The Cannes Film Festival unveiled most of its main competition for next month’s star-studded movie showcase last week, with organisers squeezing in a group of new directors among well-established names in the battle for the top awards.
“The mission is to put new names on the world cinema map,” said festival director Thierry Fremaux, announcing the first 17 films in the race for the festival’s prestigious Palme d’Or for Best Film.
Stars expected to walk on the festival’s famed red carpet include Cate Blanchett, Catherine Deneuve, Michael Fassbender, Matthew McConaughey, Tom Hardy, Emily Blunt, Josh Brolin and Charlize Theron.
Among the new directors heading to Cannes next month are Hungary’s Laszlo Nemes with his film Son of Saul – a fictionalised account of life in a concentration camp – as well as Australia’s Justin Kurzel with a British production of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Norway’s Joachim Trier also makes his debut in the main competition with his third feature film, Louder Than Bombs, starring Jesse Eisenberg, Gabriel Byrne and Isabelle Huppert.
Prominent directors returning to the festival include three filmmakers from Italy: Paolo Sorrentino, Matteo Garrone and Nanni Moretti. Former Palme d’Or winner, Gus Van Sant, is also back with his keenly awaited The Sea of Trees starring McConaughey, Ken Watanabe and Naomi Watts.
US Oscar-winning film-making brothers, Ethan and Joel Coen, are to head up what is expected to be a nine-member jury.
A 1950s lesbian love story from US independent director, Todd Haynes, and starring Blanchett and Rooney Mara, has also secured a slot in this year’s line-up. Haynes’ Carol marks his first appearance in Cannes since 1998 when his movie Velvet Goldmine about the 1970s glamrock era was nominated for the Palme d’Or.
The Asian film industry has also secured three berths in the line-up including Taiwan’s Hou Hsiao-Hsien, who makes his seventh bid for a Palme d’Or with a martial arts drama set in China’s imperial Tang dynasty (618-907 AD), called The Assassin.
Chinese director Jia Zhangke will again be making the pilgrimage to Cannes to present his new movie Mountains May Depart, as will Japan’s Hirokazu Koreeda with Our Little Sister.
Next month’s festival also underlines the current strength of French cinema with three French directors selected for the main competition. This includes Parisian Jacques Audiard’s gritty Erran, about a Sri-Lankan Tamil fighter seeking political asylum in France, who lands a job in a tough part of Paris. Director Emmanuelle Bercot launches the festival with La Tete Haute (Standing Tall), which tells the story of a troubled teenager named Malony.
Cannes’ organisers have come under fire in recent years for their failure to showcase women filmmakers, with critics claiming that the main competition is dominated by male directors. Only one woman director has won the coveted Palme d’Or for Best Picture in 68 years, New Zealander Jane Campion with The Piano, in 1993.
This year’s festival is launching a series of events to underline the role of women in film to be called Women in Motion.
The selection of Bercot’s film, with its strong social commentary, also marks a change from the recent inaugural entries, which have tended to have generally lighter story lines.
Bercot’s movie is being screened out of competition, which means it is not in the running for any of the festival’s main prizes.
Other films to be screened out of competition include Woody Allen’s 45th feature, The Irrational Man, and the fourth in the series of the post-apocalyptic world of Mad Max. Britain’s Hardy is in the title role of the latest Mad Max, a series launched in 1979 starring Mel Gibson. Australian George Miller has directed all four of the high-action films. – DPA