Cannes to premiere Kristen Stewart's directorial debut based on Oregon author's memoir
PORTLAND, Ore. () — Kristen Stewart's directorial debut, based on an Oregon author's acclaimed memoir, will premiere at Festival De Cannes later this week.
the Academy-Award-nominated actress is slated to headline , alongside musician Kim Gordon, as part of the international film festival on Friday. Both the organization and its annual gala aim to boost gender equality in the film industry. The event will also serve as Stewart's opportunity to discuss 'The Chronology of Water' just ahead of its debut.
These are the 50 best donut shops in the US, and 2 are in Oregon, according to Yelp
The movie centers on Lidia Yuknavitch's autobiographical book of the same name. The memoir follows the swimmer's journey from Texas to the Pacific Northwest 'to escape an abusive father and an alcoholic, suicidal mother,' according to Hawthorne Books — the Portland-based company that published the memoir.
'After losing her scholarship to drugs and alcohol, Lidia moves to Eugene and enrolls in the University of Oregon, where she is accepted by Ken Kesey to become one of thirteen graduate students who collaboratively write the novel Caverns with him,' Hawthorne Books . 'Drugs and alcohol continue to flow along with bisexual promiscuity and the discovery of S&M helps ease Lidia's demons.'
The company said the book goes on to explain how Yuknavitch's career, as well as her husband and son, have replaced 'the earlier chaos that was her life.' In 2012, the memoir earned the Oregon Book Award for Readers' Choice. It is now getting the Cannes treatment, with the new film that will star Imogen Poots of 'Green Room.'
Portland Fire & Rescue: Illegal burning letters are a fraud
First-time director she traveled to Portland to ask for Yuknavitch's permission to produce a movie based on her work. She later struggled to get funding for the project, but was ultimately able to film it in Latvia and Malta in less than two months.
Previous Cannes features, like 'Parasite' and 'Anora,' have gone on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Los Angeles Times
42 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
Peter Brown rebooted ‘The Wild Robot' for the preschool set. His underlying message remains
There are rare moments in the culture when a children's book resonates with everyone. Parents who buy the book for their kids find themselves moved by a story that is not intended for them but somehow speaks to them. Peter Brown's 'The Wild Robot' is one such book. A tender-hearted fable about a robot who washes ashore on a remote island and goes native, the 2016 middle-grade novel from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers has spawned two sequels and last year's hit (and Oscar-nominated) adaptation from DreamWorks Animation, with book sales for the series topping 6.5 million worldwide. Brown has now created a picture book titled 'The Wild Robot on the Island,' a gateway for those still too young to read the original work. 'This new book gave me a chance to create these big, colorful, detailed illustrations, while still maintaining the emotional tone of the novel,' says Brown, who is Zooming from the Maine home he shares with his wife and young son. 'I've added some little moments that aren't in the novel to give younger readers an introduction and when they're ready, they can turn to the novel.' The new book's mostly-pictures-with-some-words approach is a return to Brown's earlier work when he was creating charming fables for toddlers about our sometimes fraught, sometimes empathetic attitude toward nature. In 2009's 'The Curious Garden,' a boy encounters a patch of wildflowers and grass sprouting from an abandoned railway and decides to cultivate it into a garden, while 2013's 'Mr. Tiger Goes Wild' finds the title character longing to escape from the conventions of a world where animals no longer run free. This push and pull between wilderness and civilized life, or wildness versus timidity, has preoccupied Brown for the duration of his career, and it is what brought Brown to his robot. 'I was thinking about nature in unlikely places, and the relationships between natural and unnatural things,' says Brown, a New Jersey native who studied at Pasadena's Art Center College of Design. 'And that led to the idea of a robot in a tree.' Brown drew a single picture of a robot standing on the branch of a giant pine tree, then put it aside while he produced other work. But the image wouldn't let him go: 'Every couple of months, I would think about that robot.' Brown began researching robots and robotics, and slowly the story gestated in his mind. 'Themes began to emerge,' says Brown. 'Mainly, the idea of this robot becoming almost more wild and natural than a person could be. That was so fascinating to me that I wanted to let this thing breathe and see where it took me.' Brown knew the involved narrative he had imagined wouldn't work in picture book form; he needed to write his story as a novel, which would be new territory for him. 'When I pitched the idea to my editor, she basically said, 'Pump your brakes,' ' says Brown. 'If I was going to write, I had to include illustrations as well. The publisher thought it was a bit of a risk. They wanted pictures in order to sell it, because of what I had done in the past.' Brown locked himself away out in the wilds of Maine, in a cabin with no Wi-Fi, and got down to it. 'I was nervous, and my editor wasn't sure, either,' says Brown, who cites Kurt Vonnegut as a literary influence. 'I realized there was no other option but for me to do it. And once I got into it, I had a blast.' Like all great fables, Brown's story is deceptively simple. A cargo ship full of robots goes down in the middle of the ocean. Some of these robots, still packed in their boxes, wash ashore on a remote island. A family of otters opens one such box, which turns out to be Roz, Brown's wild robot. As Roz explores this strange new world, she encounters angry bears, a loquacious squirrel and industrious beavers, who regard her as a malevolent force. But the robot's confusion, and the animal's hostility, soon dissolve into a mutual understanding. Roz is the reader's proxy, an innocent who acclimates to the complex rhythms of the natural world. Eventually she is subsumed into this alien universe, a creature of nature who allows birds to roost on her chromium shoulder. 'Roz has been programmed to learn, but her creators, the men who built her, don't expect her to learn in this particular way,' says Brown. 'And so she uses that learning ability to mimic the animals' behavior and learns how to communicate with them. Roz is the embodiment of the value of learning, and part of that is adapting, changing, growing.' The story isn't always a rosy fairy tale. There are predators on the island; animals are eaten for sustenance. Real life, in short, rears its ugly head. 'It gets tricky. Life is complicated, right?', says Brown. 'But thanks to Roz's influence, all the animals discover how they are all a part of this interconnected community.' Roz adopts an abandoned gosling that she names Brightbill, and the man-made machine is now a mother, flooded with compassion for her young charge. Their relationship is the emotional core of Brown's series. At a time when the world is grappling with the increasing presence of robotic technology in everyday life, Brown offers an alternative view: What if we can create robots that are capable of benevolence and empathy? Roz reminds us of our own humanity, our capacity to love and feel deeply. This is why 'The Wild Robot' isn't just a kid's book. It is in fact one of the most insightful novels about our present techno-anxious moment, camouflaged as a children's book. 'Technology is a double-edged sword,' says Brown. 'There's obviously a lot of good that is happening, and will continue to happen, but in the wrong hands it can be dangerous.' He mentions Jonathan Haidt's bestselling book 'The Anxious Generation,' and Haidt's prescriptions for restricting internet use among children, which Brown endorses. 'I don't have a lot of answers, but I just think we need to reinvest in our own humanity,' he says. 'We have to make sure things are going in the right direction.' In subsequent books, the outside world impinges on Roz's idyll. 'The Wild Robot Escapes' finds Roz navigating the dangers of urban life and humans with guns, while a toxic tide in 'The Wild Robot Protects' leaves the animals scrambling for ever more scarce resources. None of this is pedantic, nor is it puffed up with moral outrage. Brown knows children can spot such flaws a mile away. Like all great adventure tales, Brown's 'Wild Robot' stories embrace the wild world in all of its splendor, without ever flinching away from it. 'In the books, I just wanted to acknowledge that the world is complicated, and that people we think are bad aren't necessarily so,' says Brown, who is currently writing the fourth novel in the 'Wild Robot' series. 'Behind every bad action is a really complicated story, and I think kids can handle that. They want to be told the truth about things, they want to grapple with the tough parts of life.'
New York Post
2 hours ago
- New York Post
Nintendo Switch 2 smashes record as company's fastest-selling console
Japan's Nintendo said on Wednesday it had sold more than 3.5 million Switch 2 units in the first four days after its launch, making the console the company's fastest-selling gaming device to date. Last month, the Kyoto-based company forecast Switch 2 sales would reach 15 million during the current financial year ending next March. 'Fans around the world are showing their enthusiasm for Nintendo Switch 2 as an upgraded way to play at home and on the go,' Nintendo of America President and Chief Operating Officer Doug Bowser said in a statement. Advertisement 3 A person wearing a Luigi hat sits in line playing a Nintendo Switch, waiting to buy a Nintendo Switch 2 in New York City on June 4, 2025. REUTERS 3 A person holds a stack of Nintendo Switch 2 devices while restocking at Nintendo's store in Rockefeller Center on June 5, 2025. AP 3 A man shows off the Nintendo Switch 2 inside a Tokyo store on June 5, 2025. AFP via Getty Images Advertisement Nintendo has sold 152 million Switch devices since it was first launched in 2017, creating a games juggernaut with titles including 'The Legend of Zelda' and COVID-19 pandemic breakout hit 'Animal Crossing: New Horizons.' The more powerful second-generation version, which went on sale on June 5, bears many similarities with its predecessor but offers a larger screen and improved graphics. It is sold with titles including 'Mario Kart World.'
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Labubu toy sculpture sold for $150,000 at China auction
A Beijing auction house has sold a four-foot-tall sculpture of a viral plush toy character for more than $150,000, as global demand for the Chinese-designed Labubu dolls reaches fever pitch. The rabbit-like figures sporting mischievous grins began as a character created by Hong Kong-born artist Kasing Lung, and are made by Beijing-based toy brand Pop Mart. They have been endorsed by celebrities such as Rihanna and Dua Lipa, and fans have queued overnight outside stores hoping to snag one, with analysts pointing to the phenomenon as evidence of China's growing soft power. On Tuesday, a teal sculpture depicting a Labubu character with a furry body and head fetched an eye-watering 1.08 million yuan ($150,260) at an auction held in Beijing, according to the auction house's app. The sculpture is "the only piece of its kind in the world", according to Yongle International Auction. It was offered alongside other Labubu paraphernalia including a brown statue that sold for 820,000 yuan. Pop Mart has over 400 stores globally, including 30 US branches. The worldwide frenzy has seen people go to desperate lengths to acquire their own Labubu. Last month a London branch of Pop Mart suspended in-store sales of the toys, fearing violence from would-be buyers who failed to get their hands on the limited-edition Labubus. In Singapore, CCTV footage captured a family stealing Labubu dolls from a claw machine, according to Singaporean online media outlet AsiaOne. Burglars broke into a store in California last week and took several Labubu dolls along with electronics and other valuables, American news outlet ABC reported. In China, the toys have been promised as freebies for new bank customers -- an incentive quickly shut down by local regulators, according to Chinese media reports. The toys have spawned a booming resale market as well as an online community of fans sharing tips on how to customise their dolls. Knockoffs -- many of which are also made in China -- have flooded online platforms, dubbed "Lafufus" by social media users. tjx/reb/dhc
