Cannes Film Festival 2026: Lila Pinell’s ‘Shana’ and Pierre le Gall’s ‘Flesh and Fuel’

Lila Pinell’s narrative feature debut, Shana, playing in the Directors’ Fortnight at this year’s Cannes, revolves around a twentysomething with no filter, endless chutzpah, and nonstop boyfriend problems. From the film’s disorienting opening—in which Shana (Eva Huault), who appears to be the only white face in a diverse group of friends, storms out of a game involving werewolves—we’re thrown into the day-to-day life of a one-woman, slow-motion train wreck, as Shana approaches every delicate situation with hurricane force.

To read the rest visit Slant Magazine.

A Conversation With Nicole Bazuin And Andrea Werhun (MODERN WHORE)

Modern Whore, which world-premiered at TIFF, is the latest sex-work-destigmatizing project in an unusual multiyear collaboration between director Nicole Bazuin and the hybrid doc’s co-writer and star Andrea Werhun (who also served as a consultant on EP Sean Baker’s Anora). It’s based on Werhun’s book Modern Whore: A Memoir, which features Bazuin’s photos, and comes on the heels of Bazuin’s 2020 shorts Modern Whore and Last Night at the Strip Club, which likewise center on Werhun. In other words, this prolific pair have long been on a fierce artistic mission to bring the oldest and perhaps most misunderstood profession in the world out of the closet, and simultaneously slay some tired tropes in an inventively stylish and often cheeky manner along the way. A few days after the film’s May 1st VOD release (via Quiver Distribution), Hammer to Nail caught up with the Canadian duo to learn all about the productive partnership, along with what they’ve dubbed the “Modern Whore Cinematic Universe.”

To read my interview visit Hammer to Nail.