The new president of the Cannes Film Festival, Iris Knobloch, and her general delegate Thierry Frémaux, announced Thursday the selection of the 76th edition of the largest film festival. A tighter edition and even more open to the world, with more and more countries represented.
The former director of Warner Bros France, Iris Knobloch, inaugurated her duties as president of the Cannes Film Festival on Thursday April 13, succeeding Pierre Lescure, to announce the selection of the 76e edition which will take place from May 16 to 27. At his side, the general delegate of the Festival Thierry Frémaux has listed the list of 19 films in competition for the moment, including three French, two other works to be unveiled soon.
Even if more and more films are co-productions, more and more countries will be represented at Cannes, if only by the nationality of their director. A certain frustration remains at the end of this list, very little information filtering on the films, in particular for the newcomers to Cannes, with at best their cast, when they are prestigious, and a synopsis at a minimum. The fact remains that the trend towards openness to cinemas around the world has widened further this year.
A present United States, a prosperous Italy and a feminine France
The United States confirms their comeback that began last year, after shunning the Festival, with two films, asteroid VSIty by Wes Anderson and May-December by Todd Haynes. And maybe a third, Killers of the Flower Moon by Martin Scorsese, with Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, today out of competition, but for which the Festival is awaiting a possible green light from Paramount, the producer, to put it in the running. The United States would then be on an equal footing with Italy, very present with three films by regulars on the Croisette: Il Sol dell’avvenire (Towards a bright future) by Nanni Moretti, The Chimera by Alice Rohrwacher, and Rapito (The Kidnapping) by Marco Bellochio.
France is currently in the running with three films, two of which have been signed by female directors. Catherine Breillat, who had decided not to shoot anymore, was called back by her producer Saïd Ben Saïd, to direct Last summer with Léa Drucker, Olivier Rabourdin and Clotilde Courau. Justine Triet will present Anatomy of a fall, with Sandra Hüller, Samuel Theis and Swann Arlaud. Finally (for now), Trần Anh Hùng will climb the steps with The Passion of Dodin Bouffanton 19th century gastronomy.
Cosmopolitan competition
No less than thirteen countries will present the flagship of their cinema in this 76th edition. With a notable newcomer, Mongolia, which is present for the first time on the Croisette in the Un Certain Regard section, with Hoppels, the directorial debut of Kim Chang-hoon. The African continent will be represented by no less than six films in the different sections, including Banel and Adama of Ramata-Toulaye Sy (sibel), Frenchwoman of Senegalese parents, on a passion hampered by conventions.
Rarely represented in Cannes, Tunisia will be in Cannes with the Tunisian documentary filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania who this time tints her Daughters of Olfa. Turkey sees the return of regular Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Palme d’or in 2014 with Winter Sleepwhich will present Dried herbsabout a young teacher stuck in a town in Anatolia, reinvigorated by a colleague. fire brand by Karim Aïnouz will represent Brazil, a historical film on Catherine Parr, one of the only wives of Henry VIII to have survived there.
A Nordic Europe
Going up to the very north, Finland is making a comeback with Aki Kaurismäki, who we will see The dead leaveson the indigenous peoples of Lapland, after his Grand Prix in 2002 for The man without a past.
The German Wim Wenders also returns to Cannes with Perfect Days, about an employee working in a public restroom in Tokyo. Wenders also has a special screening film, The Sound of Timedocumentary about contemporary German artist Anselm Kiefer, a specialist in excess, steel, lead and concrete.
Great Britain sees the constancy of Ken Loach on the Croisette with The Old Oak, on the arrival of Syrian refugees in a town that will upset habits. The second British film is The Zone of Interest by Jonathan Glazer, about the complicated love between a Nazi officer and the wife of a kapo.
A certain gaze sees elsewhere
It is in the Un certain regard section that openness to the world is the most noticeable. Apart from the Mongolian film Hopeless already mentioned, Morocco will present The Packs by Kamal Lazraq, a thriller located in the popular suburbs of Casablanca. Iran, which has not come to Cannes lately, will be officially represented by the mysterious Terrestrial Verses of Ali Asgari and Alireza Khatami, of which nothing has leaked so far.
Sudan will be present in a first film by Mohamed Kordofani, goodbye julia, about one man’s quest for redemption in the context of the separation between the north and the south of the country. Rapper Baloji Tshiani will represent the Democratic Republic of Congo with Augurabout a sorcerer banished by his mother, who returns after fifteen years to Lubumbashi to redeem himself.
South America will see Argentina represented by Los Delincuentes by Rodrigo Moreno and Chile by the first film by Felipe Galvez, The settlers on tribal extermination attempts in Chilean Patagonia.
Singaporean cinema, which has made rare appearances at Cannes, will see the presence of director Anthony Chen for The Breaking Ice which evokes the friendship between three young adults in their twenties. Rarely at Cannes, Australia will be represented by Aborigine Warwick Thornton with The New Boywhere a young local will disrupt the precarious balance of an isolated monastery run by a renegade nun.