Bar some inevitable late announcements, the lineup for the 79th edition of the Cannes Film Festival is all but set.
Last year saw Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi take home the coveted Palme d’Or for his film It Was Just an Accident, so who will it be this year?
How the Cannes Film Festival works
This year’s edition of the most prestigious film festival in all of cinema runs from 12 May to 23 May.
The films are divided into six categories: Competition, Out of Competition, Un Certain Regard, Midnight Screenings, Special Screenings, and Cannes Premiere.
The most important category, Competition, is watched over by a different jury each year.
At the end of the festival, an awards ceremony takes place, during which the jury presents prizes to their favourites from the Competition lineup.
The categories are: Palme d’Or for best film, Grand Prix, Jury Prize, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Screenplay, and sometimes a Special Prize if they feel something warrants mention.
This year, Korean director Park Chan-wook will act as jury president.
The festival received 2,541 feature submissions this year, 1,000 more than 10 years ago, but down from last year’s 2,909 submissions.
A few of the highlights
Cannes is always a good indicator of what to look forward to later this year, as these films could play a big part in the next award season.
First of the highlights is from the Oscar-winning Japanese director, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, whose new film All of a Sudden will premiere in Competition.
His two recent films, Drive My Car and Evil Does Not Exist, are a great indicator of why he is one of the finest working filmmakers.
For his first feature film since The Neon Demon 10 years ago, Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive, Pusher, Valhalla Rising) will premiere his newest trip, Her Private Hell, in the Out of Competition category.
The film stars Sophie Thatcher, Havana Rose Liu, Diego Calva, Dougray Scott, Kristine Froseth and Charles Melton.
Next, Jane Schoenbrun’s Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma will see its premiere in the Un Certain Regard category before its theatrical release in August.
This is the queer filmmaker’s third feature after We’re all Going to the World’s Fair and I Saw the TV Glow, and will star Hannah Einbinder, Gillian Anderson, Eva Victor and Patrick Fischler.
South Korean filmmaker Na Hong-jin will see his newest film since 2016’s sprawling horror, The Wailing, premiere in Competition.
Hope was described as a multi-genre film at today’s press conference, with hints of sci-fi, thriller and action.
The film stars Hwang Jung-min, Zo In-sung, Hoyeon, Taylor Russell, Alicia Vikander and Michael Fassbender.
Romanian filmmaker and previous Palme d’Or winner Cristian Mungiu (4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days) will have his newest film, Fjord, premiere in Competition at the festival.
It stars the two notable names of Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve.
To round off some of the highlights, Japanese auteur Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Cure, Pulse)
Will have his newest film, The Samurai and The Prisoner, reign in the Cannes Premiere category.
Notable omissions
There are still a few last-minute announcements to be made in the coming weeks, but there are still several films that, up until a few weeks ago, I would’ve thought to be locked into the lineup.
First is from Spanish filmmaker Albert Serra (Pacifiction, Afternoons of Solutide), whose film Out of this World was bound for a Competition slot, until this past few days, when it was confirmed the film was still in post-production, and would not make it to the south of France in time.
Other omissions include Ruben Östlund’s The Entertainment System is Down, Werner Herzog’s Bucking Fastard, James Gray’s Paper Tiger, Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Digger, and Lee Chang-dong’s Possible Love.
Some of these were confirmed not to be in the lineup a few weeks ago, but others are surprises.
One day, we can expect Terrance Malick’s The Way of the Wind, which has now spent seven years in post-production since its 2019 shoot, but this year is not the year.
Full lineup for the 79th Cannes Film Festival
Competition:
Minotaur, Andrey Zvyaginstev
The Beloved, Rodrigo Sorogoyen
The Man I Love, Ira Sachs
Fatherland, Pawel Pawlikowski
Moulin, Laszlo Nemes
The Birthday Party, Lea Mysius
Fjord, Cristian Mungiu
Notre Salut, Emmanuel Marre
Gentle Monster, Marie Kreutzer
Nagi Notes, Koji Fukada
Hope, Na Hong-jin
Sheep in the Box, Hirokazu Kore-eda
Another Day, Jeanne Herry
The Unknown, Arthur Harari
All of a Sudden, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi
The Dreamed Adventure, Valeska Grisebach
Coward, Lukas Dhont
The Black Ball, Javier Ambrossi, Javier Calvo
A Woman’s Life, Charline Bourgeois Tacquet
Parallel Tales, Asghar Farhadi
Bitter Christmas, Pedro Almodovar
Out of competition:
Diamond, Andy Garcia
Her Private Hell, Nicolas Winding Refn
L’Abandon, Vincenr Garenq
Karma, Guillaume Canet
L’Objet Du Delit, Agnes Jaoui
La Bataille de Gaulle: L’âge de Fer, Antonin Baudry
The Electric Kiss, Pierre Salvadori (opening film)
Midnight screenings:
Colony, Yeon Sang-ho
Roma Elastica, Bertrand Mandico
Sanguine, Marion Le Coroller
Full Phil, Quentin Dupieux
Jim Queen, Nicolas Athane, Marco Nguyen
Cannes Premiere:
Propeller One-Way Night Coach, John Travolta
The Samurai and The Prisoner, Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Visitation, Volker Schlondorff
When the Night Falls, Daniel Auteuil
The Match, Juan Cabral and Santiago Franco
Special Screenings:
Rehearsals for a Revolution, Pegah Ahangarani
Les Matins Merveilleux, Avril Besson
L’affaire Marie-Claire, Lauriane Escaffre, Yvo Muller
Avedon, Ron Howard
Les Survivants Du Che, Christophe Dimitri Réveille
John Lennon: The Last Interview, Steven Soderbergh
Cantona, David Tryhorn, Ben Nicholas
Un Certain Regard:
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, Jane Schoenbrun
Elephants in the Fog, Abinash Bikram Shah
Iron Boy, Louis Clichy
Ben’imana, Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo
Congo Boy, Rafiki Fariala
Club Kid, Jordan Firstman
Ula, Viesturs Kairišs
Strawberries, Laïla Marrakchi
The Meltdown, Manuela Martelli
Forever Your Maternal Animal, Valentina Maurel
Yesterday the Eye Didn’t Sleep, Rakan Mayasi
I’ll be Gone in June, Katharina Rivilis
Words of Love, Rudi Rosenberg
Everytime, Sandra Wollner
All the Lovers in the Night, Sode Yukiko
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