Cannes 2012 was the dampest festival in recent memory and one of the more muted. The Croisette – the main sea-front thoroughfare – was as crammed as ever but the European film industry is clearly feeling the pinch. The yachts seemed smaller this year, the restaurants emptier. The sales agents presenting new films in the market grumbled privately that Italian and Spanish distributors simply weren't buying any more.

The film-maker behind an anti-bullying documentary has won a battle with censors to have the movie's age certificate lowered, allowing children as young as 13 to see it.

Bérénice Bejo has until now been restricted to minor mainstream roles and sidekick parts in French farces. But Oscar buzz is growing thanks,somewhat oddly, to a black-and-white throwback to Hollywood's silent era.

A pleasant diversion from the current nastiness is in store, courtesy of Madonna, whose eagerly awaited (if only because everyone expects it to be hilariously awful) Wallis Simpson biopic W.E. will finally get an airing at the Toronto Film Festival next month – once Harvey Weinstein has finished his reportedly extensive re-cut. Madonna's previous brushes with cinema have been less than well received (eg, Swept Away), but a Grazia magazine source has seen an early screening and claims the film is "very pretty" and "looks nice", both of which are up there with "the lighting was good" in the faint praise stakes. Moreover, Ms Madonna has taken a few liberties with the historical record: in the film, Mrs Simpson loses an unborn baby when she is assaulted by her first husband; King Edward spikes the drinks at a party to "ramp up the high-jinks factor"; and the former dances the twist for the latter as he lies on his deathbed. None of these incidents is believed to have occurred. Still, The King's Speech was criticised by some for its inaccuracies, and its director won an Oscar. Stranger things have happened. (Not many, though.)

One of cinema's legends, the French New Wave's irresistible rogue and embodiment of cool, is back. Geoffrey Macnab reports

Nick Hamm pays tribute to actor's professionalism while he was battling cancer

When he picked up a golden statuette on Sunday, Colin Firth made sure to thank the man who made The King's Speech possible: independent film mogul Harvey Weinstein, who stumped up roughly half of the film's £9m budget and was responsible for masterminding its Oscar campaign.

Bedlam Productions’ co-founder Gareth Unwin explains how he took an unknown script and turned it into one of the most high profile British films of 2011.

The consortium vying to take control of Miramax Films has been asked to put up $40m to secure the deal, according to reports in the US.

It looks like 2010 is not Harvey's year.

Bafta winners Carey Mulligan and Colin Firth attended the aftershow bash hosted by The Weinstein Company and Universal Pictures at London's Momo.

J.D. Salinger was one of the great enigmas of literary history. For the last half-century, since he moved from his native Manhattan to Cornish, New Hampshire, he has lived in hermit-like reclusion, seldom seen by anyone from the outside world. His relations with the publishing and literary-critical fraternity have been fraught and often bitter, as he has sought, time after time, to fend off biographers, film-makers, interviewers, journalists and those who wish simply to quote from his works.

Notorious Hollywood reporter accuses film industry of forcing weekly magazine to 'dumb-down' revelatory profile

It's a shocking way to treat a man who went through the Holocaust and his wife's murder