Kristen Stewart's Directorial Debut "The Chronology of Water" Receives Warm Reception in Cannes
Kristen Stewart's long-awaited directorial debut 'The Chronology of Water' premiered at the Cannes Film Festival to a just over four-minute standing ovation on Friday night — and left many in the crowd wiping their eyes.
An emotional Stewart embraced her actors with hugs and high-fives as the ovation carried on.
She later bounded across the auditorium to give Cannes head Thierry Frémaux a long hug.
'I don't have anything else to say; I left it all on the screen,' Stewart said. 'Just thank you all for being here. Seriously, we finished the movie five minutes ago — it's not even done. We got so lucky, and I'm so grateful to be here.'
She then gestured to her star, Imogen Poots, to take the mic, saying, 'Truly, your body is the movie, I'm giving it to you.'
An emotional Poots obliged, saying only, 'She's the best director, and I hope you all liked the movie.'
Stewart's long-gestating project, adapted from Lidia Yuknavitch's bestselling 2011 memoir, went down well in the room, and Stewart was mobbed by her fans in the Grand Lumiere Theater, making it tough to get out of the venue.
Stewart took screenplay co-writing credits with Andy Mingo on the pic, which stars Imogen Poots in the tale of turning trauma into art that's playing in the Un Certain Regard strand. The story follows protagonist Lidia from her earliest childhood memories in the Pacific Northwest, through explosive misfires and mistakes, children that almost-were, toxic relationships, art heroes, wins and losses. Jim Belushi and Thora Birch also star.
Stewart
told
the Cannes Film Festival that the movie is 'about iteration. Getting up and trying again. Repossessing your body, your desires, your ambitions and your dreams. I wanted to create a form that was unruly and, again, hard to pin down.'
She also said that the eight-year-in-the-planning project 'is about birth, death and rebirth, and we sort of followed that cycle. I think you can feel it in the result. At the time, it hurt a lot. The biggest wound of my 'creative' life so far. And by far my favorite scar.'
Stewart is no stranger to Cannes, having starred in such films here as David Cronenberg's "Crimes of the Future" (2022), Woody Allen's "Cafe Society" (2016) and Olivier Assayas' "Personal Shopper" (2016) and "Clouds of Sils Maria" (2014). She won the Best Supporting Actress César Award for the latter.
"The Chronology of Water" is produced by Charles Gillibert (CG Cinema International); Yulia Zayceva, Max Pavlov and Svetlana Punte (Forma Pro Films); Michael Pruss and Rebecca Feuer (Scott Free); and Stewart, Maggie McLean and Dylan Meyer (Nevermind Pictures) and Mingo.
WME Independent is handling North American sales. Les Films du Losange has international sales and French distribution.
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CairoScene
24-07-2025
- CairoScene
Styled Archives: When MENA Celebrities Rocked Lace
Whether draped, sheer, or sculpted, lace became something sharper in these moments. A look back at how MENA icons made it anything but traditional. Jul 24, 2025 In 2001, Fairuz performed in Kuwait City wearing a black lace gown, backed by a 48-piece orchestra. The look was spare and exacting. A year later, Samira Said opened the Dubai Shopping Festival in a lace-trimmed top and low-slung trousers, styled for early-2000s stage glamour. At her 2003 concert in Cairo, Haifa Wehbe wore sheer black lace, a jewel-studded belt, and smoky eyes. In 2004, Elissa performed in Kuwait City in white lace layered over a scarlet slip. Nancy Ajram's 2006 Muscat Festival look featured a flared lace skirt designed for movement. On the red carpet, lace remained precise. Lebleba wore it with shoulder bows at DIFF in 2008. In 2012, Najwa Karam appeared at Cannes in a white mermaid-cut lace gown. At CIFF in 2016, Elham Shahin wore black lace with sheer sleeves and a flowing skirt. In 2017, Laila Elwi paired velvet with a lace panelled skirt. Rym Saidi wore a hooded black lace cape to the 2023 Red Sea Film Festival. In 2024, Nelly Karim appeared at the Discobolo Awards in a lace corset, tailored trousers, and a long black coat. These moments offer a cross-section of how lace has moved through stages and red carpets across the region - one fabric, countless statements. Fairuz | Kuwait City Concert (2001) Performing with a 48-piece orchestra, Fairuz wore a black lace gown that matched the gravity of her voice; elegant and commanding. Samira Said | Dubai Shopping Festival (2002) On stage in a lace top, Samira Said made delicate look commanding. It was early 2000s glamour with just enough edge to match the vocals. Haifa Wehbe | Cairo Concert (2003) Serving goth glam before it was cool, Haifa hit the stage in black lace, smoky eyes, and a jewel-studded belt that cinched the whole look. Elissa | Eid Concert, Kuwait City (2004) White lace over a scarlet slip, Elissa turned contrast into a statement. Soft, striking, and just a little impossible to look away from. Nancy Ajram | Muscat Festival (2006) Nancy kept it sweet with a playful twist, letting lace take over from the waist down. Flirty, fun, and made to move with every beat. Lebleba | Dubai International Film Festival (2008) Softened by shoulder bows and framed in lace, Lebleba's look was equal parts sweet and striking. A red carpet moment with old-school charm. Najwa Karam | "Vous N'avez Encore Rien Vu" Premiere (2012) Wrapped in white lace and cut to a mermaid silhouette, Najwa Karam brought a Levantine flair to the Cannes red carpet with a look that was all poise and presence. Elham Shahin | Cairo International Film Festival (2016) Lace traced the sleeves, cut through the bodice, and flowed into a sheer skirt below. Elham Shahin's 2016 look played with coverage and contrast, turning classic black lace into something confidently bold. Laila Elwi | Cairo International Film Festival (2017) Laila Elwi took the red carpet in a velvet and lace gown that did elegance without effort. A sheer panel down the skirt gave the look movement, while the sculpted bodice kept it sharp and statuesque. Rym Saidi | Red Sea International Film Festival (2023) Rym Saidi walked in draped in sheer black lace, hooded cape and all. Somewhere between haute couture and witchcraft. Nelly Karim | Discobolo Award, Rome (2024) Lace corset, long black coat, and tailored pants. Nelly Karim showed up like a fashion noir heroine. Cool, controlled, and fully in charge.
Egypt Independent
23-07-2025
- Egypt Independent
‘You're going to see this flood of new stories': Why African animators are excited about AI
CNN — Digital technology may have led to the decline of hand-drawn animation, but it still required legions of creatives and technicians to feed into the process. Now some fear that artificial intelligence (AI) could push the human touch further still out of the equation. But in Africa, animation professionals see AI as a means to unlock new creative possibilities, while getting their projects off the ground with greater ease. Stuart Forrest, CEO of BAFTA and Emmy-winning Triggerfish Animation Studio, which has its headquarters in South Africa, is one of them. 'Africa has quite a unique position globally,' he told CNN. 'Of the 1.4 billion people that live on the continent, there's such a tiny amount that are actually active in the animation industry.' Given the limited number of professional animators, Forrest believes that by integrating AI, some creatives will have a route to realize their projects for the first time – 'that's really exciting for the continent.' Ebele Okoye, an award-winning Nigerian filmmaker affectionately known as the 'Mother of African animation,' also sees plenty of upsides. 'We now have the opportunity to tell our stories without having to wait for somebody to give us $20 million,' she told CNN during the Cannes Film Festival in May, where she hosted a masterclass on AI in animation at the Pavilion Afriques. A still from 'Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire,' a series produced by Triggerfish Animation Studios that debuted on Disney+ in 2023. The series did not use AI as part of its production, but Triggerfish CEO believes the technology has the potential to help animators in Africa. The Walt Disney Company Africa's animation sector was valued at $13.3 billion in one 2023 report but historically, there has been a lack of funding for African animated projects, said Forrest. 'There's a general rule that African stories don't generate income. But the African stories that are made are such low budget that, yes, they don't generate income. So it's a self-fulfilling thing,' he explained. Soon, he projects, a feature film that might have cost $10-20 million to make, may cost $50,000 with AI, and require just two or three creatives. 'You're going to see this flood of new stories that have never been heard before, from countries that no one would ever invest (in),' he added. 'Eventually the playing field between Hollywood and Kinshasa (in the Democratic Republic of Congo) will be levelled in terms of the quality of storytelling.' Is AI coming for your job? There are many outstanding questions. For one: What might AI do to the jobs market? Opinions differ. 'You're going to empower people working for you,' Okoye said. 'You're not going to replace them; you're going to make their jobs easier.' But that's assuming you have a job in the first place. AI is already taking on many mundane, repetitive tasks – tasks that might be done by entry level staff and trainees. 'If those jobs then become obsolete, at some point this makes the industry a bit elitist … you don't have the same entry window that you do now,' argued Masilakhe Njomane, a junior research fellow at the South African Cultural Observatory and co-author of a recent report on AI's impact on South Africa's creative industries. 'In an economy like South Africa it's detrimental, as we already have a lot of trouble with job security as a whole, especially in the creative and cultural industry,' she added. A still from 'The Legacy of Rubies' (2015), an award-winning short film by Ebele Okoye. The film did not use AI in its production. courtesy Ebele Okoye While Triggerfish has not used AI-generated art, Forrest said, employees have used GitHub Copilot, an AI-powered coding assistant, to help them generate code for the past couple of years, noticeably speeding up their output. He conceded 'AI initially might eliminate some roles, but it will enable other roles.' On the other hand, Njomane pointed to AI creating opportunities for independent studios to play a bigger role in content creation. The ethical and legal debate Aside from the impact on jobs, most reservations with integrating AI – particularly generative AI – in the creative industries involve ethics and the law. There is an ongoing murkiness surrounding where and how some AI companies acquire the datasets used to train algorithms which generate imagery. AI companies have been hit with dozens of lawsuits, largely based on copyright infringement. Just last month, Midjourney was sued by Disney and Universal, who alleged the generative AI company trained its model on their intellectual property, and generated images in violation of copyright law. In July, the European Union proposed new rules that would force companies to make publicly available summaries of the content used to train their algorithms. In January the US Copyright Office concluded that the output of generative AI could be copyright protected, but only when a human had contributed 'sufficient expressive elements' – and that inputting prompts alone did not meet the criteria. The African Union is a few paces behind forming concrete policy, but the issue featured prominently its 2024 AI strategy report. Triggerfish Animation Studios produced 'Aau's Song,' the final episode of volume two of Disney+ series 'Star Wars: Visions.' The short, which did not employ AI in its production, is infused with imagery harking back to South Africa, where Triggerfish has its headquarters. Lucasfilm A creative with no copyright on their work has few routes to make money from it. Okoye believes, for this reason and more, African animators should avoid web browser-based generative AIs and instead use AI in a localized workflow. Okoye uses software ComfyUI, into which she has fed drawings of her characters in different poses. 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Racial bias in AIs is well documented, from facial recognition technology recording much higher error rates among dark-skinned people than light-skinned, to large language models perpetuating negative stereotypes against speakers of African American English. Such 'techno-racism' extends into generative AI: artist Stephanie Dinkins even produced an exhibition out of AI's inability to accurately depict Black women. Okoye says in the past, some AIs have generated either generic or inaccurate imagery when prompted to create African characters. 'The only solution is to go local, create your characters, train your own model,' she reiterated. As for why AIs fall short, Forrest said that 'there is so little existing African content – especially in animation – that there is a lot less for (an AI) to understand.' Njomane pointed to AIs performing better in English and other Western languages, adding many often generate generic imagery of Africa. 'It's not being programmed with (Africans) in mind or even consulting them at all. And that's a huge problem.' A still from 'Anna Blume' (2010), a short film by Ebele Okoye visualizing 'An Anna Blume' (T'o Eve Blossom'), a 1919 poem by German Dadaist Kurt Schwitters. The project did not involve the use of AI. courtesy Ebele Okoye Okoye outlined a dream scenario in which development funds or angel investors back studios to create diverse African characters and culturally specific assets to train an AI model. That would generate a library of accurate, free-to-access imagery, which can serve as a foundation for animators to build on in a way that allows them to assert their copyright. Amid a boom in African animation, animators will need all the tools they can get, as studios look to replicate the success of series like 'Iwájú' and 'Iyanu' – Nigerian projects streaming on Disney+ and HBO Max respectively, signposting growing international appetite for Afro-centric storytelling. Despite the ongoing ethical kinks, Okoye remains optimistic. But as someone who once worked as a typesetter alongside colleagues worried for their careers with the arrival of the personal computer, she also understands people's concerns. 'Coming from (being) a typesetter to somebody who's training AI models – how beautiful,' she said. 'What a great time to be alive.'
CairoScene
10-07-2025
- CairoScene
Styled Archives: The MENA's Most Iconic Long Sleek Hair Looks to Date
The sleek long hair look is everything; it's fierce, it's girl-next-door, it's whatever you want it to be. Jul 10, 2025 Trends are, as we are now all well aware, cyclical. The return of ancient relics like dramatic bootcut jeans, excessively dark lip liner and, more recently, the moustache necklaces that dominated the early 2010s only goes to show that what goes around comes around. One hair trend that has made its way through the fashion cycle many, many times, is the long sleek hair look. It goes like this: straightened hair, beach curls, bob, straightened hair, beach curls, bob - potentially repeating until the end of time. The mullet makes an occasional appearance every three cycles, maybe. To celebrate the return of the sleek - sometimes fried - hair look, we've curated a list of iconic Arab celebrities sporting it across the years. Nancy Ajram | 'Betfakar Fi Eih' Music Video 2013 In this iconic music video, Nancy sports sleek hair and emo side bangs with an electric guitar she's not really playing to complete the look. Two years ago, we would've thought this was cringe, but now we kinda wanna replicate it. Somaya ElKhashab | Casino du Liban 2009 Somaya ElKhashab is the queen of long sleek hair. She's had it forever, and she'll probably keep it forever. We live to learn from her. Basma | Middle East International Film Festival 2008 At this screening, Egyptian actress Basma ditches her usual wide curls for a pin-straight look, and early 2000s side bangs. Latifa | Cannes Film Festival 2017 Tunisian singer Latifa bint Alaya El Arfaoui, more commonly known as just Latifa, is well known for her beautiful, long hair. It's a classic, and to her, it never goes out of style. Nadine Labaki | Venice Film Festival 2012 For jury duty at the Venice Film Festival, Nadine Labaki seemed to have chosen to intimidate the rest of the board, ditching her usual soft look for a fierce one. Sherihan | Fawazeer Ramadan 1989 The iconic Sherihan is known for her elaborate updos but, when off set, she lets her long hair loose to hang around her like a curtain. Yasmin Abdelaziz | Photoshoot 2007-2008 In this iconic shoot, Egyptian actress Yasmin Abdelaziz wears her long hair in a classic 2000s half-up, half-down look that compliments her very Y2K cami top. Elissa Khoury | Paris Fashion Week 2013 In this historical image, Elissa is pictured with designer Chantal Thomass, showcasing a lookbook of the most popular looks in history: a bob, and a sleek look. Haifa Wehbe | Cannes Film Festival (Premiere for Oceans Thirteen) 2007 Back in 2007, Haifa Wehbe arrived at the Cannes premiere of 'Ocean 13' looking as fierce as anyone on the cast. Mona Zaki | Venice International Film Festival 2009 Beloved Egyptian actress Mona Zaki showed up to the red carpet at the 66th edition of VIFF in a look that borders on the casual as a girl-next-door aesthetic, but is ultimately fashionable.
