CANNES FILM FESTIVALS ,🎬🎥

75th Cannes Film Fest 2022

The Stars at Noon is a 1986 novel by Denis Johnson. It was published by Alfred A. Knopf on September 12, 1986. The novel follows an unnamed American woman during the Nicaraguan Revolution of 1984. It has been adapted into the 2022 film Stars at Noon by Claire Denis. The novel follows an unnamed American woman, supposedly a journalist, living in Managua, Nicaragua in 1984, during Sandinista rule. She originally traveled to Nicaragua as an observer for an anti-war group. She is disgusted with the corruption of both the Sandinistas and "the stupid CIA." She hustles as a prostitute at the Inter-Continental Hotel in Managua, hoping to leave Nicaragua one day. At the hotel, she eventually meets an unnamed English oil businessman whom she falls in love with. When the Englishman has falling out with Costa Ricans, the two flee together toward border. An American who is most likely a CIA agent tracks them and pressures her to sell out the Englishman.

Movie “Stars at Noon”, filmed in Panama, wins the Grand Jury Prize at the 75th Cannes Film Festival. The film "Stars at Noon" won the Grand Prix, Jury Prize, at the 75th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, during the closing gala held on May 28 in that French town. The film was shot entirely in Panama as a result of the visit of French filmmaker Claire Denis to the 3rd edition of IFF Panama in 2014.

The Executive Director of the IFF Panama Foundation, Pituka Ortega Heilbron, was an associate producer of the film, leading the wonderful Panamanian team that made this award-winning production a reality at Cannes: “this film becomes a window to the world of our country and our cinema,” Ortega Heilbron said excitedly. Also in this edition of the Cannes Festival, the first film from Costa Rica exhibited in the Un Certain Regard section of the Festival was presented: “Sunday and the fog”.

The film directed by Ariel Escalante was recognized with the 1st place of the Primera Mirada 2021 Fund, and also obtained a special mention during the First Central American and Caribbean Co-Production Forum- IFF Panama Film Match. IFF Panama has accompanied Ariel Escalante from its development to the post-production period of the film. The Primera Mirada fund is granted with the support of the Inter-American Development Bank and the IFF Panama Film Match is carried out with the support of the IDB Group's innovation laboratory, the IDB Lab.

Driven by our mission to connect, foster relationships and get more productions in the region, IFF Panama arrived at the 75th edition of the Cannes Film Festival. We continue to create business opportunities for the industry in Panama, Central America and the Caribbean. In turn, the IFF Panama Foundation continues to strengthen the cinema chain as a social and economic tool in Panama, Central America and the Caribbean through the generation of new exhibition/distribution channels with the help of new technologies and alliances with innovative ventures. , companies and key actors, as is the case of the virtual talks of the IFF Panama Forcinema program (Cinema Integration and Strengthening Program for Central America and the Caribbean), which is currently being carried out.

The 11th edition of IFF Panama will take place from December 2 to 4, 2022 where it is expected to premiere the film "Starts at Noon".