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7 reasons why it's awesome that Pedro Almodóvar was chosen as president of Cannes.

Pedro Almodóvar is a legend.

He was born in Spain three years after the first Cannes Film Festival. In the subsequent 67 years of his life, he has pushed the creative envelope of screenwriting and filmmaking. His influence is truly global, and his films consistently have echoed social themes for over 30 years.

Almodóvar being selected as the president of the jury for the 2017 Cannes Film Festival is significant for many reasons.

Photo by Pascal Guyot/AFP/Getty Images.

1. He is the first Spaniard to earn the honor.

In the festival's illustrious 70-year existence, presidents of the jury have hailed from many countries: France, USA, U.K., Belgium, Japan, Austria, Germany, Italy, Guatemala, Sweden, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Serbia and Montenegro, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada.

Now, Spain finally gets to join that company. And Almodóvar is taking it very seriously.

"I am very happy to be able to celebrate the Festival de Cannes 70th anniversary from such a privileged position. I am grateful, honoured and a bit overwhelmed. I am aware of the responsibility that entails being the president of the jury and I hope to be up to the job. I can only tell that I’ll devote myself, body and soul, to this task, that it is both a privilege and a pleasure."

2. It's rarified company.

Some of the past presidents include Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Jeanne Morneau, Luc Besson, Kirk Douglas, Milos Forman, Louis Malle, Ingrid Bergman, and Tennessee Williams.

3. His work has been a staple at Cannes for 30 years.

His movies don't just "get in to Cannes." They are consistently in the running for the Palme d'Or, the highest prize at the festival. -

"La Mala Educatión." Photo by AFP/Getty Images.

4. His work has been cutting-edge since day one.

Black comedy/drama is an understatement when it comes to Almodóvar's work. He draws you in with luscious colors, framing, and scenery while shaking you awake with themes of identity, political freedom, and passion. His new film "Julieta" has received mass critical acclaim.

"All About My Mother." Photo by Dreamworks.

5. His mantel is overflowing with awards.

He is considered one of — if not the most — successful Spanish filmmakers of all time. He has won two Oscars, three Goya Awards, seven European Film Awards, four BAFTAs, four Cannes prizes, one Italian Golden Globe, and many more.

But that's not all. Other highlights include: the French Legion of Honor, a Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts from the Spanish Ministry of Culture, selection as a foreign honorary member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and honorary doctoral degrees from HarvardandOxford universities. And many more.

It's a really, really big fireplace.

6. He's a president the world is actually excited about!

With all the news inundating us, we get to celebrate a universally liked celebrity getting the recognition he deserves.

Photo by Kena Betancur/AFP/Getty Images.

7. Diversity is (finally) getting more recognition this year.

A Spaniard finally being recognized as president of the jury and the Oscars making history this year with a black actor nominated in every major acting category are just two signs of progress for diversity in the arts.

In the scheme of the recent barrage of events that we've been subjected to as new subjects this pales in comparison. A judge at a posh film festival in an overpriced tourist town in France wouldn't normally make for breaking news. But I'll take the smallest of victories wherever I can to try to find some true escapism, in real life and on the silver screen.

Community

How to end hunger, according to the people who face it daily

Here’s what people facing food insecurity want you to know about solving the hunger problem in America

True

Even though America is the world’s wealthiest nation, about 1 in 6 of our neighbors turned to food banks and community programs in order to feed themselves and their families last year. Think about it: More than 9 million children faced hunger in 2021 (1 in 8 children).

In order to solve a problem, we must first understand it. Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization, released its second annual Elevating Voices: Insights Report and turned to the experts—people experiencing hunger—to find out how this issue can be solved once and for all.

Here are the four most important things people facing hunger want you to know.

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Pets

Family brings home the wrong dog from daycare until their cats saved the day

A quick trip to the vet confirmed the cats' and family's suspicions.

Fox 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul|YouTube

Family accidentally brings wrong dog home but their cats knew

It's not a secret that nearly all golden retrievers are identical. Honestly, magic has to be involved for owners to know which one belongs to them when more than one golden retriever is around. Seriously, how do they all seem have the same face? It's like someone fell asleep on the copy machine when they were being created.

Outside of collars, harnesses and bandanas, immediately identifying the dog that belongs to you has to be a secret skill because at first glance, their personalities are also super similar. That's why it's not surprising when one family dropped off their sweet golden pooch at daycare and to be groomed, they didn't notice the daycare sent out the wrong dog.

See, not even their human parents can tell them apart because when the swapped dog got home, nothing seemed odd to the owners at first. She was freshly groomed so any small differences were quickly brushed off. But this accidental doppelgänger wasn't fooling her feline siblings.

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switched at dog daycare
Family

Woman 'kidnaps' her baby to teach lazy husband a scary lesson

Did she go too far?

via Kroshka_Nastya/Freepik

A guy passes out on his bed eating pizza.

A 29-year-old woman had a baby girl, and after a brief maternity leave, she had to return to work. She couldn't afford childcare, so her husband, 35, reluctantly agreed to watch the baby while she was at work.

“It’s important to know that he’s been unemployed since 2021,” the woman wrote on Reddit’s AITA subforum. “He receives benefits. It’s also important to know that he’s extremely lazy. He doesn’t cook, clean, or help out in any way. I was nervous about leaving her home with her father, but I had no choice.”

The mother had reason to be worried about leaving her baby home alone with her husband, but in the beginning, things seemed fine. “When I came back from work, she was clean and sleeping. The next few times I came home, he was either playing with her, feeding her, or out for a walk with her. I was happy,” she wrote.

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moms
Family

Mom has the perfect response to teen son who refuses to do 'girl' chores

What exactly are "girl" chores, anyway?

via Krampus Production/Pexels

A boy doing the dishes.

A 41-year-old mom with 3 boys, 12-year-old twins, and a 10-year-old, pays them $10 daily to do their chores. However, their pay is deducted $10 if they miss a day. The boys have to do their tasks 5 days a week, although it doesn’t matter which days they choose to work.

“This system has worked swimmingly for us since it started, the boys have always complied with completing their chores,” the mom wrote on Reddit.

Her 12-year-old son was getting ready to play Fortnite with a friend and told him he’d be ready in 15 minutes once he finished his chores. When the boys started playing the game, he told the friend he was in charge of dusting and sweeping the stairs, to which the friend responded, “It’s a good thing my parents don’t make me do girl chores.”

After learning what the friend said, the mom told her son that chores are genderless.

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parenting
Health

Women do better when they have a group of strong female friends, study finds

We're stronger together.

Photo by Omar Lopez on Unsplash

Women do better when they have female friends.

Madeleine Albright once said, "There is a special place in hell for women who don't help other women." It turns out that might actually be a hell on Earth, because women just do better when they have other women to rely on, and there's research that backs it up.

A study published in the Harvard Business Review found that women who have a strong circle of friends are more likely to get executive positions with higher pay. "Women who were in the top quartile of centrality and had a female-dominated inner circle of 1-3 women landed leadership positions that were 2.5 times higher in authority and pay than those of their female peers lacking this combination," Brian Uzzi writes in the Harvard Business Review.

Part of the reason why women with strong women backing them up are more successful is because they can turn to their tribe for advice. Women have to face different challenges than men, such as unconscious bias, and being able to turn to other women who have had similar experiences can help you navigate a difficult situation. It's like having a road map for your goals.

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women
Joy

​Man goes all out for his squirrel neighbors, 'Richard' and 'Maxine,' and it's too sweet

His videos are like therapy.

@derrickdowneyjr/TikTok

Derrick Downey Jr. has been dubbed the 'squirrel whisperer.'

Most of us who live in the U.S. are used to looking out a window or walking out our front door and seeing squirrels. The cute, fluffy-tailed rodents often appear perfectly pettable, but they generally scamper away when humans get too close.

That is not the case for TikTok creator Derrick Downey Jr., however, as he has not only befriended his neighborhood squirrels but goes all out to help them live their best squirrel lives.

Downey shared a video in May of 2022 in which he chats with a couple of squirrels on his porch while feeding them and offering them water. That video received over 26 million views and kicked off a whole series of videos showcasing the adorable antics of Richard, Maxine, Hector, Consuela, Norma (may she rest in peace), and Hood Rat Raymond. He's built Richard a house, rescued Maxine's babies, mourned Norma's transition (to wherever squirrels go when they die) and more.

People can't get enough, and who can blame them? Squirrels are the best (when they're not tearing up your patio furniture and stealing cotton for their nest, as Downey has experienced.)

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animal friends
Education

Voice recordings of people who were enslaved offer incredible first-person accounts of U.S. history

"The results of these digitally enhanced recordings are arresting, almost unbelievable. The idea of hearing the voices of actual slaves from the plantations of the Old South is as powerful—as startling, really—as if you could hear Abraham Lincoln or Robert E. Lee speak." - Ted Koppel

Library of Congress

When we think about the era of American slavery, many of us tend to think of it as the far distant past. While slavery doesn't exist as a formal institution today, there are people living who knew formerly enslaved black Americans first-hand. In the wide arc of history, the legal enslavement of people on U.S. soil is a recent occurrence—so recent, in fact, that we have voice recordings of interviews with people who lived it.

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history
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