Drive My Cannes: The New Competition Lineup!

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

by Arnaud Trouvé

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...

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'Crimes of the Future' Tease & Poster

It is time to stop seeing.
It is time to stop speaking.

It is time to start obsessing...

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And the runner up is... Rosalind Russell? Joan Crawford? Susan Hayward?

I had the pleasure of joining Kevin Jacobsen on his great podcast series "And the Runner Up Is..." for a fourth time. Kevin opted to assign me 1947 when I asked for this decade. So listen in to hear us talk about the following lineup which has two great performances, one coaster nomination, a bullet dodged, and one of my mother's favourites from her childhood.

• Joan Crawford, Possessed
• Susan Hayward, Smash-Up: The Story of a Woman
• Dorothy McGuire, Gentleman's Agreement
• Rosalind Russell, Mourning Becomes Electra 
• ★ Loretta Young, The Farmer's Daughter

Which of those performances do you love?

April Foolish Pt 4 - Who might be in the 'Best Supporting Actor' discussion?

by Nathaniel R

Barry Keoghan announcing a wrap on Banshees of Inisherin via his social media

We all agree that Best Supporting Actor is the dullest of Oscar's Big Six, right? But it doesn't have to be! Too often the final lineup leaves a lot to be desired. But for the first Oscar predictions of the year, before much is known about the movies themselves, let alone their supporting* characters we can imagine all sorts of possibilities. Whose role are you most intrigued about? I'm most curious which never-nominated actor will join the club this year. Here's to hoping that Barry Keoghan, Brian Tyree Henry, Glynn Turman, Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, Harry Melling, Idris Elba, Colin Farrell, and even Chris Rock (no, really) MIGHT have the kind of roles that could get them there. They also might not (of course) but these are the April Foolish Predictions so you have to guess while essentially blindfolded.

Check out the new chart / predictions

You may have noticed that neither Leonardo DiCaprio or Jesse Plemons are on this chart. As far as we can tell  Killers of the Flower Moon is a two-lead film. Obviously films don't campaign two leads in the same category anymore (sigh) but we're not about to encourage the powers that be to commit category fraud so until campaigns tell us otherwise our new policy is to put them in the correct category.

Previously
Pt 1 Animated Feature Preview
Pt 2 Screenplays and Music Categories 
Pt 3 Visual Category Discussion

Cláudio’s Best Shot Pick: Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)

The next episode of our series, ‘Hit Me With Your Best Shot,’ arrives tomorrow night. It’s focused on the 1954 musical extravaganza Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. You still have time to participate. For now, as something of a preview, here’s Cláudio’s entry.

Adapted from Stephen Vincent Benet's The Sobbin' Women, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers is the definition of problematic. Indeed, for some, a romantic premise that hinges on the real and horrifying subject of bride kidnapping might be irredeemable. Even for one like me, who regards cinema as audiovisual expression that can be entirely divorced from narrative, this effervescent tale of abducted women falling for their captors can be hard to swallow, look past. Consider that such objections don't even touch on the picture's penchant to treat rape imagery as comedy – yikes…

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