Thierry Frémaux, director of the upcoming 76th Cannes film festival, has announced a competition groaning with distinguished auteurs from around the planet. Wes Anderson, Aki Kaurismäki, Ken Loach, Todd Haynes and Nanni Moretti will be among those competing for the Palme d’Or next month.
“It’s a competition that will mix young movie makers, coming for the first time in competition, with veterans,” Frémaux said at the press conference in Paris. “In terms of art, there is no end date – neither for the movie makers nor for the works.”
Older filmmakers are more in evidence, but the competition does find space for the debut feature from Senegalese director Ramata-Toulaye Sy. Her Banel et Adama is one of six films by woman among the official selection – a record for Cannes. Alice Rohrwacher, Jessica Hausner, Catherine Breillat, Justine Triet and Kaouther Ben Hania are also up for the Palme.
The least surprising competition title is, perhaps, Ken Loach’s The Old Oak. No other director has had so many runs at the big prize. “When I called him yesterday to invite him to the competition he said, as usual, ‘Are you sure?’” Frémaux said. Twice winner of the Palme, Loach now has a chance of becoming the only director to take a third.
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“It’s a film by Wes Anderson ... full stop,” Frémaux said of Asteroid City. As ever with Anderson, the cast is packed. Scarlett Johansson, Tilda Swinton, Willem Dafoe, Margot Robbie and many, many more appear in a comedy based around a “Stargazer” convention in 1950s United States. Great excitement will attend the world premiere of Todd Haynes’s May December. Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore star in the tale of a young actor researching the past of a couple once involved in a tabloid scandal. Haynes is best known for such rich films as Far From Heaven and – a sensation at Cannes in 2015 – the Oscar-nominated Carol. Jonathan Glazer emerged with the popular Sexy Beast in 2000 and followed that up with slow-burn critics’ favourites Birth and Under the Skin (recently voted best British film of the 21st century). He returns with an adaptation of Martin Amis’s novel The Zone of Interest. Much mystery has surrounded a project – starring Sandra Hüller in a tale of Auschwitz – about which little production information has hitherto emerged.
Other previous Palme winners up again include Hirokazu Koreeda with Monster, Nanni Moretti with Il Sol Dell’Avvenire, Nuri Bilge Ceylan with About Dry Grasses and Wim Wenders with Perfect Days. That last German veteran, confirming Frémaux’s comments about there being no “end date”, has two films at the event. His 3-D documentary Le Bruit du Temps plays as a “special screening”.
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It had already been announced that James Mangold’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon were to premiere at Cannes, but doubt remained as to whether the Scorsese film would compete. It seems not. “He was awarded the Palme d’Or for Taxi Driver in 1976. We would have loved him to compete,” Frémaux said. “The request was made. The essential thing is that we have an answer before the beginning of the festival so that the jury would know what are the movies they will have to see.”
Other intriguing features elsewhere in the Official Selection include a documentary from Steve McQueen entitled Occupied City, another special screening. “It’s a story of Amsterdam during the occupation,” the festival director said. “It’s very radical. You won’t fall asleep.” The Un Certain Regard sidebar features a wide array of younger filmmakers from every corner of planet cinema.
There were no Irish productions in the Official Selection. Many had expected Yorgos Lanthimos’s Poor Things, produced by Element Films in Dublin, to appear on the list. That film must now surely be pencilled in as a probable contender for either the Telluride or Venice film festivals in early autumn. Domestic titles could still turn up when the Directors’ Fortnight and International Critics’ Week programmes for Cannes are announced over the coming days.
Introducing the press conference, Iris Knobloch, incoming Cannes president, justifiably observed that, in recent years, Cannes has continued to punch its weight. Last year saw the premiere of such Oscar-nominated favourites as Close, EO, Top Gun: Maverick, Elvis and – eventual Palme winner – Triangle of Sadness. Paul Mescal began his journey to an Oscar nomination when Aftersun debuted in Critics’ Week. Ruben Östlund, director of Triangle of Sadness, returns this year as president of the jury. The 2023 festival kicks off on May 16th with the premiere of Maiwenn’s period drama Jeanne du Barry, starring Johnny Depp as Louis XV.
CANNES 2023 OFFICIAL SELECTION
COMPETITION
Club Zero, directed by Jessica Hausner.
The Zone of Interest, directed by Jonathan Glazer.
Fallen Leaves, directed by Aki Kaurismaki.
Four Daughters, directed by Kaouther Ben Hania.
Asteroid City, directed by Wes Anderson.
Anatomie d’Une Chute, directed by Justine Triet.
Monster, directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda.
Il Sol dell’Avvenire, directed by Nanni Moretti.
La Chimera, directed by Alice Rohrwacher.
L’Eté Dernier, directed by Catherine Breillat.
La Passion De Dodin Bouffant, directed by Tran Anh Hung.
About Dry Grasses, directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan.
May December, directed by Todd Haynes.
Rapito, directed by Marco Bellocchio.
Firebrand, directed by Karim Ainouz.
The Old Oak, directed by Ken Loach.
Banel et Adama, directed by Ramata-Toulaye Sy.
Perfect Days, directed by Wim Wenders.
Jeunesse, directed by Wang Bing.
OUT OF COMPETITION
Killers of the Flower Moon, directed by Martin Scorsese.
Jeanne du Barry, directed by Maïwenn.
The Idol, directed by Sam Levinson.
Cobweb, directed by Kim Jee-woon.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, directed by James Mangold.
MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS
Omar La Fraise, directed by Elias Belkeddar.
Acide, directed by Just Philippot.
Kennedy, directed by Anurag Kashyap.
CANNES PREMIERE
Le Temps d’Aimer, directed by Katell Quillevere.
Kubi, directed by Takeshi Kitano.
Cerrar los Ojos, directed by Victor Erice.
Bonnar, Pierre et Marthe, directed by Martin Provost.
SPECIAL SCREENINGS
Anselm, directed by Wim Wenders.
Occupied City, directed by Steve McQueen.
Man in Black, directed by Wang Bing.
UN CERTAIN REGARD
How to Have Sex, directed by Molly Manning Walker.
The Delinquents, directed by Rodrigo Moreno.
Simple Comme Sylvain, directed by Monia Chokri.
The Settlers, directed by Felipe Galvez.
The Mother of All Lies, directed by Asmae El Moodier.
The Buriti Flower, dirs: Joao Salaviza & Renee Nader.
Goodbye Julia, directed by Mohammed Kordofani.
Omen, directed by Baloji Thasiani.
The Breaking Ice, directed by Anthony Chen.
Rosalie, directed by Stéphanie Di Giusto.
The New Boy, directed by Warwick Thornton.
If Only I Could Hibernate, directed by Zoljargal Purevdash.
Hopeless, directed by Kim Chang-hoon.
Rien à Perdre, directed by Delphine Deloget.
Les Meutes, directed by Kamal Lazraq.
Terrestrial Verses, dirs: Ali Asgari & Alireza Khatami.
La Regne Animal, directed by Thomas Cailley.
