The 66th Cannes Film Festival is about half over now, so I thought I'd scrape together a few minutes, in-between shooting interviews with the filmmakers and casts of most of the major films here, to share with you my assessment of the way things are going over here.

The Hollywood Reporter provides an exclusive first look at Daniel Noah's new drama Max Rose, which will have its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on Thursday evening.

Only a couple of years ago, I was beginning to wonder if the Cannes Film Festival had become virtually irrelevant to the Oscar race. While only two Palme d'Or winners, both released over a half-century ago, have ever gone on to win the best picture Oscar -- The Lost Weekend (1945) and Marty (1955) -- the rest of the lineup, in most years since the fest's founding 67 years ago, has included at least a few titles that went on to strong Oscar showings.

But, heading into 2011, even that was no longer a given. Indeed, only two of the previous 30 best picture Oscar winners had even played at Cannes, Chariots of Fire (1981) and No Country for Old Men (2007), and only one of the previous 14 Palme d'Or winners had even been nominated for the best picture Oscar, The Pianist (2002). As a result of its May dates, Cannes seemed to be losing many top contenders to the Telluride and Toronto film fests, which take place in September, closer to the end of the year, when awards voters fill out their ballots.

The Hollywood Reporter here provides an exclusive first look at James Toback's new documentary Seduced and Abandoned, which will have its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on Monday evening.

I recently sat down with my friend Didier Allouch, the Hollywood correspondent for the French premium pay television channel Canal+ and a veteran of the last 26 editions of the Cannes Film Festival, and asked him to identify the five films slated for the 2013 fest about which he is most excited.

Didier makes his selections -- which include a black-and-white film, a film without dialogue and a Japanese thriller -- and offers detailed explanations for them.

CBS and the Recording Academy have scheduled the 2014 and 2015 Grammy Awards.

The 56th annual Grammys will again be held at Staples Center in Los Angeles on Sunday, Jan. 26, starting at 8 p.m. EST on CBS, with the delayed West Coast broadcast set for 8 p.m. PST. Eligibility for the 2014 ceremony is Oct. 1, 2012-Sept. 30, 2013.

The 57th annual Grammys will be held Sunday, Feb. 8, 2015.

The 2013 Grammys attracted 28.3 million viewers, the second-largest Grammy audience since 1993.