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Séamas McSwiney has decades of experience in film journalism, and work published in top international publications. As our guest film correspondent he has been sending us special reports from the Cannes 2014 film festival.

The final red carpet parade up the steps of the Cannes Palais for the awards ceremony took place exceptionally on a Saturday this year. Cinema and politics synchronised and the calendar was adjusted because the French EU elections were on Sunday. Quentin and Uma showed up for the 20th anniversary of the Pulp Fiction Palme d'Or in 1994. And to the delight of some and the exasperation of others Tarantino presented the closing film a new HD copy of Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars for its 50th anniversary. Cannes eschews consensus to the very last screening.

Séamas McSwiney has decades of experience in film journalism, and work published in top international publications. As our guest film correspondent he will be sending us special reports from the Cannes 2014 film festival.

More than halfway through and it's time to look back and forward to see if we can spot winners and thematic trends among the films in competition. The kick-off topic was the perennial Woman in Film debate; both in front of the camera and behind it, what is made of women's identity and if women get enough opportunity to give their vision.

Italy's Alice Rohrwacher's The Wonders and Japan's Naomi Kawase's Still The Water both employ the mysteries of mother nature as a sounding board for human nature. The former does so in a hippie-ish pastoral Tuscan environment involving beekeeping, the latter on a storm lashed island in Japan as it explores fishing, death and the depths of human fidelity. Both films contrast the intelligence of boys and girls. Guess who come out best? Both are free flowing, individualistic and stylistically ambitious; audience patience is rewarded ...or not.

Séamas McSwiney has decades of experience in film journalism, and work published in top international publications. As our guest film correspondent he will be sending us special reports from the Cannes 2014 film festival.

‘GIRLS JUST WANNA HAVE FILM! What place for women in today's film industry?' This was the catchy title of the European Audiovisual Industry's annual workshop conference at Cannes this year. The UKFilm pavilion held a similar debate a day before. And these are but two of many expressions of discontent regarding the presence and the place of women in the film industry. Such rumblings are neither new nor unjustified in the face of the statistics and tendencies.

A favourite among film feminists (of both sexes) is the one regarding the depiction of women or the famous Bechdel Test (Google it). Basically, for a film to pass this test, "it has to have at least two women in it, who talk to each other, about something besides a man." It is surprising the number of films that don't pass.

Still Cannes does its best to redress the imbalance in its own way. Thierry Fremaux (the Festival's director) insists that he favours films from women when the quality justifies it, claiming that a higher proportion of female directed films are selected than are proposed to him.

Imagine going to Paris to watch television! For some, such a impious prospect will make perfect sense over the coming week.

Nowadays, most of us know that TV drama is the new cinema; actors love it because they can get their thespian teeth into meatier roles, writers have a broader and more diverse canvas to write great TV novels, and audiences can go episode by episode or binge watch as their fancy takes them. Top-notch directors from Martin Scorsese, to David Fincher, to Danny Boyle are prime movers in the revived game.

Scandinavians are having a field day; Israelis are innovating. Cable and Internet technology has played its role: HBO was the original champion of this renewal, now joined by Netflix, Orange, Microsoft and hosts of others. Everybody is winning and the quality just gets better by the year.

So it's perfectly normal that Paris, the capital of world cinema, from 22nd - 30th April should be presenting the 5th edition of Series Mania at the Forum des Images in the centre of the city. It is a unique event where we get to see previews of first and second episodes of top drawer TV series from around the world as well as meet their creators, the famous show runners of legend.

Séamas McSwiney has decades of experience in film journalism, and work published in some top international publications. As our guest film correspondent he will be sending us special reports from the Cannes 2014 film festival, starting with this preview.

It's that time of year again, where Glamour, Art and Business get together on the Riviera, in search of attention, glory and profit.

The press conference to announce the fifty or so films in the Official Selection of the Festival de Cannes, (Competition, Un Certain Regard, Out-of-Competition, Midnight screenings, etc) was a jovial event, it being the last over which Gilles Jacob would preside.

He and the General Delegate, Thierry Frémaux, were sat beside the official posters featuring a shot of Marcello Mastroianni from Fellini's 8½. He's the Cannes ‘poster boy' to counter the recent series of alluring actresses who have adorned recent years' posters, considered by some to be a tad sexist. Marcello is therefore this year's ‘male object' for the ogling eyes of all admirers.