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Scarlett Johansson’s Directorial Debut, Spotlighting Holocaust Survivors, Gets 5-Minute Ovation at Cannes
Director Scarlett Johansson poses during a photocall for the film “Eleanor the Great” in competition for the category Un Certain Regard at the 78th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, May 21, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Stephane Mahe
Scarlett Johansson’s feature directorial debut “Eleanor the Great” earned the Jewish filmmaker and her cast a five-minute standing ovation on Tuesday during its world premiere at the 78th Cannes Film Festival in France.
The film, competing in the Un Certain Regard category at Cannes, stars June Squibb, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Erin Kellyman, and Israeli actress and real-life Holocaust survivor Rita Zohar. “Eleanor the Great” revolves around Eleanor Morgenstein (Squibb), a 94-year-old who moves from Florida to New York after the death of her friend Bessie (Zohar), who was a Holocaust survivor.
In New York, Eleanor stumbles into a support group for Holocaust survivors and decides to join by telling a fake story that captivates Nina (Kellyman), a 19-year-old journalism student who is sitting in on the group. Eleanor is longing for connection and the two women develop a friendship that is based on Eleanor’s deception. Ejiofor plays Nina’s father, and “Breaking Bad” actress Jessica Hecht is Eleanor’s daughter.
“Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut is a comically poignant exploration of how the stories we hear become the stories we tell,” read a synopsis of the film provided by the Cannes Film Festival.
“It’s a film about many things: it’s about friendship, it’s about grief, it’s about forgiveness. And I think those are all themes that we can use a lot more of these days,” Johansson said at the Cannes premiere of “Eleanor the Great,” according to Variety. “It’s a film that I feel is historic and also very timely now, and so I hope that you all carry it with you the way that I carry Eleanor with me.”
Johansson’s maternal family is Jewish, with roots in Eastern Europe. She discovered in 2017 that she had relatives who died in the Warsaw Ghetto during the Holocaust.
Johansson previously directed the 2009 short film “These Vagabond Shoes.” She is at Cannes this year also as a cast member of Wes Anderson’s “The Phoenician Scheme,” and attended Cannes in 2023 for Anderson’s film “Asteroid City.”
The 2025 edition of the Cannes Film Festival runs from May 13-24.
The post Scarlett Johansson’s Directorial Debut, Spotlighting Holocaust Survivors, Gets 5-Minute Ovation at Cannes first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Readies for a Nationwide Strike on Sunday
Demonstrators hold signs and pictures of hostages, as relatives and supporters of Israeli hostages kidnapped during the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas protest demanding the release of all hostages in Tel Aviv, Israel, Feb. 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Itai Ron
i24 News – The families of Israeli hostages held in Gaza are calling on for a general strike to be held on Sunday in an effort to compel the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to a deal with Hamas for the release of their loved ones and a ceasefire. According to Israeli officials, 50 hostages now remain in Gaza, of whom 20 are believed to be alive.
The October 7 Council and other groups representing bereaved families of hostages and soldiers who fell since the start of the war declared they were “shutting down the country to save the soldiers and the hostages.”
While many businesses said they would join the strike, Israel’s largest labor federation, the Histadrut, has declined to participate.
Some of the country’s top educational institutions, including the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv University, declared their support for the strike.
“We, the members of the university’s leadership, deans, and department heads, hereby announce that on Sunday, each and every one of us will participate in a personal strike as a profound expression of solidarity with the hostage families,” the Hebrew University’s deal wrote to students.
The day will begin at 6:29 AM, to commemorate the start of the October 7 attack, with the first installation at Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square in Tel Aviv. Further demonstrations are planned at dozens of traffic intersections.
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Netanyahu ‘Has Become a Problem,’Says Danish PM as She Calls for Russia-Style Sanctions Against Israel
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to the press on Capitol Hill, Washington, DC, July 8, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
i24 News – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has become a “problem,” his Danish counterpart Mette Frederiksen said Saturday, adding she would try to put pressure on Israel over the Gaza war.
“Netanyahu is now a problem in himself,” Frederiksen told Danish media, adding that the Israeli government is going “too far” and lashing out at the “absolutely appalling and catastrophic” humanitarian situation in Gaza and announced new homes in the West Bank.
“We are one of the countries that wants to increase pressure on Israel, but we have not yet obtained the support of EU members,” she said, specifying she referred to “political pressure, sanctions, whether against settlers, ministers, or even Israel as a whole.”
“We are not ruling anything out in advance. Just as with Russia, we are designing the sanctions to target where we believe they will have the greatest effect.”
The devastating war in Gaza began almost two years ago, with an incursion into Israel of thousands of Palestinian armed jihadists, who perpetrated the deadliest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.
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As Alaska Summit Ends With No Apparent Progress, Zelensky to Meet Trump on Monday
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks at the press conference after the opening session of Crimea Platform conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, 23 August 2023. The Crimea Platform – is an international consultation and coordination format initiated by Ukraine. OLEG PETRASYUK/Pool via REUTERS
i24 News – After US President Donald Trump hailed the “great progress” made during a meeting with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday, Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky announced that he was set to meet Trump on Monday at the White House.
“There were many, many points that we agreed on, most of them, I would say, a couple of big ones that we haven’t quite gotten there, but we’ve made some headway,” Trump told reporters during a joint press conference after the meeting.
Many observers noted, however, that the subsequent press conference was a relatively muted affair compared to the pomp and circumstance of the red carpet welcome, and the summit produced no tangible progress.
Trump and Putin spoke briefly, with neither taking questions, and offered general statements about an “understanding” and “progress.”
Putin, who spoke first, agreed with Trump’s long-repeated assertion that Russia never would have invaded Ukraine in 2022 had Trump been president instead of Democrat Joe Biden.
Trump said “many points were agreed to” and that “just a very few” issues were left to resolve, offering no specifics and making no reference to the ceasefire he’s been seeking.