Cannes 2018. The First Films Announced!

by Nathaniel R

Best Actress possibility? Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani (About Elly, Paterson) and French star Emmanuelle Bercot headline the cast of "Girls of the Sun" about a Kurdish female battalion and the journalist embedded in their ranks

The initial Cannes lineups have arrived with films from their semi-typical list of famous international auteurs. Cannes has had problems leaning into super-male lineups (even when hugely acclaimed female directors are available) so it's worth noting that three of the first seventeen films announced in competition are from female filmmakers: Lebanon's Nadine Labaki, Italy's Alice Rohrwacher, and France's Eva Husson.

Which films are you most excited about? We've got the titles as well as a few details we could find about them after the jump...

Disclaimer: For the first time that I can recall Cannes didn't list the countries the films were from in their press release so I've filled that in as best I could though in several cases it's probably multiple countries behind the film since that's the way films are usually made now. Also several of the titles don't have IMDb pages yet or have possible IMDb pages under other names so information is to date a bit scarce.

COMPETITION LINEUP

• Asaka I & II (Japan) directed by Ryûsuke Hamaguchi
  A young woman at 21 and then at 23 falls in love with two men who look just like each other but have completely different personalities.
• Ash is Purest White  (China) directed by Jia Zhangke
  The Cannes regular auteur (Still Life, A Touch of Sin, Mountains May Depart) is back with a violent love story (I'm not comfortable with those words strung together) that spans 16 years.
• At War (France) directed by Stéphane Brizé 
  Not actually a war picture! It's about auto workers who've taken a pay cut to save their jobs but the company shuts down anyway. French movie star Vincent Lindon headlines.
• BlacKkKlansmen (US) directed by Spike Lee
  The gimmicky spelling of the title makes me so crazy. Argh. But I guess I shouldn't complain since I always call David Fincher's classic "Se7en". I still don't quite understand how this plot is plausible but it's a true story (!) about an African-American cop who successfully infiltrated the Klu Klux Klan to become head of a chapter in Colorado. Starring John David Washington (son of Denzel!) in the lead role.
  
  Yoo ah-in and Steven Yeun in "Burning" from South Korea
• Burning (South Korea) directed by Lee Chang-dong
  The auteur behind Secret Sunshine, Oasis, and Poetry (he's just phenomenal with actors) returns with a drama about... well, the "plot" descriptions don't say much. Hearthrob Yoo Ah-in is the star with familiar face, Korean-American actor Steven Yeun (The Walking Dead), also in the cast.
• Capernaum (Lebanon) directed by Nadine Labaki
• Cold War (Poland) directed by Pawel Pawlikowski
  Finally the Oscar winner behind that amazing nun drama Ida is back. This time with a romantic drama set during the Cold War. Ida's Oscar nominated cinematography Lukasz Zal shot it and we think they went with black and white again.
• Dogman (Italy) directed by Matteo Garrone
  Here is the trailer...
  
  
  
  
• Everybody Knows (Spain) directed by Asghar Farhadi
  The opening night film (we previously shared the trailer) from the two time Oscar winner stars married couple Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem and ubiquitous Argentinian actor Ricardo Darín.
• Girls of the Sun (France) directed by Eva Husson
  Talented Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani (About Elly, Paterson) leads a Kurdish battalion trying to take back their village from extremists.
• Lazarro Felice (Italy) directed by Alice Rohrwacher
• Leto (Russia) directed by Kirill Serebrennikov
  His last picture, The Student, played in Un Certain Regard.
• Le Livre d'Images (France) directed by Jean-Luc Godard
• Shoplifters (Japan) directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda
  The prolific Japanese auteur is back with a story about a family of crooks who take in a street orphan.
  
  
  
  
  
• Sorry Angel (France) directed by Christophe Honoré
  I was JUST wondering the other day what had happened to Honoré. 
• Three Faces (Iran) directed by Jafar Panahi
• Under the Silver Lake (US) directed by David Robert Mitchell
  His breakthrough film, the critically raved horror effort It Follows, also premiered at Cannes. This one is a thriller starring Andrew Garfield and Riley Keough and it hits US theaters in June from A24.
  
  
  
  
• Yomeddine (Egypt) directed by AB Shawky
  This sounds intriguing. It's about a leper and his apprentice leaving the leper colony and journeying across Egypt.

Filmmakers that were widely rumored to be in the running but aren't listed include Harmony Korine, Brian de Palma, Turkey's Nuri Bilge Ceylan, French filmmakers Olivier Assayas, Claire Denis, and Jacques Audiard, Danish "persona non grata" Lars von Trier, UK giant Mike Leigh, and Italy's Paolo Sorrentino. BUT it's possible that their new films just aren't ready yet and will just wait it out for the fall film festival ballyhoo. Cannes usually squeezes in about 20 films for their main jury and this is only 18 so expect two or three additions before the festival hits and Cate Blanchett and jury start their judging.

THE REST OF THE TITLES ARE NOT IN THE MAIN COMPETITION AKA THE "DISRESPECTED" ACCORDING TO NETFLIX. teehee.

OUT OF COMPETITION

• Le Grand Bain (France) directed by Gilles Lelouch
  This is sometimes referred to as Sink or Swim and stars awesome French actors Jean-Hugues Anglade, Mathieu Amalric, and Guillaume Canet among others
• Solo: A Star Wars Story (US) directed by Ron Howard
  Trailer just discussed.

SPECIAL SCREENINGS

• Dead Souls (Hong Kong) directed by Wang Bing
  He usually makes documentaries and this is 8 plus hours long. Yikes.
• The Great Mystical Circus (Brazil) directed by Carlo Diegues
• Pope Francis – A Man of His Word (US) directed by Wim Wenders
  A documentary on well, the title says it all.
• The State Against Mandela and the Others (?)
  Directed by Nicolas Champeaux & Gilles Porte
• To the Four Winds (?) directed by Michel Toesca
• La Traversée (France) directed by Romain Goupil
• 10 Years in Thailand (Thailand) directed by Aditya Assarat, Wisit Sasanatieng, Chulayarnon Sriphol & Apichatpong Weerasethakul

MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS

Arctic with Mads Mikkelsen

• Arctic (Iceland) directed by Joe Penna
  This film is in English and stars Mads Mikkelsen.
• The Spy Gone North (?) directed by Yoon Jong-bing

UN CERTAIN REGARD

• El Angel (Argentina) directed by Luis Ortega
  Cecilia Roth is in the cast.
• Angel Face (France) directed by Vanessa Filho
  Marion Cotillard stars.
• Euphoria (Italy) directed by Valeria Golino
  The new film from this actress-turned-director stars Riccardo Scarmarcio and Valerio Mastandrea and presumably has an entirely different plot than last year's Euphoria which was from the UK about estranged sisters staying at a mysterious hotel for the dying. 
• Friend (Kenya) directed by Wanuri Kahiu
• The Gentle Indifference of the World (Kazakhstan) directed by Adilkhan Yerzhanov
• Girl (Belgium) directed by Lukas Dhont
  A drama about a trans girl who dreams of becoming a ballerina
• Gräns (Sweden) directed by Ali Abbasi
  A female border guard must confront "terrifying revelations about herself" in this thriller
• The Harvesters (South Africa) directed by Etienne Kallos
• In My Room (Germany) directed by Ulrich Köhler
  Köhler won the Silver Bear at Berlin for his most recent feature Sleeping Sickness but that was seven whole years ago. His new film is about a man who realizes that everyone around him has disappeared.
• Little Tickles (France) directed by Andréa Bescond & Eric Métayer
  The cast includes (I believe) Karin Viard and Pierre Deladonchamps.
• Long Day’s Journey into Night (China) directed by Bi Gan
  The only new film IMDb has listed for him is something called Roadside Picnic starring Wei Tang and Sylvia Chang so this title is confusing. I don't beleive it's actually an adaptation of the Eugene O'Neill classic but I could be wrong. 
• Manto (India) directed by Nandita Das
  This is a biopic of a writer in 1940s India starring Bollywood regular Nawazuddin Siddiqui.
  
  a still from Manto
• My Favourite Fabric (?) directed by Gaya Jiji
• Sextape (France) directed by Antoine Desrosieres
• Sofia (?) directed by Meye Benm’Barek

Thoughts?

Comments

[AdamA]

Once again Cannes programmers just completely shuts out or minimizes Latin America in Competition and UCR. Even with this year being the year of new blood, your telling me there is no one up and coming out of Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Brazil?

[Suzanne]

Jafar Panahi is a huge deal. I'm also excited for Lee Chang-dong, Pawel Pawlikowski, Spike Lee, and Farhadi/Barden/Cruz, of course.

I'm really curious to see whether they'll show Woody Allen's movie this year.

[Cash]

El Angel is in UCR and is from Argentina. But it is surprising/disappointing that there's only that one.

[Walter L. Hollmann]

Excited for Cold War, BlacKkKlansman (subtle! - but that's why I love Spike Lee), and Burning (was just wondering the other day what Lee was up to, and Yoo was terrific in both Like for Likes and The Throne). But the one I've been waiting for is Leto - I follow the film's star, Teo Yoo, on social media, and his promotion for both the film and for justice in the house arrest case of its director. Wish Peterloo was playing though! A new Mike Leigh is an event!

[Peggy Sue]

I'm not particulary interested in any of the titles in competition, but at least they're not the usual suspects.

[cal roth]

OMG, Lee Chang-Dong. I get chills just by remembering the church scene in Secret Sunshine.

[Someone]

There's already 18 movies in competition. You've forgotten about the one directed by Ryusuke Yamaguchi.

[Someone]

*Ryusuke Hamaguchi

[NATHANIEL R]

someone -- whoops you're right. i suddenly remember thinking 'i'll come back to this one because the ttitle was super confusing. Adding in now with my own abbreviated title because Cannes is stringing two titles together whereas IMDb suggests that one is the original title and one is the new title. Hmmm....

[thevoid99]

As usual, Cannes delivers with a strong line-up. Netflix can suck it!

[BRB]

Hamaguchi is a major new director, it's nice to see him included alongside old favorite Kore'eda

[Ulrich]

Very excited about David Robert Mitchell's new one - It Follows is a modern masterpiece.

Lars von Trier will get one of the last two spots - I have not doubt about that.

[Bushwick]

lee chang dong!!! i rewatched “poetry” recently at a friend’s house and had to leave immediately to sit alone at the train station with my thoughts. he’s a visionary.

[Glenn Dunks]

I don't know what to make of people who are not excited by this line-up. Perhaps an overly Americanised view of cinema? I dunno. Much of this line-up is tantalising and I love that they have gone all in on Asian cinema this year. A new Jia Zhangke! Jafar Panahi's first Palme d'Or contender! Lee Chang-dong (with a film partly financed by the Asia Pacific Screen Awards just quietly)! Beautiful. I wasn't a fan of Bi Gan's KAILI BLUES, but I love that he's in Un Certain Regard. He's obviously a filmmaker worth watching. An eight hour Wang Bing documentary because why not.

[Ishmael]

It's really great seeing Christophe Honoré, Lee Chang-dong, and Matteo Garrone return in what feels like a decade. Thought for sure the Xavier Dolan film would be ready for the festival, but I guess not. Nevertheless, the line-up is top notch, as usual.

[Luiz Carlos]

I am always excited about Koreeda movies

[The Thus]

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