74th Cannes. Un Certain Regard, Special Screenings, and More...

by Nathaniel R

Todd Haynes' first documentary is about the seminal band, THE VELVET UNDERGROUND

We've already looked at the competition lineup so here are the other key sections. It's worth noting that though the press mostly focuses on the Competition films, sometimes the buzziest titles come from other sections. There are some juries that pull from multiple sections too like the Camera d'Or jury (which honors first films), as well as two unofficial but exciting competitions, the Queer Palm and the fan favourite the Palm Dog (which names the best dog in the festival... and it's often much more competitive than you'd think with some years offering multiple win-worthy candidates). Director's Fortnight and Critics Week lineups haven't been announced yet but here are the rest of them...

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74th Cannes. The Competition Lineup!

by Nathaniel R

The official lineup for the 74th Cannes Film Festival has been announced. It's always an exciting time for cinephiles, doubly so this year since the festival had to be cancelled last season due to COVID-19. This year four actors have multiple films in contention: Tilda Swinton, Charlotte Rampling, Anders Danielsen Lie, and the probably queen of the festival France's Léa Seydoux who has three films in the main competition and another in Un Certain Regard!  We already know that Spike Lee will be presiding over the jury, since he was supposed to do that last year (though we don't know who will be on the jury with him yet).

Cannes has been criticized for years for their lack of gender parity in direction. They're likedly to be criticized again with only 4 of the 24 competition films from female auteurs but that's actually a huge improvement for the world's most famous film festival. As per usual French and English language films dominate though there are actually only three films from the USA in competition this year (Flag Day, The French Dispatch, and Red Rocket) Anyway let's look at the official lineup. More to come since there are other sections, too.

24 Official Competition Films
Who will win the Palme D'Or, Director, and Acting prizes. Care to place any bets?

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Cannes & Berlinale delayed

While we're on record objecting to awards shows changing their eligibility dates like crazy (despite, you know, the quarantine accessibility of streaming giving us all ways to see lots of movies) here's one change we can totally get behind and which makes total sense. Cannes, which always takes place in May, has moved itself to July for the 2021 film year.  More specifically the festival will run from July 6th through July 17th.  Last year, Spike Lee as chosen as jury president but then the event was cancelled so he was meant to reign in 2021 instead. That's still the plan (assuming Spike's schedule hasn't changed).

Though this is only a two month move it could prove a bit disruptive to the fall A list festivals like Venice, Telluride, and Toronto who generally can nab world premieres from prestige filmmakers whose films weren't quite ready for Cannes. Now all the A-list non Sundance festivals, including Berlinale, which is usually in February but will be in June this year, will take place across only a four month span. That's a lot of competition for films!

Samuel L. Jackson's Cannes glory

by Cláudio Alves

If the COVID-19 pandemic hadn't happened, Spike Lee would have presided over this year's Cannes jury.  When the festival made public their selections for 2020, I wondered which of those titles would have been rewarded by Lee's jury. It was particularly interesting to consider the director's jury presidency because he's had a somewhat contentious relationship with Europe's most prestigious film festival. Back in 1989, many believed Lee should have won the Palme d'Or for Do the Right Thing (they were right) and, when he came out empty-handed, there was a storm of controversy over the jury's decisions. Two years later, that polemic was still on people's minds as the filmmaker presented Jungle Fever at the Croisette.

Spike Lee would go on to win the Grand Jury Prize for his third film in competition, 2018's BlacKKKlansman, but that wasn't the first time one of his movies had won a Cannes prizes. 1991's aforementioned Jungle Fever managed to win a most unusual prize thanks to Samuel L. Jackson…

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A few notes on the Cannes "lineup" that won't make it to Cannes

by Nathaniel R

Steve McQueen would have had TWO films at Cannes this yearCannes won’t be held this year due to the Coronavirus pandemic but the powers that be at Cannes have announced that 56 films that would have filled out various programs will bear the Cannes label as in "we selected them!". i.e. they would have played there. This will give the films a leg up moving forward should any of the fall festivals actually take place. This does not however tell us anything about what would have “competed” this year at Cannes since they generally only have 20 or so films in the main competition. Spike Lee was meant to preside over the competition jury this year but instead he'll do the honors next summer instead.

It will forever be lost to an alternate history what might have been this year and what film might have held the difficult task of following in Parasite’s footsteps to the Palme d’Or...

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