Cannes Boss Thierry Frémaux Confronts Johnny Depp Backlash, Rejects Claims It’s a Festival For Rapists

Cannes Film Festival’s boss Thierry Fremaux asked journalists at Monday’s press conference if they really believed Cannes was celebrating rapists.

He was referring to what “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” actress Adele Haenel in an open letter published last week.

Fremaux called the comments “radical” and “false.”

“She didn’t think that when she came to Cannes unless she suffered from a crazy dissonance […] People use Cannes to talk about certain issues and it’s normal because we give them a platform.”

“But if you thought that it’s a festivals for rapists, you wouldn’t be here listening to me, you would not be complaining that you can’t get tickets to get into screenings.”

Fremaux then addressed criticism about the inclusion of a Johnny Depp movie as the opening night film:

“I don’t know about the image of Johnny Depp in the U.S. To tell you the truth, in my life, I only have one rule, it’s the freedom of thinking, and the freedom of speech and acting within a legal framework […] If Johnny Depp had been banned from acting in a film, or the film was banned we wouldn’t be here talking about it. So we saw Maiwenn’s film and it could have been in competition. She would have been the eighth female director. This [controversy] came up once the film was announced at Cannes because everybody knew Johnny had made a film in France…I don’t know why she chose him but it’s a question you should ask Maiwenn.”

Fremaux noted that the festival turned away 10,000 applications for media accreditations this year. The programming team watched 2,000 films for its lineup of roughly 70 features.

Many of the 21 films in competition come to us from veteran filmmakers: Loach, Wenders, Moretti, Kaurismaki, Bellocchio, Breillat, Ceylan.