KIRILL SEREBRENNIKOV

The war in Ukraine took a starring role on the opening night of the 75th Cannes Film Festival and it has rarely been far out of frame since.

Filmmaker Agnieszska Holland, president of the European Film Academy, criticized the festival for including Kirill Serebrennikov’s 'Tchaikovsky’s Wife," calling for a boycott of all Russian cultural imports in response to the war in Ukraine.

France Cannes 2022 Signage for the 75th Cannes international film festival is seen prior to the start of the festival in Cannes, southern France, Monday, May 16, 2022. The Cannes film festival runs from May 17 until May 28. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP) (Vianney Le Caer)CANNES, France — (AP) — The last two times the Russian filmmaker Kirill Serebrennikov had films playing at the Cannes Film Festival, he couldn't attend. Last year, Serebrennikov, one of Russia's most celebrated directors of film and theater, appeared at a Cannes press conference by FaceTime. “I take filmmaking and theater-making and culture-making as a big, vast statement against war,” Serebrennikov said in an interview Wednesday on a Palais des Festivals balcony ahead of his film's premiere.

The Russian filmmaker Kirill Serebrennikov, one of the few Russian filmmakers at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, says “art is always against war.”

The Russian filmmaker Kirill Serebrennikov, one of the few Russian filmmakers at this year's Cannes Film Festival, says “art is always against war."

The 75th Cannes Film Festival plans to host some 35,000 people as the movie industry looks to reclaim its pre-pandemic glamour.

With tensions around the war in Ukraine as a backdrop, the Cannes Film Festival plans to host some 35,000 people as the movie industry looks to reclaim its pre-pandemic glamour.

The cultural backlash against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is intensifying.

APTOPIX France Cannes 2021 Petrov's Flu Photo Call Yury Kolokolnikov, from left, Chulpan Khamatova, Ivan Dorn, and Yulia Peresild pose for photographers at the photo call for the film 'Petrov's Flu' at the 74th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Tuesday, July 13, 2021. Serebrennikov phoned into the red-carpet premiere of his film, “Petrov's Flu,” by FaceTime and spoke to the media on Tuesday by Zoom. A seat was left open for the 51-year-old director when “Petrov's Flu” premiered Monday in Cannes. It wasn't the first time Serebrennikov was forced to miss a Cannes premiere. On the Cannes red carpet, cast members and producers wore badges with the director’s photo and initials.

Russian filmmaker Kirill Serebrennikov is banned from leaving his home country but phoned into his Cannes Film Festival premiere by FaceTime and spoke to the media by Zoom.

Russian film and theater director Kirill Serebrennikov wearing a protective face mask sits prior to his court hearing at the Meshchansky court in Moscow, Russia, Friday, June 26, 2020. A court in Moscow is expected to deliver a verdict on Friday to the acclaimed theater director accused of embezzling state funds, in a case widely seen as politically motivated. (AP Photo)MOSCOW A Moscow judge convicted an acclaimed Russian theater director of embezzling state funds and imposed a three-year suspended sentence Friday in a case widely seen as politically motivated. Serebrennikov had rejected the accusations as absurd; many in Russia saw the charges as punishment for his anti-establishment views. The director spent almost two years under house arrest between August 2017 and April 2019.