Cannes Film Festival Comes To MUBI – Celebrating 50 Years Of Semaine De La Critique

On 12 May 2011 the most famous film festival in the world began in France. Few members of the public actually get to attend each year, as this prestigious event focuses on industry and press rather than paying public. But this year MUBI has something special for you.

2011 marks the 50th anniversary of the beginning of one of the most exciting sections of the Festival de Cannes—Semaine de la Critique, also known as Critics’ Week. While the big-name glitz and glamour seems to happen in the Competition section of the festival, it’s really in this side program where the excitement is because Semaine is where discoveries are made. Auteurs are found at Critics’ Week—it’s often only later, once they are seen as masters, that they are screened in the Competition, and the list of now-famous directors who began in this section is astounding.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Semaine de la Critique, MUBI is partnering with the Festival de Cannes to bring to our VOD platform a large retrospective of films screened over the last 20 years in Critics’ Week. And with the support of Fundación MAPFRE FC4+1 Film Festival we are able to make each film we’re showing in the retrospective available for free for the first 1,000 views through June 30.

In this amazing program, you’ll find many names you already know making films before they were known. And you may just find some names you yourself will discover, names of filmmakers whose future is in your hands, waiting to be recognized and acclaimed.

To see what films from the retrospective are showing in your country, view the Semaine de la Critique du Festival du Cannes page in your PS3.

We’re helping bring Cannes online for all, and we hope you enjoy “attending.”