Cannes Film Festival encountered an incident before the opening ceremony, President Fremaux made a harsh statement

According to Variety, the organizers of the 76th Cannes International Film Festival have confirmed that the film "Jeanne du Barry" will be screened on the opening night on May 16 (local time). This also means that the director and actors involved in the project have been invited to this year's festival, including actor Johnny Depp.

This is the first period film Johnny Depp has starred in since his shocking divorce from Amber Heard three years ago.

Cannes Film Festival encountered an incident before the opening, President Fremaux made a harsh statement 1

Johnny Depp's appearance in the movie "Jeanne du Barry"

On social media platforms, Heard's close friend, social activist Eve Barlow, launched a campaign against Depp's presence at Cannes 2023 with the hashtag #CannesYouNot and said that the event supported abusers.

According to Page Six, many viewers argued that Johnny Depp did not deserve to return to the red carpet of this prestigious film festival.

The reason is because the "Pirates of the Caribbean" star was involved in the most noisy trial in Hollywood that lasted for 6 weeks related to his ex-wife Amber Heard. Although he won the case, Johnny Depp still faced a lot of criticism when the record recorded that he had many actions and words that were derogatory to his ex-wife.

However, in response to the audience's arguments, the director of the Film Festival - Thierry Fremaux publicly defended Johnny Depp, while emphasizing the freedom of speech of each individual. This is because the French people did not boycott the male actor.

"I live by the principle of respecting freedom of speech and obeying the law. Therefore, there is no reason not to release "Jeanne du Barry", unless Depp is banned from acting or his films are banned from being released. I do not care about this debate. I only evaluate Depp as an actor.

"If Johnny Depp was banned from film projects or the film was banned from broadcasting, we would not be here to talk about this. We have seen Maiwenn's film (starring Johnny Depp) and it is absolutely capable of competing," Mr. Fremaux told reporters ahead of the opening ceremony.

Cannes Film Festival encountered an incident before the opening, President Fremaux made a harsh statement 2

Depp's appearance at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival Opening Ceremony causes controversy

In addition to the Depp controversy, the 76th Cannes Film Festival was also accused of covering up for pedophiles by actress Adele Haenel. According to Variety, she was abused by director Christophe Ruggia between the ages of 12 and 15.

In a letter to Telerama (France), she wrote: "I stopped acting because of the film industry's cover-up of sexual abusers. They are willing to tolerate Gerard Depardieu or Roman Polanski and cause deep harm to the victims."

In response to the above accusations, the director of the 2023 Cannes Film Festival said: "If you thought we supported pedophiles, you wouldn't be sitting here listening to me and paying for movie tickets."

Mr. Fremaux also said that if Haenel really felt uncomfortable, she would not have appeared at Cannes 2019 to promote the film "Portrait of a Lady on Fire."

The 2023 Cannes Film Festival, which runs from May 16 to 27, will be the first edition to be run by a female president, Iris Knobloch. Fifty-two films are expected to be screened, 21 of which will compete for the Palme d'Or.

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