Philippine director Isabel Sandoval has taken issue with Roger Friedman’s Showbiz 411 report (2.20) that Pedro Almodovar’s A Strange Way of Life, a 40-minute “short”, will open the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. For what it’s worth, Sandoval has tweeted that Martin Scorsese’s 200-minute Killers of the Flower Moon will open the festival.
The fact that the L.A.-based Sandoval runs with other filmmakers suggests that she may be onto something.
On the other hand, there’s always something about an opening-night Cannes booking that says “hmmm.” Ask any filmmaker — it’s always better to play within the festival. Being the opening-nighter always seems to suggest sone sort of difficulty or softness — it sends the wrong message in some odd way. [Thanks to Jordan Ruimy for passing along.]
