from the opening night picture, the operatic musical annette, to director paul verhoeven�*s benedetta, a love story between two 17th century nuns, to a hero, the story of a man who gets himself into a quandary trying to find a way to pay off a debt, from oscar—winning iranian film—maker asghar farhadi. cannes offered the world a whole slate of new films to fire up the international movie industry ecosystem brought to a halt by covid. the whole distribution mechanism is in flux and it feels like cannes is sort of part of the whole thing sputtering to life, and we don't know where it is going to end up. how many theatres are going to open up? how many films will actually be shown in theatres?