The incredible true story
Cannes is in love with 'Loving,' a film about a powerful interracial romance that changed America - with many tipping it as a serious Oscar contender.
It tells the story of Richard and Mildred Loving, a couple whose interracial marriage sees them exiled from their Virginia home until they take their fight to the Supreme Court, ultimately wiping the last segregation laws off American books.
Their story - even the couple's shared name - is perfect stirring Hollywood fare. And yet, as People explained, it's all real - and absolutely extraordinary.
The couple fell in love as youngsters in Caroline County, north of Richmond, in an area with 'an easy-tolerance of the race question,' as Time magazine wrote in 1966.
But Virginia itself wasn't as relaxed, and its 1924 'Racial Integrity Act' forbade marriage between black and white couples.
So when they found out that Mildred, who was of African-American and Rappahannock Native American descent, was pregnant, they decided to go to Washington, DC, to get married.
They tied the knot on July 11, 1958, and returned to Virginia where, for a short while, things seemed to be okay.
But five weeks later, acting on a tip-off, the local sheriff and his deputies kicked down the door of their house. When Mildred said the couple were married, the sheriff replied 'That's no good here.'
The judge at their trial argued that God had placed different races on different continents, and this showed 'that he did not intend for the races to mix.'
He gave them a choice: Spend a year in prison or leave Virginia for 25 years.
The couple fled back to Washington. There they lived in near-poverty until 1965, when they were arrested after returning to Virginia to visit Mildred's parents.