Malik Bendjelloul tribute planned for Cannes

Malik Bendjelloul’s Oscar-winning film Searching For Sugar Man is to be given a special screening during the Cannes Film festival in France as a tribute to the late director. The Swedish moviemaker was found dead in Stockholm on Tuesday (13May14) and his brother, Johar, has since suggested the director took his own life.
The tragedy hit headlines just a day before the annual movie event kicked off in France on Wednesday (14May14), and it has now emerged Bendjelloul’s film about reclusive Mexican folk singer Sixto Rodrigue will be shown during the festival on Sunday (18May14) as a tribute.
The special event will be hosted by the Swedish Film Institute.
Bendjelloul’s death has cast a shadow over the festivities at Cannes. Fellow Scandinavian director and Cannes jury panellist Nicolas Winding Refn was asked about him at a festival press conference on Wednesday, and he called his death a “very tragic affair”, adding, “He was a wonderful filmmaker, and I feel very sorry for what he’s left behind.”
Actor Gael Garcia Bernal, who is on the Cannes jury panel along with Winding Refn, also was shaken up by the news: “I met him last year at the Oscars. It’s very shocking news. I am very sad that it has to end like that.”