Alas, so all the hype about a new David Lynch joint potentially showing up at Cannes turns out to be nothing. But hey, there’s still plenty of mouth-watering goodies on display from the (as yet incomplete) lineup announced by festival director Thierry Frémaux today. Last year, THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD and especially DRIVE MY CAR went on to have remarkable runs worldwide and broke into the Oscar race after a Cannes premiere. Do we expect any of the following to do the same?
Competition
“Holy Spider” dir: Ali Abbasi
“Forever Young” dir: Valeria Bruni Tedeschi
“Crimes Of The Future” dir: David Cronenberg
“Stars At Noon” dir: Claire Denis
“Brothre and Sister“ dir: Arnaud Desplechin
“Tori and Lokita” dirs: Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
“Armageddon Time” dir: James Gray
“Close” dir: Lukas Dhont
“Broker” dir: Hirokazu Kore-eda
“R.M.N.” dir: Cristian Mungiu
“Triangle Of Sadness” dir: Ruben Ostlund
“Showing Up” dir: Kelly Reichardt
“Decision to Leave” dir: Park Chan-wook
“Nostalgia” dir: Mario Martone
“Tchaikovski’s Wife” dir: Kirill Serebrennikov
“Boy From Heaven” dir: Tarik Saleh
“Leila’s Brothers” dir: Saeed Roustaee
“Eo” dir: Jerzy Skolimowski
A very solid-looking comp lineup that, to be honest, also feels a bit familiar – even by Cannes standards. Four previous Palme d’Or winners are back, as are the Gray’s, Desplechin’s and Serebrennikov’s Then again, who can deny these are some of the best filmmakers working today? Of the established masters, I’m particularly excited to check out Cronenberg’s sci-fi body horror CRIMES OF THE FUTURE starring Léa Seydoux, Kristen Stewart and Viggo Mortensen; Reichardt’s SHOWING UP with Michelle Williams, Hong Chau and John Magaro; Park’s detective mystery DECISION TO LEAVE, his long-awaited follow-up to THE HANDMAIDEN.
Of the relative newcomers, I’m super psyched for Ali Abbasi’s HOLY SPIDER after falling for the fantastically weird BORDER, and Lukas Dhont’s sophomore feature CLOSE, which should count as an early contender for the Queer Palme after his glorious debut GIRL took home the same.
With 18 titles at the moment, I’d expect at least 2-3 more to join this list – hopefully to add more truly risky, surprising picks to the mix. The festival also hasn’t announced this year’s jury president yet. With George Miller’s THREE THOUSAD YEARS OF LONGING being programmed out of competition, could Madame Swinton soon be chairing the jury?
Out of Competition
“Z (Comme Z)” dir: Michel Hazanavicius – opening film
“Top Gun: Maverick” dir: Joseph Kosinski
“Elvis“ dir: Baz Luhrmann
“Novembre“ dir: Cédric Jimenez
“Three Thousand Years Of Longing” dir: George Miller
“Mascarade” dir: Nicolas Bedos
Cannes Premieres
“Nos Frangins” dir: Rachid Bouchareb
“Nightfall” dir: Marco Bellocchio
“Dodo” dir: Panos H Koutras
“Irma Vep (series)” dir: Olivier Assayas
Un Certain Regard
“Les Pires” dirs: Lisa Akoka, Romane Gueret
“Burning Days” dir: Emin Alper
“Metronom” dir: Alexandru Belc
“All The People I’ll Never Be” dir: Davy Chou
“Sick Of Myself” dir: Kristoffer Borgli
“Domingo And The Mist” dir: Ariel Escalante Meza
“Plan 75” dir: Hayakawa Chie
“Beast” dirs: Riley Keough, Gina Gammell
“Corsage“ dir: Marie Kreutzer
“Butterfly Vision“ dir: Maksim Nakonechnyi
“The Silent Twins” dir: Agnieszka Smocynska
“The Stranger” dir: Thomas M Wright
“Joyland” dir: Saim Sadiq
“Rodeo” dir: Lola Quivoron
“Godland” dir: Hlynur Palmason
Midnight Screenings
“Hunt” dir: Lee Jung-Jae
“Moonage Daydream” dir: Brett Morgen
“Fumer Fait Tousser” dir: Quentin Dupieux
Special Screenings
“All That Breathes” dir: Shaunak Sen
“The Natural History Of Destruction” dir: Sergei Loznitsa
“Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble In Mind” dir: Ethan Coen
The 75th Cannes Film Festival runs May 17-28, 2022. We will be there and report back with the best of the fest.
