The Cannes Film Festival starts tomorrow, May 13th. To be honest, I wasn’t really looking forward to it. Post-pandemic, Cannes has sort of been a bummer, with too few A-listers showing up, and very little in the way of hedonistic partying and yacht-hopping. Cannes’ organizers have been trying to hype this year’s festival and I would imagine that many sponsors are looking elsewhere and thinking about possibly pulling their money from Cannes and putting that money into other festivals. Speaking of, Chopard is a major Cannes sponsor, and they have their own branded program with the festival, called Trophée Chopard. Winners of the Trophée Chopard are like up-and-coming actors or artists to watch, and the Trophée Chopard is basically a mentorship program too, where various A-listers are appointed “godparents” to the winners. Well, this year’s Trophée Chopard winners will have a special mentor/godmother: Angelina Jolie. And Angelina is going to show up in Cannes!

Angelina Jolie may be prepping to reprise her role as an evil stepmother in the next installment of the “Maleficent” series, but she will soon play godmother to this year’s Trophée Chopard winners Marie Colomb and Finn Bennett. The Oscar winner will be on hand in Cannes to present the annual award to the emerging actors, alongside film festival president Iris Knobloch, general delegate Thierry Frémaux, and Chopard copresident and artistic director Caroline Scheufele.

“I am so happy to welcome Angelina Jolie as our Trophée Chopard Godmother. Her amazing film career and dedication to making a difference in the world make her an ideal role model. I know the rising talents we honor this year will be inspired by her journey and advice,” said Scheufele.

“I am honored to be Godmother at the Cannes Film Festival. I am pleased to have a moment to recognize young artists and their exceptional work,” Jolie added. As is traditional for the godmother role, Jolie will offer the up-and-coming actors guidance through the year.

The Trophée is considered to be a particularly auspicious award, with previous winners including Léa Seydoux, Diane Kruger, Florence Pugh, Anya Taylor-Joy, James McAvoy and John Boyega. Winners such as Kruger, Seydoux and Marion Cotillard have returned as godmothers in later years.

Other stars including Demi Moore, Charlize Theron, Cate Blanchett, Julianne Moore, Julia Roberts, as well as Robert De Niro and Sean Penn, have also served as the mentors.

[From WWD]

I keep saying, Pablo Larrain’s Maria changed Angelina and it made her rethink her career. She’s taking on more acting roles and she seems interested in producing more of her own films too. Last fall and winter, she kept picking up lifetime achievement awards and special-recognition awards too. Anyway, I think it’s great that she’s going to Cannes this year and that she’ll be acting as a mentor to two young actors. Chopard is probably going to want to give her a lot of good jewelry for her appearances too. I hope she rocks up to some of the premieres as well!

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.