Academy Awards night is 10 months away, but the first shots in the campaign for next year's Oscars were fired by Harvey Weinstein, the redoubtable co-chairman of the powerful American distribution; company Miramax, at a very entertaining dinner at the Chateau Piper Heidsick up in the Cannes hills on Tuesday.
Miramax, it will be remembered, swept the board at this year's Oscars with a total of 12 awards, including nine for The English Patient.
Never known for his reticence, Harvey is already blowing the trumpet for his latest acquisition, Mrs Brown, starring Judi Dench as Queen Victoria and Billy Connolly as her Scottish servant, John Brown. The two stars, and the director, John Madden, were the guests of honour at the dinner.
As we washed down our smoked salmon, caviar and blinis with some fine wines, John Madden rose to thank his host, to which Harvey yelled, "See you in the Dorothy Chandler in March", a reference to the venue for next year's Oscars.
Other guests included Billy Connolly's wife, Pamela Stephenson, and Kevin Wenton and Nigel Warren-Green of Irish Screen, who were delighted to have invested in a movie which has been one of the most popular successes at Cannes this year.