The Cannes Film Festival Blog

Golden Tauro: "Akher Film (Making Of)" by Nouri Bouzid Special Jury Prize for Best Direction: David Volach for "Hofshat Kaits (My Father, My Lord)" Special Jury Prize for Best Script: Stefano Incerti, Salvatore Parlagreco, Heidrun Schleef for "L'Uomo Di Vetro (Man of Glass)" Prize for Best Performance: Lotfi Abdelli in "Akher Film (Making Of)"

At a standing room only press conference accompanying the world premiere of "Transformers" in Taormina, Director Michael Bay ("Pearl Harbor", "Armageddon", "Bad Boys") talks about Steven Spielberg's crucial role for the movie, admits he did not know "The Strokes" and explains how he gets to wreck so many cars in his movies. Lead actor Shia LaBeouf talks about how he got his first car and producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura explains why the movie is premiering outside of the US. Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Michael Bay and Shia LaBeouf presenting "Transformers" in Taormina What was the first thing Spielberg told you after the first screening of the movie? Michael Bay: When Spielberg saw the scene with the robots around the house he was laughing like a kid – he slapped me on the leg and said “I’ve never seen robots do that”. I was surprised, since my movies are always long in the beginning. – and the early version of this one was har...

Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) gets drawn into a battle between two races of alien robots, one “evil” – the Decepticons - and one “good” – the Autobots. On a polar expedition at the beginning of the 20th century, Sam’s grandfather accidentally discovered the frozen body of the leader of the Decepticons, Megatron, who crashed on planet Earth hunting for the “All Spark” cube, a device that allows to create new robots which and the object of a centuries-long war between the Decepticons and the Autobots. Sam’s grandfather accidentally activates the robots navigation system, and the location of “All Spark” gets engraved into his glasses. The whole incident gets classified “higher than top secret”. To hide the location of “All Spark”, US president Hoover actually decides to build the Hoover dam around the cube, whose huge concrete structure serves to shield the cube’s signals. Also, Megatron is shipped to the site, still in frozen state, and reverse-engineering its innards leads to the discover...

The Festival is gearing up for its absolute highlight this year: tomorrow's World premiere of "Transformers", the Spielberg-backed movie version of the popular animated series and comic books. Lead actor Shia LaBeouf and Director Michael Bay are expected to give a press conference tomorrow afternoon, and the screening is to take place at 8:30PM local time in Taormina's fabulous Greek theatre, where Autobots and the Decepticons will battle out Earth's future a couple of weeks before the movie opens in the US (July 4). For those who can't wait, various preview videos are already out on YouTube:

Actors Eric Bana ("Munich", "Black Hawk Down", "The Hulk"), Robert Duvall ("Mash") as well as academy-award-winning Director Curtis Hanson ("L.A. Confidential", "Wonder Boys", "8 Mile") talk about their poker movie “Lucky You”, how they learned to play poker, the role of luck in their lifes and about career choices. On “Lucky You” Eric Bana and Robert Duvall presenting "Lucky You" in Taormina Eric, what did you learn from Mr. Duvall? Eric Bana: When you dream of being an actor in a film you sure don't dream of acting next to the people you admire – you’re just happy to be in a movie.Bob is my favorite actor in the world. I grew up admiring his performances. When Curtis said he was approaching Bob, I nearly fell off the chair. Bob actually looks a lot like my grandfather, who has passed away and who I was very close with. I was very shocked the first time I met Bob since the resemblance is stronger in...

Photocall for movie "Lucky You" with actors Eric Bana ("Munich", "Black Hawk Down", "The Hulk"), Robert Duvall ("Mash") and Director Curtis Hanson ("L.A. Confidential", "Wonder Boys", "8 Mile") at the TaorminaFilmFest 2007.

The 2008 festival will take place from May 14-25