In this conversation at the 79th Festival de Cannes, Anupama Chopra sits down with Oscar-winning actor, producer and UNHCR Global Goodwill Ambassador Cate Blanchett, alongside two filmmakers from the second cohort of the Displacement Film Fund — Palestinian-American comedian, actor and filmmaker Mo Amer, and South Sudanese filmmaker Akuol de Mabior. The fund, co-founded by Cate with the International Film Festival Rotterdam's Hubert Bals Fund, supports displaced filmmakers and filmmakers alive to the experience of displacement with €100,000 production grants for short films. Cate speaks about why the work matters now more than ever, why the average displacement lasts upwards of nineteen or twenty years, and why she remains adamant that audiences want these stories — they are simply not given the chance to see them because the industry doesn't know how to market them. Mo, whose short film follows a Palestinian standup comedian navigating immigration rules on a world tour, talks about how writing is a savings account you don't know when you will withdraw from, about the relentless example of his mother — who got the family out of Kuwait during a second generational displacement — and about why his Arab household reaction to becoming an artist was very different from Cate's son announcing he wants to be an actor. Akuol speaks about the inspiration that struck the moment Cate called, about how witnessing other people cope teaches us to remain hopeful, and about the dreams from South Sudan, East Africa and beyond that still need this art form to reach the world. The three close with what gives them hope for cinema in an algorithm-driven, theatre-shrinking moment: the audiences, the dreamers, and the artists who, contrary to popular belief, are not snowflakes but some of the most resilient, solution-focused people in the world. #CateBlanchett #DisplacementFilmFund #Cannes2026