted the Critics Academy of the Locarno Film Festival , of which he was a member of the jury.

Previously, Dr. Jungen was also cultural director of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung- NZZ am Sonntag , president of the Swiss Association of Film Journalists, a member of the Swiss Film Academy and the European Film Academy, and a jury member at Cannes, before being appointed artistic director of the Zurich Film Festival-ZFF in 2020.

Once the pandemic was overcome, the team of the Zurich event led by Dr. Jungen, already with the data available in October 2022, announced that this film festival, which will celebrate its first 2025 years of activity in 20, stood out for being the sector event with the largest number of spectators in Switzerland.

" Cannes," comments Dr. Jungen, " is the most important film festival in the world, where I can attend screenings of many more films than those in the official selection. At the Zurich Film Festival on the Croisette, in addition to meeting producers and distributors I already know, I also meet new ones, and this saves me long plane trips, especially to the USA ."

What are the film industry trends that will influence our country's film industry and festivals? " Last summer," replies Dr. Jungen , "with the actors' and screenwriters' strike in Hollywood, fewer films were shot in the United States, and in fact the number of productions available in 2024 is lower than in the past. This situation opens up interesting opportunities for European cinema, and especially for Swiss cinema. In Zurich," recalls Dr. Jungen, "our team of professionals is already working to rekindle audience interest in returning to theaters, so that the Zurich Film Festival can strengthen its role as a global media platform for Oscar-nominated productions."

We conclude by moving to Hollywood, the capital of world cinema, where Valentina Castellani Quinn lives and works.

Born in Florence, with her production company Quinn Studios Entertainment she now continues the activities of her family of origin, the Castellanis, among the most well-known in Italy in the world of film and theatre productions, as well as former managers of Anicagis, now known as Anica, and whose activities correspond to those of the Swiss ProCinema, which we have already described in this article.

American citizen, well known in the circles of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which every year awards its Awards, the Oscars, the most coveted film award in the world, Valentina Castellani Quinn is related to the family of the late actor Anthony Quinn, of Mexican origin and still a legend of world cinema today.

“ I confirm: today the Cannes Film Festival, along with the Venice Film Festival and the Toronto Film Festival-TIFF, is a must-see for professionals active worldwide in the entertainment industry, even if the Croisette remains the location with the greatest influx of press and media coverage.

For a production, winning, or more simply positioning, at Cannes means starting the race for the Oscars and making global breaking news. Today, platforms, as I pointed out in Cannes in a masterclass for the Better World Fund created by Manuel Collas de la Roche and in front of an audience of over six hundred professionals, contribute to an evolution of cinema. "After the pandemic emergency," continues Valentina Castellani Quinn , "the latter is resurfacing with very interesting scripts, whose message is amplified and globalized by digital media, with alternative yet always complementary methods to traditional studios which, as director George Lucas reminded us in a conference at Cannes, remain essential creative centers for the movie industry, in all its forms ."