Cannes Film Festival attendees are cordially invited to a free special event — presented by The Hollywood Reporter and Campari — on Saturday, May 20, at 1:30pm Cannes time, in the Campari Lounge of the Palais: a live hourlong recording of THR’s Awards Chatter podcast, followed by a cocktail reception, with the Oscar-winning actress Alicia Vikander.
There is limited space at this event. Anyone wishing to attend must RSVP via this link by 11am on Friday, May 19.
During the podcast recording, the 34-year-old Swede will be interviewed by yours truly about her life, career and the film that brings her to the Croisette this year: Karim Aïnouz’s Firebrand, in which she portrays Katherine Parr, the sixth and final wife of King Henry VIII (Jude Law).
Vikander is best known for her performances on film in 2010’s Pure, 2012’s Anna Karenina and A Royal Affair; 2013’s The Fifth Estate, 2014’s Testament of Youth; 2015’s The Danish Girl and Ex Machina, 2016’s Jason Bourne and The Light Between Oceans, 2017’s Tulip Fever, 2018’s Tomb Raider, 2020’s The Glorias and 2021’s Blue Bayou and The Green Knight. She also starred in and served as an executive producer of the 2022 HBO limited series Irma Vep, for which she is currently Emmy-eligible.
Vikander was previously a guest on the Awards Chatter podcast back in 2016. Since the podcast’s debut in 2015, other notable showbiz guests have included Steven Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey, Lorne Michaels, Meryl Streep, George Clooney, Barbra Streisand, Robert De Niro, Angelina Jolie, Eddie Murphy, Gal Gadot, Warren Beatty, Jennifer Lawrence, Snoop Dogg, Julia Roberts, Stephen Colbert, Reese Witherspoon, Aaron Sorkin, Margot Robbie, Ryan Reynolds, Nicole Kidman, Denzel Washington, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Adam Sandler, Tina Fey, Billie Eilish and Finneas, Matthew McConaughey, Kate Winslet, Jimmy Kimmel, Natalie Portman, Kevin Hart, Jennifer Lopez, Elton John, Judi Dench, Quincy Jones, Jane Fonda, Tom Hanks, Michelle Pfeiffer, Justin Timberlake, Sandra Oh, RuPaul, Cate Blanchett, Jimmy Fallon, Renee Zellweger, Michael Moore, Selena Gomez, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Helen Mirren, Tyler Perry, Sally Field, Spike Lee, Lady Gaga, J.J. Abrams, Emma Stone, Al Pacino, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Jerry Seinfeld, Dolly Parton, Will Smith, Kerry Washington, Sacha Baron Cohen, Carol Burnett, Norman Lear, Keira Knightley, David Letterman, Sophia Loren, Hugh Jackman, Melissa McCarthy, Ken Burns, Jodie Foster, Conan O’Brien, Amy Adams, Ben Affleck, Zendaya, Will Ferrell, Sacha Baron Cohen, Glenn Close, Michael B. Jordan, Jessica Chastain, Jay Leno, Lizzo, Kevin Feige, Penelope Cruz, Daniel Craig, Michelle Yeoh, Bryan Cranston, Elisabeth Moss and Vince Vaughn.
Meanwhile, guests of the podcast who are best known for things other than showbiz have included Bill Gates, Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, Malala Yousafzai, Buzz Aldrin, Jane Goodall, José Andrés, Gloria Steinem, Marie Kondo, Newton Minow, Fran Lebowitz, Ben Ferencz, Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, Kazuo Ishiguro, Dan Rather, Dick Cavett, Harry Reid, Dick Costolo, Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant.
Only a handful of Awards Chatter episodes have previously been recorded in front of audiences: Léa Seydoux in Cannes; Al Pacino and Shohreh Aghdashloo in Hollywood; Richard Linklater at SXSW; Liev Schreiber at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival; Machine Gun Kelly at the Savannah Film Festival; Adam Sandler and Eddie Redmayne at the Newport Beach International Film Festival; Cate Blanchett and Martin McDonagh at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival; F. Murray Abraham at the Boulder International Film Festival; and Denis Villeneuve, Halle Berry, Asghar Farhadi, Dakota Johnson, David Chase, Harvey Keitel, Courteney Cox, Colin Farrell, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Brendan Fraser, Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, Austin Butler and the cast of Squid Game at Chapman University.