On the morning of April 14, the Cannes Film Festival unveiled the films competing for the Palme d’Or, screening in the Un Certain Regard section and playing out of competition. Some of these films will go onto win Oscars, others will be violently maligned. Some will make history, while others will disappear, never to be heard of again.
Although I knew ahead of time that Martin Scorsese’s seventeenth century period-drama, Silence, wouldn’t make it into the official lineup, I was disappointed that some of my most anticipated films weren’t a part of the announcements. Terrence Malick, who has become very prolific after his Oscar-nominated Tree Of Life, was expected to have at least one of his upcoming releases play the festival, either his IMAX documentary Voyage of Time or Weightless, a “story” of two love triangles set against the SXSW music scene. The Iranian New Wave director, Asghar Farhadi, won’t have his untitled project in competition as some speculated. Ditto for Derek Cianfrance’s The Light Between The Oceans, his follow-up To The Place Beyond The Pines, starring Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander.
As is the case with every Cannes lineup, auteurs are very well represented. New films by Olivier Assayas and the Dardenne brothers will play in competition. Jeff Nichols’ Midnight Special opened in theaters last month, yet his new film Loving, starring Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga, is set to have its world premiere in about a month’s time. Ken Loach said he was going to retire after finishing Jimmy’s Hall, but the 80-year-old English director will be returning to Cannes with I, Daniel Blake.
The lineup definitely skews toward older, male filmmakers, but a few films made by female directors made the cut. One of the surprises of yesterday’s announcement was the inclusion of Maren Ade’s Toni Erdmann, which is one of only three films directed by women in competition.
Xavier Dolan shared a prize with Jean-Luc Godard last time he came to Cannes, and It’s Only the End of the World, which is his first collaboration with the great Marion Cotillard, might just take home the prestigious Palme this time around.
Those lucky enough to be going to Cannes come May will get a jolt out of the new provocations by art-house sleaze artist, Paul Verhoeven, who hasn’t made anything since Black Book opened in 2007. Elle, Verhoeven’s return to the thriller genre, will be his first film to compete at Cannes since Basic Instinct premiered in 1992. Nicholas Winding Refn didn’t have to wait that long to have another film competing at Cannes, despite the fact that his previous film, Only God Forgives, was symphonically booed at its screening in 2013. Refn’s new horror film, The Neon Demon, starring Elle Fanning, will perplex, stupify and provoke if it’s trailer is any close representation of what is in store. Steven Spielberg’s fantasy movie, BFG, will provide some much needed levity as it screens out of competition, along with Shane Black’s The Nice Guys, a buddy crime movie with Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling.
Jordan Ruimy and I will be navigating the sea-side zoo, providing daily coverage and keeping you up-to-date about the drama inside and outside of the cinema. The annual hoopla will kick off on May 11 with Woody Allen’s new film, Café Society, and continue for eleven lifetime-like days until the 22nd. The full list of films that were announced to play the 69th Cannes Film Festival are below:
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COMPETITION
Opening Night: Café Society (Woody Allen) [Out of Competition]
Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade)
Julieta (Pedro Almodóvar)
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American Honey (Andrea Arnold)
Personal Shopper (Olivier Assayas)
La Fille Inconnue (Jean-Pierre Dardenne & Luc Dardenne)
Juste La Fin du Monde (Xavier Dolan)
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Ma Loute (Bruno Dumont)
Paterson (Jim Jarmusch)
Rester Vertical (Alain Guiraudie)
Aquarius (Kleber Mendonça Filho)
Mal de Pierres (Nicole Garcia)
I, Daniel Blake (Ken Loach)
Ma’ Rosa (Brillante Mendoza)
Bacalaureat (Cristian Mungiu)
Loving (Jeff Nichols)
Agassi (Park Chan-Wook)
The Last Face (Sean Penn)
Sieranevada (Cristi Puiu)
Elle (Paul Verhoeven)
The Neon Demon (Nicolas Winding-Refn)
UN CERTAIN REGARD
Varoonegi (Behnam Behzadi)
Apprentice (Boo Junfeng)
Voir du Pays (Delphine Coulin & Muriel Coulin)
La Danseuse (Stéphanie Di Giusto)
Eshtebak (Mohamed Diab)
La Tortue Rogue (Michael Dudok De Wit)
Fuchi Ni Tatsu (Fukada Kôji)
Omor Shakhsiya (Maha Haj)
Me’ever Laharim Vehagvaot (Eran Kolirin)
After the Storm (Kore-eda Hirokazu)
Hymyilevä Mies (Juho Kuosmanen)
La Larga Noche de Francisco Sanctis (Francisco Márquez & Andrea Testa)
Caini (Bogdan Mirica)
Pericle Il Nero (Stefano Mordini)
The Transfiguration (Michael O’Shea)
Captain Fantastic (Matt Ross)
Uchenik (Kirill Serebrennikov)
OUT OF COMPETITION
The BFG (Steven Spielberg)
Goksung (Na Hong-Jin)
Money Monster (Jodie Foster)
The Nice Guys (Shane Black)
SPECIAL SCREENINGS
L’Ultima Spiaggia (Thanos Anastopoulos & Davide Del Degan)
Hissein Habré, Une Tragédie Tchadienne (Mahamat-Saleh Haroun)
La Mort de Louis XIV (Albert Serra)
Le Cancre (Paul Vecchiali)
Exil (Rithy Panh)
MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS
Gimme Danger (Jim Jarmusch)
Bu-San-Haeng (Yeon Sang-Ho)
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