Cannes

Eric Toledano & Olivier Nakache © Marie-Laure Billette & Ludovic Sarmento // Film poster © Carole Bethuel / Quad – Ten Cinéma

There are films screened on the last evening of the Festival that have branded the Cannes legend. With the desire to carry on with this tradition, the Festival is pleased to announce that Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano’s new film The Specials, in Official Selection 2019, will be the Last Screening of its 72nd edition, on Saturday May 25, in the Grand Théâtre Lumière, during the Closing ceremony.

Its name will no longer be the "Closing Film," it will now be called  the "Last Screening", falling on the evening of the Closing ceremony. Its French name la « Dernière séance » is the same as Peter Bogdanovich’s French title for The Last Picture Show, and Eddy Mitchell’ song.

Since last year, the Festival de Cannes has ended on a Saturday and no longer on a Sunday. As the last night has retrieved the warmest colors of the party and celebration, the last film screened will be a beautiful end to an Official Selection launched eleven days earlier.

By renaming the closing film the "Last Screening", the Festival de Cannes wishes to reconnect with its tradition of final great screenings, as it had been the case with the memorable nights where were shown Steven Spielberg's E.T. the Thelma and Louise  (in the new one, in 1991) or Terry Gilliam's The Man Who Killed Don Quixote  last year.

This year, the 72nd Festival de Cannes will end up on a major event : the premiere of Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano’s new film The Specials, starring Vincent Cassel and Reda Kateb.

The Specials  is produced and distributed by Gaumont. It will be released on October 23 in France.

The Festival de Cannes will open on Tuesday, May 14 with Jim Jarmusch's The Dead Don't Die.

The prizes will be awarded on Saturday, May 25 by the jury chaired by Mexican filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu.