HP Delivers Innovation Plus Diversity And Inclusion At The 71st Cannes Film Festival

In a watershed year, women are reshaping the entire film industry. To celebrate women’s achievements, HP is leveraging is presence at the 71st Cannes Film Festival and showcasing past and present female jury presidents, including Cate Blanchett, Sophia Loren and Isabelle Huppert in the HP Studio at the Majestic Hotel. HP is also bringing up-and-coming female filmmakers including Hazel Hayes and Eva Día to debut their films and talk about industry reinvention.

As the Official Partner for PC and print solutions, HP provides the Festival with critical technology and infrastructure to do everything from large format signage to equipping the Press Room to handle thousands of journalists from around the world. The company also plays host to a wide range of independent filmmakers and industry creatives, providing innovative technologies to help them tell their stories digitally. This year, HP is hosting a series of events and discussions at the Festival, exploring the role of technology and diversity in shaping the future of film and driving the next digital storytelling.

“HP has been working side by side with creatives and film pioneers for nearly 80 years to reinvent amazing films. Our first contribution was to Disney’s Fantasia, and HP has helped create visual effects for every Oscar-winning movie in the past 10 years,” said Nick Lazaridis, President, EMEA, HP Inc. “As we look to the future of film, the task is even larger. We want our technology to arm and empower diverse filmmakers who continue to reinvent the possibilities, while embracing key values like diversity and inclusion.”

HP Powers Manto to Cannes Limelight

In line with its focus on women in film, HP technology powered the production of the feature film Manto, set to screen as part of the prestigious Un Certain Regard category at this year’s Festival.

Written and directed by respected Indian actress and filmmaker Nandita Das, Manto is set in Partition-era India. HP workstation and printing technologies played a vital role in recreating 1940s India for film. Manto follows the most tumultuous years (1946-1950) in the life of Saadat Hasan Manto, one of the world’s greatest and most controversial short-story writers. A fearless maverick and feminist, Manto was determined to tell the stories of ordinary Indians – a group who lacked the voice and the means to tell their own story.

HP products were used to bring Manto to life, particularly in the editing and post-production of the film. These include the HP Z840 Workstation, built for high-end computing and visualization, the HP ZBook 15u Mobile Workstation, and the HP DreamColor Z32x Professional Display, which provides filmmakers, visual effects and animation studios with theater-quality color, accuracy and consistency. HP OfficeJet Pro and other HP printers were also used to create assets for the film, including newspapers of the period.

VR Experiences at NEXT

HP will showcase extraordinary virtual reality experiences at NEXT at the Marché du Film – the film market’s hub for creative business and visionary thinking. As virtual reality comes into more mainstream professional and entertainment use, filmmakers are digitally pushing the bounds of storytelling and are partnering with HP for the latest technologies. The VR showcase will include:

• A demonstration of the HP Z VR backpack – the most powerful wearable VR PC ever created, as well as HP Z Workstations and HP Windows Mixed Reality Headset Professional Edition
• A masterclass on Building the Future of VR Storytelling and Distribution

Featuring: Aaron Koblin, founder & CTO, and Colin Decker, COO, of WITHIN; moderated by Joanna Popper, Global Head of Virtual Reality, HP Inc. The masterclass will take place on Thursday, 10 May from 2:00-3:00 p.m.

• The opportunity to experience two exceptional VR experiences: Chorus, a multiplayer game, fromWITHIN and Being an Astronaut, a series of two VR experiences, featuring French aerospace engineer, pilot and European Space Agency astronaut, Thomas Pesquet.