Variety show honors Thierry Frémaux for dramatic welcome to Cannes Bash

Variety’s annual Welcome to Cannes party started off with a bang, literally.

The wooden structure on top of the JW Marriott Cannes began to buckle under the weight of partygoers, forcing guests to move to other parts of the terrace, where champagne flowed and the good times continued, albeit on firmer ground.

“Welcome to the hottest party in Cannes,” said Dia Lawrence, co-president and publisher of Variety magazine, in her opening remarks. “We thank all the strong and brave people in show business who persevered.”

And they stayed that way. An A-list crowd, including actresses Diane Kruger and Jordana Brewster, Sony Pictures Classic heads Michael Barker and Tom Bernard, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences president Lynette Howell Taylor, Gotham Film & Media Institute executive director Jeffrey Sharp, Cliffhanger director Renny Harlin and Netflix awards guru Lisa Tabak, were in attendance to honor Thierry Frémaux on his 25th anniversary. The year that led the Cannes Film Festival. This event was hosted in partnership with Gotham Film & Media Institute.

Ramin Setoudeh, Variety’s co-president and co-editor-in-chief, praised Frémaux for receiving Variety’s International Film Achievement Award, calling him “the heart and soul of Cannes and the person who has shaped the festival for the past 25 years.”

Setoude pulled out a page from the Cannes issue of a variety magazine from his jacket pocket and read out the profile of the film festival director. “Print is very close to my heart,” Setoude joked.

While accepting the award, Frémaux recalled the first year he attended the festival, which saw Hollywood make a grand return to the south of France for the premiere of “Moulin Rouge.” It was a lavish extravaganza that brought Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor and Baz Luhrmann to the Croisette, and served as the unveiling of the star-studded glamor that would make Fremaux’s tenure so memorable. But Frémaux reminded the JW Marriott crowd that the art and artists that Cannes celebrates want to do more than wow audiences.

“We are in a world at war,” Fremaux said. “Since the days of the Lumière brothers, cinema has been a means of peace…and if Donald Trump needs help, he must ask us, because we know exactly how to bring peace to this world, because all filmmakers are peace-loving people.”

Barker, whose company is premiering Pedro Almodovar’s “Bitter Christmas” in competition this year, praised Fremaux’s work. “You are a treasure, not only protecting filmmakers, but protecting the film industry.”