The Cannes Film Festival has announced the lineup for its 69th edition, set to take place May 11th – 22nd in Cannes, France.
Festival director Thierry Fremaux and president Pierre Lescure unveiled the star-studded bill this morning in Paris. Among the major highlights are new films by Woody Allen (Cafe Society), Jeff Nichols (Loving), Nicolas Winding Refn (The Neon Demon), Sean Penn (The Last Face), Andrea Arnold (American Honey), and Xavier Dolan (It’s Only the End of the World).
Steven Spielberg’s Roald Dahl adaptation The BFG, Jodie Foster’s star-studded Money Monster, and Shane Black’s ’70s buddy cop action-comedy The Nice Guys will screen ahead of their stateside releases.
Director Jim Jarmusch returns with two films: the Adam Driver-starring Paterson and the Iggy Pop doc Gimme Danger. Also of note is Paul Verhoeven’s French psychological thriller Elle, in addition to Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne’s The Unknown Girl.
“We saw 1,869 features films to obtain a selection of 49 films,” Fremaux explained. “Last year, it was 1,850, 1,830 the year before, 1,500 in 2010 and 1,000 10, 15 years ago. With the digital era the number of films we receive increases each year. The democratic principle on which Cannes is based that everyone has the right to send a film and it will be screened. Out of these 1,869 films, not all were brilliant but they were all screened.”
Among the 49 films picked for the official selection, 28 countries were represented, including French director Bruno Dumond’s Slack Bay, German director Marie Ade’s Toni Erdmann, Filipino director Kleber Mendonça Filho’s Aquarius, Romanian director Cristian Mungiu’s Family Photos, Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar’s Julieta, and many more.
This year, the festival’s jury will be presided by Mad Max director George Miller, while Japanese director Naomi Kawase will oversee the short film and student competition jury. For the first time in the festival’s history, the closing film will be the winner of the Palme d’Or, which Fremaux hopes will keep more critics in town.
Consult the lineup below:
Official Selection for the 69th Cannes International Film Festival
Opening Film: Cafe Society, director: Woody Allen (out of competition)
American Honey, director: Andrea Arnold
Aquarius, director: Kleber Mendonça Filho
Daniel Blake, director: Ken Loach
Elle, director: Paul Verhoven
Family Photos, director: Cristian Mungiu
From the Land of the Moon, director: Nicole Garcia
Gimme Danger, director: Jim Jarmusch (out of competition)
Goksung, director: Na Hong-Jin (out of competition)
It’s Only the End of the World, director: Xavier Dolan
Julieta, director: Pedro Almodovar
Loving, director: Jeff Nichols
Ma Rosa, director: Brillante Mendoza
Money Monster, director: Jodie Foster (out of competition)
Paterson, director: Jim Jarmusch
Personal Shopper, director: Olivier Assayas
Sieranevada, director: Cristi Puiu
Slack Bay, director: Bruno Dumond
Staying Vertical, director: Alain Guiraudie
The BFG, director: Steven Spielberg (out of competition)
The Handmaid, director: Park Chan Wook
The Last Face, director: Sean Penn
The Neon Demon, director: Nicholas Winding Refn
The Nice Guys, director: Shane Black (out of competition)
The Unknown Girl, directors: Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
Toni Erdmann, director: Marie Ade
Un Certain Regard
Apprentice, director: Junfeng Boo
After The Storm, director: Hirokazu Kore-Eda
Beyond the Mountains and Hills, director: Eran Kolirin
Captain Fantastic, director: Matt Ross
Clash, director: Mohamed Diab
Dogs, director: Bogdan Mirica
Francisco Sanctis’s Long Night, directors: Francisco Marquez, Andrea Testa
Harmonium, director: Koji Fukada
Inversion, director: Behnam Behzadi
Pericle Il Nero, director: Stefano Mordini
Personal Affairs, director: Maha Haj
Red Turtle, director: Michael Dudok de Wit
The Dancer, director: Stéphanie di Giusto
The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Maki, director: Juho Kuosmanen
The Stopover, directors: Delphine Coulin, Muriel Coulin
The Student, director: Kirill Serebrennikov
The Transfiguration, director: Michael O’Shea
Special Screenings (out of competition)
Exil, director: Rithy Panh
Hissein Habre, a Chadian Tragedy, director: Mahamet-Saleh Haroun
The Cancer, director: Paul Vecchiali
The Last Days of Louis XIV, director: Albert Serra
The Last Resort, directors: Thanos Anastopoulos, Davide del Degan
