Even without splashy studio titles from Hollywood, the Cannes Film Festival looks poised to deliver a robust competition slate filled with new work from legendary auteurs.
While the Official Selection will be unveiled on April 9 and many films have yet to be submitted or seen by Cannes’ chief Thierry Fremaux and his committee, the 79th edition is expected to boast a mix of festival mainstays and up-and-comers. It will be bolstered by a strong showing of French talent, a handful of buzzy English-language indies and new films from leading Asian moviemakers.
From across Europe, the films strongly tipped for the competition include “1949,” a Cold War-era drama starring Sandra Hüller (“Project Hail Mary”) and directed by Paweł Pawlikowski’s (“Ida”); Pedro Almodovar‘s “Bitter Christmas,” a return to Spanish-language cinema; subversive Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn’s mysterious feature film comeback “Her Private Hell,” starring Charles Melton and Sophie Thatcher; Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s “The Beloved” starring Javier Bardem and Victoria Luengo as an estranged father-daughter duo; “Minotaur,” the next film by Andrey Zvyagintsev, the two-time Oscar-nominated Russian filmmaker of “Loveless” and “Leviathan;” and Albert Serra’s “Out of This World” starring Riley Keough as a member of an American delegation traveling to Russia in the midst of the Ukrainian war; Palme d’Or winner Cristian Mungiu’s English language debut “Fjord” starring Renate Reinsve and Sebastian Stan; and two films from rising Austrian directors Sandra Wollner with “Everytime;” and Marie Kreutzer (“Corsage”) with “Gentle Monster” starring Lea Seydoux and Catherine Deneuve.
As always, a wide range of French candidates are in the mix and will land somewhere, notably Stephane Brizé’s social drama “Un Bon Petit Soldat” starring Vincent Lindon and Alba Rohrwacher; Quentin Dupieux’s “Full Phil,” (pitched as a “Emily in Paris” in hell) a wild comedy starring Woody Harrelson and Kristen Stewart; Bertrand Mandico’s homage to the glory days of Italian cinema “Roma Elastica” starring Marion Cotillard and Noémie Merlant; Pierre Salvadori’s “Venus Electrificata” starring Gilles Lellouche and Pio Marmaï; and Cedric Kahn’s drama “15/18.”
From Asia, Cannes is poised to unveil Palme d’Or-winning Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda’s dystopian “Sheep in the Box;” as well as “All of a Sudden,” a Paris-set drama from fellow Japanese director Ryusuke Hamaguchi, the Oscar-winning director of ‘Drive My Car,” starring Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto.
Another international director who chose Paris as the backdrop of his next film, Iranian director Asghar Farhadi, is expected to present “Parallel Tales,” featuring a dazzling French ensemble led by Isabelle Huppert and Deneuve.
On the U.S. indie front, there should be at least a couple of highlights, notably James Gray’s “Paper Tiger,” a gritty crime story starring Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson and Miles Teller. The movie has been submitted to Cannes and is expected to play at the festival. Gray is beloved in France and is a Croisette regular, having already presented five films there, including “Armageddon Time” as well as “The Immigrant,” “Two Lovers,” “We Own the Night” and “The Yards.”
An American film which has been mostly under the radar and will likely premiere in the official selection is “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma,” directed by up-and-comer Jane Schoenbrun (“I Saw the TV Glow”) and starring Hannah Einbinder (“Hacks”) and Gillian Anderson (“Sex Education”). The film is produced by Plan B and Mubi.
Beyond these titles, there could be some exciting surprises (maybe a big animated film like “Minions and Monsters”?) announced after the press conference, but in any case, Frémaux told Variety in an interview last week that he’s not expecting a major studio movie like “Mission: Impossible” or “Top Gun” this year. He also said the lighter U.S. footprint at Cannes reflects broader industry shifts, noting that studios are “producing fewer blockbusters and fewer auteur films than in the past,” and hinting that there’s also a cost issue because when they do come, they don’t “travel light.”
The pullback this year also underscores how studios have grown increasingly wary of unveiling their tentpoles at major festivals such as Cannes where they could potentially get panned by critics before they open in theaters — as it notoriously happened with Warner Bros.’s “Joker: Folie à Deux” at Venice, which never recovered from its Lido bashing. This year, Steven Spielberg’s anticipated “Disclosure Day,” starring Emily Blunt and set for June 12 release, could have bowed on the Croisette, but Universal Pictures isn’t planning a festival launch. Alejandro González Iñárritu’s “Digger,” starring Tom Cruise, meanwhile, will most likely premiere in Venice.
Ultimately, as Fremaux said last week, the festival doesn’t hinge on Hollywood’s presence and is “dependent on nothing other than the films themselves.” Indeed, last year’s Cannes crop shined thanks to its non-English-language movies. The list of premieres included Joachim Trier’s “Sentimental Value,” which won the Oscar for international feature and earned a best picture nod alongside Wagner Moura’s “The Secret Agent.”
Alex Ritman, Nick Vivarelli and Naman Ramachandran contributed to this report.
