CANNES 2021
‘Year of the Everlasting Storm’
A Love Letter to Cinema

Ryan Lattanzio, Indiewire
Jun 3, 2021 2:25 pm

Laura Poitras, Dominga Sotomayor, Jafar Panahi, Anthony Chen, and Malik Vitthal also contribute to the lockdown-inspired omnibus film.

A sweeping and melancholic first trailer has arrived for Neon’s secret omnibus film project, “The Year of the Everlasting Storm.”

Featuring seven stories from seven auteurs from around the world, the film chronicles an unprecedented moment in time, and is a true love letter to the power of cinema and its storytellers.



“The Year of the Everlasting Storm”
YouTube/screenshot

What have filmmakers been up to during this Pandemic? NEON has captured the activities of some very interesting cinematic point of views during this strange time, informed by illness across the globe. The Year of the Everlasting Storm is perfectly titled for what people across the planet have been through lately.

The seven-segment film is set to debut at the Cannes Film Festival this year (re-opening its doors for an in-person event after last year’s cancelled one), alongside two other Neon titles, “Memoria,” directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul (who has a segment in “Everlasting Storm”) and “Titane,” directed by Julia Ducournau.

“The Year of the Everlasting Storm” has been slotted as Special Screening at the Cannes Film Festival this year. (The full lineup for the French festival was just announced on Thursday.)

The film features contributions from seven major award-winning directors: Weerasethakul (“Tropical Malady,” “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives”), David Lowery (“Ain’t Them Bodies Saints,” “A Ghost Story,” the upcoming “The Green Knight”), Laura Poitras (“Citizenfour,” “The Oath”), Jafar Panahi (“This Is Not a Film,” “3 Faces”), Dominga Sotomayor (“Too Late to Die Young,” “Mar”), Anthony Chen (“Ilo Ilo,” “Wet Season”), and Malik Vitthal (“Body Cam,” “Imperial Dreams”).

The 2021 Cannes Film Festival begins July 6 and runs through July 17. Taking place in mid-summer after normally being scheduled for May, Cannes is in some ways resurrecting its planned 2020 event.

 

Spike Lee, who was meant to head the jury and premiere his “Da 5 Bloods” out of competition last year, is returning to Cannes 2021 as jury president.

Meanwhile, films such as Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch,” Leos Carax’s “Annette,” and Paul Verhoeven’s “Benedetta” were all supposed to premiere at Cannes 2020 but are now locked for Cannes 2021 after waiting more than a year to be unveiled to audiences coming to the Riviera from around the world.

As is “The Year of the Everlasting Storm,” this year’s lineup is a dream for critics and cinephiles, with new work by Nadav Lapid, Mia Hansen-Love, Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Francois Ozon, Asghar Farhadi, Justin Kurzel, Jacques Audiard, Bruno Dumon, Sean Baker, and Joachim Trier.

Watch the full trailer for “The Year of the Everlasting Storm” above.