Drive My Cannes: The New Competition Lineup!
Thursday, April 14, 2022 at 11:32AM Direct from France, please welcome longtime reader / first time contributor Arnaud Trouvé to talk about the Cannes festival and share the new lineup... uPDATE 04/23: new additions indicated below under red headlines
Ruben Östlund's "Triangle of Sadness" © SF Studios
My first encounter with the Cannes Film Festival was in 1998, when Roberto Benigni kissed Martin Scorsese’s feet after winning the Grand Prix for Life is Beautiful (which he mistakenly took for the Palme d’Or). Cannes ceremonies are always broadcast live on French TV and my interest grew rapidly over the years. Flash-forward to 2009: the Paris visual effects company I’m working for had to deliver over a hundred shots for an upcoming production destined for the Croisette. "It has to be ready for Cannes," was the motto as we worked on a very tight schedule. This production happened to be Gaspar Noé’s Enter The Void and we managed to screen it in Competition at the last minute, with no opening or closing credits!
A decade later, the announcement of the Cannes lineup is still an annual event for cinephiles around the world. And after a bonkers ceremony in the summer of 2021 that saw the victory of Titane, the festival is ready to get back to its usual May slot. Let’s have a look at its anticipated official selection unveiled today by artistic director Thierry Frémaux...
"Les Amandiers" (The Almond Tree)
Competition
- HOLY SPIDER – Ali ABBASI
- LES AMANDIERS (The Almond Tree) – Valeria BRUNI TEDESCHI
- CRIMES OF THE FUTURE – David CRONENBERG
- TORI AND LOKITA – Jean-Pierre et Luc DARDENNE
- STARS AT NOON – Claire DENIS
- FRÈRE ET SŒUR (Brother and Sister)– Arnaud DESPLECHIN
- CLOSE – Lukas DHONT
- ARMAGEDDON TIME – James GRAY
- BROKER – KORE-EDA Hirokazu
- NOSTALGIA – Mario MARTONE
- RMN – Cristian MUNGIU
- TRIANGLE OF SADNESS – Ruben ÖSTLUND
- HAEOJIL GYEOLSIM (Decision to Leave) – PARK Chan-Wook
- SHOWING UP – Kelly REICHARDT
- LEILA’S BROTHERS – Saeed ROUSTAEE
- BOY FROM HEAVEN – Tarik SALEH
- ZHENA CHAIKOVSKOGO (Tchaïkovski's Wife)– Kirill SEREBRENNIKOV
- EO – Jerzy SKOLIMOWSKI
last minute additions
- LE OTTO MONTAGNE - Charlotte VANDERMEERSCH and Felix VAN GROENINGEN
- UN PETITE FRÈRE - Léonor SERRAILLE
- PACIFICTION - Tournament sur les iles - Albert SERRA
Even with Venice scooping some of our recent Best Film César winners (Custody, Lost Illusions), Cannes remains the primary spotlight for French productions. This year is no exception as the Competition welcomes Valeria Bruni Tedeschi with an hommage to director Patrice Chéreau, and Arnaud Desplechin who directed Marion Cotillard and Melvil Poupaud as the titular siblings in Frère & soeur. With Frère & soeur, Marion Cotillard has now opened a film at the Festival in 10 of the last 12 years. Just a few months after her Best Director win in Berlin (for Both Sides of the Blade starring Juliette Binoche & Vincent Lindon), Claire Denis is back with an English-language film Stars at Noon starring Margaret Qualley and Joe Alwyn.
Films by the Dardenne brothers have won almost every Cannes award possible. This time, the duo of directors is back with Tori and Lokita while fellow Belgian director Lukas Dhont (who debuted with Girl a few years back) is also in Competition with his new fillm Close. Congrats to him on making this prestigious jump at only 31 years old. Panos Koutras and Sergei Lonitzsa are two of the most exciting European directors right now and I’m glad the festival is welcoming them again in parallel sections, especially Loznitsa whose native Ukraine is under unbelievable turmoil.
"Decision To Leave" © CJ Entertainment
Korean director Park Chan-wook’s Decision to Leave, his follow up his international succcess with The Handmaiden (2016) is one to watch in Competition. After having won Jury Prize (Thirst) and Grand Prix (Old Boy), maybe third’s time the charm and the Palme for Park? And Cannes would not be complete without a bunch of previous Palme winners so we have new films from returning champs like Japan's Kore-Eda Hirokazu (Shoplifters), Romania's Cristian Mungiu (4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days) and Sweden's Ruben Östlund (The Square). Östlund's new film Triangle of Sadness is in English and stars Woody Harrelson and Harris Dickinson.
David Cronenberg’s much anticipated Crimes of the Future will happily open in cinemas here in France on the day of its screening in Competition and then in the US in June as Nathaniel just reported when sharing its teaser.
"Armageddon Time" © Focus Features
Following the double Palme d'Or punch of Elephant & Fahrenheit 9/11 (2003 & 2004), US productions have tended to be less present on the Croisette. Despite one additional Palme for Terrence Malick (The Tree of Life), the Netflix dominance seems to have taken its toll and re-oriented Baumbach, Cuarón, Campion… directly to Venice where Netflix films are welcome. Nevertheless, James Gray who amazingly has never won a single award in Cannes despite numerous appearances, will be there as planned with Armageddon Time starring Anne Hathaway and Anthony Hopkins. And Kelly Reichardt (who was on the jury for Parasite's win) is also in competition with Showing Up which stars Michelle Williams.
Despite the ongoing war with Venice, Cannes still managed to provide the premiere of the very first non-English-speaking Best Picture Oscar (Parasite) although Venice came tantalizingly close the year before with Roma. It was the very first Palme for South Korea, and I hope many new countries will also get their dues, in the vein of Romania (4 months… , 2007) and Thailand (Uncle Boonmee..., 2010). Always keep an eye on the top prize, the Palme d'Or. Though Cannes and mainstream awards bodies have much different tastes, you have to go back to Dheepan (2015) to find a Palme winner that didn’t land a single Oscar or BAFTA nomination.
OTHER FILMS AT THE FESTIVAL
SPECIAL SCREENINGS
- All That Breaths by Shaunak Sen
- Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind by Ethan Coen
- The Natural History of Destruction by Sergei Loznitsa
last minute additions
- Mi Pais Imaginario by Patricio Guzman
- The Vagabonds by Dorotea Droumeva
- Riposte Feministe by Marie Perennes and Simon Depardon
- Restos do Vento by Tiago Guedes
- Le petite nicolas qu'est-ce qu'on attend pour etre heureuz? by Amandine Fredon and Benjamin Massoubre
CANNES PREMIERES
- Dodo by Panos H. Koutras
- Irma Vep by Olivier Assayas
- Nightfall by Marco Bellocchio
- Nos Frangins by Rachid Bouchareb
last minute additions
- Don Juan by Serge Bozon
- La Nuit du 12 by Dominik Moll
- Chronique D'Une Liaison Passagere by Emmanuel Mouret
OUT OF COMPETITION
"Elvis" © Warner Bros
- Elvis by Baz Luhrmann
- Masquerade by Nicolas Bedos
- November by Cédric Jimenez
- Three Thousand Years of Longing by George Miller
- Top Gun: Maverick by Joseph Kosinski
last minute addition
- L'Innocent by Louis Garrel
MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS
The stars of "Hunt"
- Hunt by Lee Jung-Jae
- Moonage Daydream by Brett Morgen
- Smoking Makes You Cough by Quentin Dupieux
last minute addition
- Rebel by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah
UN CERTAIN REGARD
"Domingo and the Mist" © Doha Film Institute
"Sick of Myself" © Oslo Pictures, Garagefilm International, Film i Väst
- All the People I’ll Never Be by Davy Chou
- Beast by Riley Koeugh and Gina Gammell
- Burning Days by Emin Alper
- Butterfly Vision by Maksim Nakonechnyi
- Corsage by Marie Kreutzer
- Domingo and the Midst by Ariel Escalante Meza
- Godland by Hlynur Palmason
- Joyland by Saim Sadiq
- Les Pires by Lise Akoka and Romane Gueret
- Metronom by Alexandru Belc
- Plan 75 by Hayakawa Chie
- Rodeo by Lola Quivoron
- Sick of Myself by Kristoffer Borgli
- The Silent Twins by Agnieszka Smocynska
- The Stranger by Thomas M. Wright
last minute additions
- Plus que jamais by Emily Atef
- Mediterranean Fever by Maha Haj
- Le Bleu du Caftan by Maryam Touzani
- Harka by Lotfy Nathan
Ethan Coen (sans Joel) will screen out of competition Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind while Top Gun – Maverick will take the blockbuster slot and welcome Tom Cruise for only its second appearance ever at the festival (30 years after Far and Away). Notable omissions for big Out of Competition premieres here include Pixar’s Lightyear and the much rumored Wisteria by David Lynch; the director himself denied the rumours on his YouTube Weather report.
As usual, the most out-there flicks, are outside the main lineup, too, like the latest by ubiquitous Quentin Dupieux (Fumer fait tousser) and "Z," the new Michel Hazanivicius film which is a remake of the excellent Japanese zombie comedy One Cut of the Dead. Novembre, an investigation on the November-13th Paris attacks starring Oscar-winner Jean Dujardin, Lyna Khoudri and Sami Outalbali (from Sex Education), directed by Cédric Jimenez (Bac Nord) could be interesting. Personally I’m very excited to see George Miller’s Three Thousand years of Longing which stars Idris Elba and Tilda Swinton. The Competition lineup does not feature any directorial debut this year, so you'll find the behind-the-camera debut of actor Lee Jong-Jae (Squid Game) in Midnight Screenings. His film is called Hunt.
Finally, though Cannes would be nothing without its glamour and celebrities, I hope Frémaux will soon announce a slightly more varied jury than usual. Why always pick inside the director/actor box ? Aside from a handful of critics, producers, and singers, composer Gabriel Yared and designer Jean-Paul Gaultier are the only outside the box jurors from the last decade.
Cannes 2017
The 75th Cannes Film Festival will take place May 17-28th, 2022. Elisa Giudici (who you heard from at Venice, Locarno, and Cannes last year) will be covering the festival again for TFE.
Reader Comments (8)
Oh, there's a lot of good shit that I want to see. Except for Top Gun: Maverick. Fuck that aging dinosaur-midget and his poor man's attempt to be better than Buster Keaton and Jackie Chan.
This is so well written. Thank you Arnaud! I miss being able to see the award ceremony for Cannes. I know I've seen a few that were hosted or commented on by Roger Ebert and Anne-something? The scholar from some college back East. My favorite was the year that almost all the winners were unpopular. Booing and catcalling from the audience. Sophie Marceau seemed drunk and flipped off the audience. Or did I just dream all that. Anyway, I want to see all of that kind of thing again!
@Dave : thank you so much. You didn't dream : that was the 1999 ceremony. David Cronenberg was President of the Jury. The Palme and Grand Prix ("Rosetta" and "L'Humanité") were indeed unpopular, as was the decision to give the acting prizes to their lead actors who were non-professional at the time.
Here is Sophie's speech (I love her) : https://youtu.be/4bXVR80O_gM
Thank you Arnaud for confirming that I wasn't dreaming and that it all happened in real life. It may be the peak award experience for me in the last 25 years or so. And that whole event has eclipsed even the reaction to Under The Sun Of Satan when it won the Palme D'Or.
Those Cannes audiences are just terrific. They really do NOT hold back. I doubt if anyone else is reading this, but here's more about Cronenberg & Sophie etc: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/cannes-flashback-sophie-marceau-went-off-script-1234977557/#!?msclkid=4f41d6d5bd9911ecafa5f3fc4c4a7dea
Haha that's a fun article. Thanks Dave.
All these boos and mishaps are not that big a deal.
On YouTube, someone noticed that the last time a Cannes Competition lineup did not yield a Best Picture nominee or an International Feature nominee is way back in 2005. Will the streak keep going?
2006 : Babel, Pan's Labyrinth (Mexico)
2007 : No Country for Old Men*, Persepolis (animated feature nominee)
2008 : The Class (France), Waltz with Bashir (Israel)
2009 : Inglourious Basterds, A Prophet (France), The White Ribbon (Germany)
2010 : Biutiful (Mexico)
2011 : The Artist*, The Tree of Life
2012 : Amour* (Austria), The Hunt (Denmark)
2013 : Nebraska
2014 : Timbuktu (Mauritania), Wild Tales (Argentina), Leviathan (Russia)
2015 : Son of Saul* (Hungary)
2016 : Toni Erdmann (Germany)
2017 : Loveless (Russia), The Square (Sweden)
2018 : BlacKkKlansman, Capernaum (Lebanon), Cold War (Poland), Shoplifters (Japan)
2019 : Parasite* (South Korea), Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Pain and Glory (Spain), Les Misérables (France)
2020 : Another Round* (Denmark)
2021 : Drive My Car* (Japan), The Worst Person in the World (Norway)
In 2005, "Caché" and 'L'Enfant" were submitted by Austria and Belgium respectively. None got nominated, Caché was even disqualified for being entirely spoken in French (whereas Amour got nominated and won a few years later !). US entries didn't come anwhere near the Best Picture lineup (Last Days, Three Burials, Broken Flowers, Sin City).
arnaud -- this is an amazing stat.
3 films have been added to the Competition lineup :
LE OTTO MONTAGNE Charlotte Vandermeersch, Felix Van Groeningen
UN PETIT FRÈRE Léonor Serraille
TOURMENT SUR LES ÎLES Albert Serra