"Occasionally a great movie comes along that transcends the banality of the physical world, pierces the veil, uncovers the mysteries that lie beneath, and turns money into light, material into spirit..."
John Boorman, born in Shepperton in 1933, fell in love with cinema at an early age. He became a critic on the radio before working as an editor for the BBC. In 1965, his first film, Catch Us if You Can was noticed by Hollywood and he went there to make Point Blank (1967), then Hell in the Pacific (1968), two international box office hits. He returned to London to shoot Leo the Last (Best Director’s prize at Cannes in 1970). He then directed Deliverance, Zardoz, and Exorcist II, making a highly personal work of it. His cult film, Excalibur, won an award at Cannes in 1981. He went on to make The Emerald Forest, then Hope and Glory, to critical acclaim. Following Where the Heart Is, he presents the very same year at Cannes, in 1995, Beyond Rangoon in Competition and the short film Two Nudes Bathing in Un Certain Regard. With The General, John Boorman came back in Competition in 1998 to win Best Director prize again. The Tailor of Panama, adapted from a John le Carré novel, was released in 2001, followed by In my Country (2004), then The Tiger’s Tail (2006). John Boorman has been nominated for an Academy Award five times. He is a Member of the British Academy and the author of two memoirs: Money into Light and Adventures of a Suburban Boy. He co-edited, alongside Walter Donohue, 13 issues of Projections, about the filmmaker’s craft.

Paolo Sorrentino was born in Naples in 1970. In 2001, his first feature, the dramatic comedy L’Uomo in più (One Man Up) was invited to Venice. It was widely honored in Italy and overseas. It also marked the beginning of his collaboration with longtime favorite actor Toni Servillo. In 2004, Paolo Sorrentino made his second film Le conseguenze dell’amore (The Consequences of Love), which premiered in Competition at the Festival de Cannes. It was a great success and won numerous prizes including five David di Donatello (for Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor and Best Cinematography). Two years later, he returned to the Croisette with L’amico di famiglia (Friend of the Family). It was with his fourth film Il Divo, the portrait of the Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti, that Sorrentino won the Prix du Jury at last year’s Festival de Cannes and has been nominated for 16 David di Donatello.

Becoming actor by chance in 1987 (he was a jeans salesman in outdoor markets), Roschdy confirms, more than twenty years after his first roles, that French cinema could not have got along without him. Actor for André Téchiné (I Don't Kiss and My Favourite Season) or Xavier Beauvois (The Young Lieutenant), he doesn't hesitate to appear in mainstream comedies with Gad Elmaleh or Alain Chabat. Only restriction for this Frenchman of Moroccan origin: Not to play roles of Arabs setting bombs. In 2006, he comes in Competition to Cannes and leaves with the Award for Best Actor, collectively awarded to the five heroes of Rachid Bouchareb's Days of Glory. In 2006, he switches to the other side of the camera and directs Bad Faith, starring Cécile de France.