The prestigious Festival de Cannes will take place in less than a month in Cannes, France. The poster for this year’s event pays tribute to the late filmmaker Agnes Varda shooting one of her first films. Cannes is considered to be one of the “Big Three” film festivals alongside the Venice Film Festival and the Berlin International Film Festival. There’s sure to be a massive amount of talent present for the big event. The festival has film’s that are “in competition”, “out of competition”, and “special screenings.” A jury will vote on the films in competition in order to see what film will win the Palm d’Or (the biggest award of the Festival). Let’s take a look at the films in competition.
Atlantics directed by Mati Diop
Bacurau directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles
The Dead Don’t Die directed by Jim Jarmusch
Frankie directed by Ira Sachs
A Hidden Life directed by Terrence Malick
It Must Be Heaven directed by Elia Suleiman
Les Misérables directed by Ladj Ly
Little Joe directed by Jessica Hausner
Matthias and Maxime directed by Xavier Dolan
Oh Mercy! directed by Arnaud Desplechin
Pain and Glory directed by Pedro Almodóvar
Parasite directed by Bong Joon-ho
Portrait De La Jeune Fille En Feu directed by Céline Sciamma
Sibyl directed by Justine Triet
Sorry We Missed You directed by Ken Loach
The Traitor directed by Marco Bellocchio
The Wild Goose Lake directed by Diao Yinan
The Whistlers directed by Corneliu Porumboiu
Young Ahmed directed by Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne
Several of the directors in competition this year have won in Cannes before. The Dardenne Brothers and Ken Loach have won the Palm d’Or two times. Terrence Malick won it for The Tree of Life in 2011. Pedro Almodavar has taken home Best Director and Best Screenplay. Xavier Dolan won the Jury Prize in 2014 for directing Mommy and the Grand Prix in 2016 for It’s Only the End of the World.
There are some exciting firsts in the competition as well! Mati Diop is the first black woman in Cannes Competition for her film, Atlantics. The film is based on a short film that she made about a woman from Dakar whose life is upended when her lover is believed to be dead.
This is also the first year at Cannes for Ladj Li who is in competition for directing Les Misérables. Although the title may sound familiar, this is not the popular musical. The film was inspired by the riots of 2005 in the Paris suburbs.
Cannes begins on May 14th and ends on May 25th. It sounds like this year is going to have an exciting competition!