Cannes Competition Lineup

by Nathaniel R

This year's poster features Agnes Varda climbing on an assistant for a shot.The lineup for the 72nd edition of the Cannes Film Festival has been unveiled. 19 films will compete for the Palme d'Or and 16 films will compete in the secondary lineup Un Certain Regard (we'll get to those in a bit) though those numbers might expand should they add a couple more entries to either program. They usually do that after the official unveiling. Mexico's Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Birdman) and Lebanon's Nadine Labaki (Capernaum) will preside over the Competition and Un Certain Regard juries, respectively. 

COMPETITION

These films are the ones gunning for the Palme d'Or. There are four female directors in the competition lineup and two black directors both of which are way more than usual at Cannes... 

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The 2019 Cannes President is... Iñárritu

Iñarritu winning Best Director at Cannes in 2006.Now that Oscar season is winding down, tuxes/jewels returned, post-mortems wrapping up, we must start looking forward. The first big post Oscar event of the film year, that's not a film opening that is, is of course the Cannes Film Festival (May 14th-25th). They've now announced this year's jury president. It's none other than four-time Oscar winner Alejandro González Iñárritu (Birdman, Babel, The Revenant, Amores Perros) continuing Oscar's obsessive “¡Viva México!”  theme, with five of the last six directing Oscars going to Mexican filmmakers.

Iñárritu succeeds Cate Blanchett, 2018's Jury President. Though its common for film directors to preside, he's the first Mexican ever chosen for the honors. He previously won Best Director at Cannes for Babel (2006)...

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The Plane! The Plane! The Link! The Link!

As your host begins his final busy day at the Middleburg festival, here are some news tidbits and amusements to enjoy elsewhere...

• Variety Highlights from the Jane Fonda Masterclass at the Lumiere festival
• EW Peter Dinklage on playing Hervé Villechaize on HBO and disputing the claims of whitewashing 
• Vulture amazingly accurate collection of faux headlines about 'how the media would have covered the events of A Star is Born'
• New Now Next cute interview with Judy Greer about her gay fans and Jawbreaker
• Variety our hearts go out to Selma Blair who has announced that she has multiple sclerosis
• Out Cate Blanchett adamantly defends straight actors playing queer characters. I totally understand her reasoning and I think identity politics can sometimes feel anti-art and anti-creativity BUT actual gay actors are discriminated against so this is kind of tacky to be so aggressive about
• The Playlist Cannes and Netflix meet... perhaps 2019 will have a different outcome?
• MNPP Glen Powell photoshoot worth gawking at
• /Film Netflix seems to be on a cancellation spree. Now it's Luke Cage getting the chop
• io9 Turns out Disney wouldn't let Wreck-It Ralph make a joke about Kylo Ren from Star Wars. Or as Gerry Canavan so wisely stated on twitter...

maybe we should have more than one entertainment company

Q&A: Actors Who Should Be More Famous, Broadway Crossovers, and Animal Horror

Hello everyone!

Nathaniel, eternally cat-sittingWe haven't done a Q & A in so long so let's jump right in. In order to actually do these more often I'll answer just five or six questions at once. Hopefully this will stir up more focused comment parties, too!

PAR: Julianne Moore, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Annette Bening enter the thunderdome. Only one leaves. Who? - par

A: LOL! I hope you aren't being cruel and just making me sacrifice two of my all time favorites at the altar of, well, my Pfavorite. But if we're talking about cage matches in post-apocalypse desert landscapes my answer is The Bening. Moore would break down into crying jags in no time, becoming too vulnerable. Pfeiffer would seem like easy prey put up a very spirited and scary pfight but you know that The Bening is all wile and steel and surprise maneuvers. How else did she conquer Hollywood and Warren Beatty and continue to become even more incredible as an actress the older she got despite being brilliant right out of the gate?

STEVE G: What film out of Cannes 2018, that wasn't previously on your radar, are you most excited to see?

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Cannes Closing Ceremony - the Palme to "Shoplifters"

by Nathaniel R

The 71st edition of Cannes has ended. The closing ceremony started all fiery with Asia Argento reminding the audience that she was raped at the festival and Harvey Weinstein used to use Cannes as his "hunting ground" but after that impassioned speech, this settled quickly into the usual Closing Ceremony format of jury introductions, and strange presentation of awards in which "presenters" don't actually do the presenting but then turn to Madame President (in this case Cate Blanchett in a dress with a bow the size of her entire body on its back) to read out the winners.

So here's one last gif-heavy look at Cannes, which is really our first look (since the films have yet to open anywhere) at the winners from the closing ceremony. Many of these titles will go on to further glories at other festivals and hopefully in theatrical release in the US and some will definitely be Oscar foreign language film submissions. But even if this is the end of their awards run, winning prizes at Cannes remains a very big deal...

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