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Stars Strive to Dispel Tariff Gloom at Cannes Film Festival 

Actor Tom Cruise attends a British Film Institute (BFI) event to receive BFI Fellowship, at the BFI Chair's Dinner, at the Rosewood Hotel, in London, Britain, May 12, 2025. (Reuters)
Actor Tom Cruise attends a British Film Institute (BFI) event to receive BFI Fellowship, at the BFI Chair's Dinner, at the Rosewood Hotel, in London, Britain, May 12, 2025. (Reuters)
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Stars Strive to Dispel Tariff Gloom at Cannes Film Festival 

Actor Tom Cruise attends a British Film Institute (BFI) event to receive BFI Fellowship, at the BFI Chair's Dinner, at the Rosewood Hotel, in London, Britain, May 12, 2025. (Reuters)
Actor Tom Cruise attends a British Film Institute (BFI) event to receive BFI Fellowship, at the BFI Chair's Dinner, at the Rosewood Hotel, in London, Britain, May 12, 2025. (Reuters)

Movie legends from Tom Cruise to Denzel Washington will gather in Cannes this week for the 78th incarnation of its film festival, as the industry tries to shake off worries over dwindling audiences and threatened US tariffs.

Cruise will be launching what is touted as the last in his "Mission: Impossible" franchise and scores of others will be hoping to follow the path that last year's top prize winner "Anora" took to Oscar glory.

Alongside them, Robert De Niro will be getting a lifetime achievement award, and star actors Scarlett Johansson, Kristen Stewart and Harris Dickinson will all be trying their hands as directors with films competing in the smaller categories.

Just a week ago, US President Donald Trump shook the global film industry by announcing a 100% tariff on movies produced outside the country - a statement that left many studio executives alarmed and baffled about when such levies might be applied or how they might come into force.

In Cannes, those worries have dominated backroom conversations, but made no dent on the frontline announcements.

"Nobody wants to be talking about tariffs and Trump here," said Scott Roxborough, European bureau chief for The Hollywood Reporter. "In the industry, everybody's going to be talking about it."

OSCAR GLORY

The festival kicks off on Tuesday evening. The decisions of its jury - chaired by France's Juliette Binoche with "Monster's Ball" star Halle Berry with her on the panel - will be closely watched.

"Anora", the winner of Cannes' top prize the Palme d'Or in 2024, went on to take home five Oscars. Cannes' top film in 2023, "Anatomy of a Fall", later won one Academy Award. Its pick in 2019, "Parasite", memorably became the first non-English-language film to win the best picture Oscar.

This year, US director Wes Anderson will be launching his new movie "The Phoenician Scheme," which will be competing against independent films including the likes of Joachim Trier's "Sentimental Value" and Julia Ducournau's "Alpha".

Films screening outside the competition include the new "Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning", as well as Spike Lee's "Highest 2 Lowest", starring Denzel Washington.

Hollywood's travails might not be center stage, but world politics has made it into the program.

Three films about the war in Ukraine will be shown as part of a "Ukraine Day" event.

All screenings are sold out for "Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk", which follows 25-year-old Palestinian photojournalist Fatma Hassona, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza in April, one day after it was announced that the documentary had been chosen for the festival's ACID program.

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Entertainment

Bad Bunny Positioned to Consolidate His Popularity in Brazil with First-Ever Performances

Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny performs during his "Debí Tirar Más Fotos" world tour at the Allianz Parque stadium in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on February 20, 2026. (AFP)
Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny performs during his "Debí Tirar Más Fotos" world tour at the Allianz Parque stadium in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on February 20, 2026. (AFP)
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Bad Bunny Positioned to Consolidate His Popularity in Brazil with First-Ever Performances

Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny performs during his "Debí Tirar Más Fotos" world tour at the Allianz Parque stadium in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on February 20, 2026. (AFP)
Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny performs during his "Debí Tirar Más Fotos" world tour at the Allianz Parque stadium in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on February 20, 2026. (AFP)

While Bad Bunny has dominated global charts, the superstar has not had quite the same success in Brazil, a country notoriously hard for foreign stars to win over due to a devotion to national artists.

But a shift that began with his Grammy-winning album "Debí Tirar Más Fotos" may accelerate further after his first-ever gigs in Brazil on Friday and Saturday in Sao Paulo.

Bad Bunny has come to Brazil at the peak of his career so far, following the phenomenal hype around his performance at the Super Bowl halftime show.

"It’s the best time to try and unlock a country like Brazil, at a time when he’s managed to dominate practically the entire world," said Felipe Maia, an ethnomusicologist who is pursuing a doctoral degree on popular music and digital technologies at Paris Nanterre University.

For years, the Puerto Rican artist born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio has been one of the most-streamed artists on the planet.

But neither the singer, nor his album, nor his songs were among the most played last year in Brazil, according to Spotify. The most streamed artists in the country on the platform in 2025 were all Brazilian.

In the land of samba, funk, bossa nova, choro, sertanejo, forro and pagode, among other Brazilian music genres, 75% of streaming consumption in Brazil focuses on national artists, according to the 2025 midyear music report of Luminate, a company specializing in entertainment industry data. Brazil is the country that most listens to its own music, it said.

Still, particularly since "Debí Tirar Más Fotos," the fever around Bad Bunny has made headway in Brazil. Only one performance was initially scheduled at the Allianz Parque arena, but it sold out so quickly the artist added an extra date, which also sold out.

By mid-afternoon on Friday, long queues had formed. Brazilian fans mixed with people from El Salvador, Colombia and Venezuela. Many came wearing straw hats — used by Bad Bunny and traditionally worn by jíbaros, rural Puerto Rican farmers.

Tickets on Ticketmaster, the official vendor, ranged from $50 to $210, but resellers on Friday were selling tickets for that same night for more than $830 — more than 2.5 times the minimum monthly wage in Brazil.

Flávia Durante, a Sao Paulo -based DJ who specializes in Latin American music, said that some Brazilians have a tendency to see Spanish-language music as corny due to the association with Mexican telenovelas, but that Bad Bunny pierced a bubble with his latest album.

"Nowadays everyone knows all the songs, they sing along and really get into it. I normally play him at the peak of the night. People request him, even at rock or 80s pop themed parties," Durante said.

Since the half-time Super Bowl show, that popularity has grown. Bad Bunny’s average streams grew by 426% on Spotify in Brazil in the following week compared with the previous one. Many songs experienced massive streaming surges, with "Yo Perreo Sola" leading the growth with a 2,536% increase.

‘Latino resistance’

During Brazil’s Carnival celebrations, Bad Bunny themed costumes were a fixture in Rio’s raucous, dazzling street parties.

Nicole Froio, a Colombian Brazilian writer specializing in Latin American cultural issues, went kitted out in a straw hat and plastic, tropical plants that echo the background of his latest album. It was the third Carnival in which Froio — who has two Bad Bunny tattoos and a third one planned — wore attire that evoked the Puerto Rican artist.

For a long time, Froio was the sole person among her Brazilian friendship group who liked Bad Bunny. She believes that Brazilians in general have trouble identifying themselves as Latino.

"There’s a lot of prejudice around Hispanic music and there were preconceptions against him because of his Puerto Rican accent, because people don’t understand him," she said.

Brazil’s Latino identity exists but it is diffuse and difficult to seize due to the variety within the continent-sized country, said Maia. But Bad Bunny succeeds in giving it emphasis, particularly in cosmopolitan cities such as Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, he said.

Brazil, like other countries in the Americas, was listed by Bad Bunny in the Super Bowl halftime show, when he reminded the world that while "America" is used as a synonym for the US in the US, it is the name used across two continents.

Bad Bunny’s global success, including in Brazil, "reinforces that we’re part of this — that we belong," said 22-year-old Diogo da Luz, a longtime fan of the Puerto Rican ahead of Friday's concert. "He reinforces that we are one people and that we’re very united."

For Froio, who has been waiting to see him live for six years and will see him on Saturday, Bad Bunny "represents a Latino resistance."

She pointed to the fact that other Latin American superstars, including Anitta, Shakira, and Ricky Martin, have recorded full songs in other languages, while Bad Bunny has kept his music almost entirely in Spanish.

"For me, there’s a great authenticity in his sound that inspires me to be who I am and let everyone else deal with it," Froio said.

Entertainment

Political Drama Overshadows Berlin Film Festival Finale

Jury president Wim Wenders at the opening of the Berlin Film Festival which has been rocked by political controversy. Ronny HARTMANN / AFP
Jury president Wim Wenders at the opening of the Berlin Film Festival which has been rocked by political controversy. Ronny HARTMANN / AFP
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Political Drama Overshadows Berlin Film Festival Finale

Jury president Wim Wenders at the opening of the Berlin Film Festival which has been rocked by political controversy. Ronny HARTMANN / AFP
Jury president Wim Wenders at the opening of the Berlin Film Festival which has been rocked by political controversy. Ronny HARTMANN / AFP

The 76th Berlin Film Festival draws to a close on Saturday after 10 days in which the 22 films in competition were often overshadowed by a row over the role politics should play in filmmaking.

The controversy erupted at the beginning of the festival when jury president Wim Wenders answered a question about the German government's support for Israel by saying: "We cannot really enter the field of politics."

At the same press conference, he had earlier said that films had the power to "change the world" but in a different way from party politics.

"No movie has ever changed the ideas of a politician, but we can change the idea that people have of how they should live," Wenders, 80, said.

But his comments in response to the question on Israel prompted a storm of outrage.

Award-winning Indian novelist Arundhati Roy, who had been due to present a restored version of a 1989 film she wrote, pulled out of the event, branding Wender's words "unconscionable" and "jaw-dropping".

On Tuesday, a letter signed by dozens of film industry figures, including Javier Bardem, Tilda Swinton and Adam McKay, condemned the Berlin festival's "silence on the genocide of Palestinians".

- Films overshadowed -

The letter, drafted by the Film Workers for Palestine collective, accused the Berlinale of being involved in "censoring artists who oppose Israel's ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and the German state's key role in enabling it".

Director Tricia Tuttle, in her second year at the helm of the Berlinale, has firmly rejected the accusations, describing some of the claims in the letter as "misinformation" and "inaccurate".

She called for "cool heads in hot times" and expressed fears that the controversy was crowding out conversation about the films.

Among the standout entries in the official competition was "We Are All Strangers" by Anthony Chen.

Set in Chen's native Singapore, the film is a moving family drama which playfully satirizes the yawning social disparities to be found in the city-state's glittering skyscrapers.

German actress Sandra Hueller, who gained international acclaim for her roles in "The Zone of Interest" and "Anatomy of a Fall", received audience plaudits for her turn as the title character in "Rose" by Austrian director Markus Schleinzer.

The black-and-white drama tells the story of a woman passing herself off as a man in rural 17th-century Germany to escape the constraints of patriarchy.

- Repression in Iran -

Juliette Binoche, playing a woman caring for her mother with dementia, also moved cinemagoers in "Queen at Sea" by American director Lance Hammer, who had not made a feature film since 2008.

Sensitively, the film portrays the devastation Alzheimer's disease inflicts on a patient's loved ones.

"My husband's got dementia, so I have had a lot of background," a visibly moved actress Anna Calder-Marshall, who plays the ailing mother in the film, told a press conference.

The first major event of the film calendar also provided a platform for Iranian filmmakers to address the deadly crackdown on anti-government protests in their home country.

Director Mahnaz Mohammadi, who has spent time in Tehran's notorious Evin prison, presented "Roya", a searing portrayal of conditions in the jail and the traces they leave on prisoners' psyches.

Dissident director Jafar Panahi, who won the Cannes Palme d'Or for "It Was Just An Accident", also spoke from the Berlinale to denounce the Iranian government's repression of protestors, which international organizations say has left thousands dead.

"An unbelievable crime has happened. Mass murder has happened. People are not even allowed to mourn their loved ones," Panahi told a talk organized as part of the festival.

"People do not want violence. They avoid violence. It is the regime that forces violence upon them," Panahi said.

In December he was sentenced to one year in prison and a travel ban in Iran but has expressed his intention to return nevertheless.

Entertainment

Eric Dane, who Played 'McSteamy' on 'Grey's Anatomy', Dies at 53

FILE - Actor Eric Dane, left, Katherine Heigl, center, and James Pickens Jr. from the show "Grey's Anatomy" arrive at the premiere of "Dreamgirls," in Beverly Hills, Calif., Dec. 11, 2006. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, File)
FILE - Actor Eric Dane, left, Katherine Heigl, center, and James Pickens Jr. from the show "Grey's Anatomy" arrive at the premiere of "Dreamgirls," in Beverly Hills, Calif., Dec. 11, 2006. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, File)
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Eric Dane, who Played 'McSteamy' on 'Grey's Anatomy', Dies at 53

FILE - Actor Eric Dane, left, Katherine Heigl, center, and James Pickens Jr. from the show "Grey's Anatomy" arrive at the premiere of "Dreamgirls," in Beverly Hills, Calif., Dec. 11, 2006. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, File)
FILE - Actor Eric Dane, left, Katherine Heigl, center, and James Pickens Jr. from the show "Grey's Anatomy" arrive at the premiere of "Dreamgirls," in Beverly Hills, Calif., Dec. 11, 2006. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, File)

Actor Eric ‌Dane, who played the handsome Dr. Mark Sloan on the hit television series "Grey's Anatomy," died on Thursday aged 53, his family said, less than a year after revealing that he suffered from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS.

For 15 years, Dane played a plastic surgeon nicknamed "McSteamy" by female characters in the show. He also starred in the series "Euphoria," and said after the diagnosis he would still return to the set for ‌its third ‌season.

"Eric Dane passed on Thursday afternoon ‌following ⁠a courageous battle with ⁠ALS," his family said in a statement, according to People magazine and other media.

"He spent his final days surrounded by dear friends, his devoted wife, and his two beautiful daughters, Billie and Georgia, who were the center of his world."

ALS is a progressive ⁠disease in which a person’s brain ‌loses connection with the muscles. ‌It is also known as Lou Gehrig's disease after the ‌Hall of Fame baseball player who died from ‌it in 1941 at age 37.

"Throughout his journey with ALS, Eric became a passionate advocate for awareness and research, determined to make a difference for others facing the same ‌fight," Dane's family added, according to Reuters.

Dane and his wife, actor Rebecca Gayheart, the mother of their two ⁠children, ⁠separated in 2018 after 14 years of marriage.

But last March, just before Dane announced his diagnosis, Gayheart sought to dismiss her petition for divorce, People said, citing court documents.

Eric William Dane, the older of two brothers, was born on November 9, 1972, in San Francisco, to an architect father and homemaker mother, his biography on IMDB.com shows.

His first television role was in "The Wonder Years" in 1993, while 2005 brought his big break with "Grey's Anatomy." His big screen credits include "Marley & Me" and "X-Men: The Last Stand."