Woody Allen Will Open Cannes Film Festival for a Third Time

cafe society

The newest film from Woody Allen, has a title and it’s going to Cannes.  The film, which is titled Cafe Society, will open the 69th annual Cannes Film Festival.

With this, Allen becomes the first and only director to open the festival three times.  Allen also opened the festival in 2011 with Midnight in Paris, and 2002 with Hollywood Ending.  And if you count 1989’s New York Stories, then Allen has technically opened the festival four times, although New York Stories was a trilogy with three directors- Woody Allen, Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese.

Kristen Stewart, Jesse Eisenberg, Blake Lively, Parker Posey, and Steve Carell star in the new film which is set in 1930’s Hollywood. Cafe Society’s Cannes description says it follows the story of a young man who arrives in Hollywood looking to make his mark, only to get swept up in the town’s café society. It was filmed in both New York and Los Angeles.

Cafe Society marks Allen’s 14th trip to Cannes.  The film will not compete– Allen always opts to remove his films from Cannes competition– but will debut on May 11. The film is set for release through Amazon studios later this year.  Amazon is planning to release the film in theaters this summer, and then shortly afterwards, make the film available digitally exclusively to Amazon Prime subscribers.

Allen is also writing and directing his first ever television series for Amazon, which is shooting now with Elaine May, Miley Cyrus, and Allen himself.

Read more comedy news.