One of the biggest film festivals of the year has finally announced its roaster for the 68th year. For those out of the loop, Cannes is a France based festival that sees films from the independent pool and the blockbuster pool all screen, compete and liaise with one another as the crème de la crème of cinema bask in the sun, sea and sand. This year, on the chairing the jury who’ll ultimately decided who wins of the films in competition are directors Joel and Ethan Coen with Isabella Rossellini will be the president of the Un Certain Regard Jury.
But that’s all the technical stuff, what kind of films can we expect at Cannes this year?
Onwards to the competition and Cannes will, since 1987, have its first female directed opening the film (this brings up a lot of jubilation but also, why has it taken so long, Cannes?) Anyway, Standing Tall (La Tete haute) by actress cum director Emmanuelle Bercot that follows Catherine Deneuve plays a local judge who tries to guide an unruly young teen. The list than expands into a great deal of phenomenal films that we have all been looking forward to. There’s Dheepan by Jaques Audiard, Valerie Donzelli’s Marguerite et Julien, Matteo Garrone’s The Tale of Tales and Nannie Norretti’s Mia Madre. Palo Sorrentino’s Michael Caine led Youth will also compete.
On the other side of the competition, the anticipated Asif Kapadia’s Amy will get a midnight screening whilst Natalie Portman’s directorial debut A Tale of Love and Darkness will all go head to head. You can see the full list of films on the official Cannes’ website. But while we are here, not competing but gloriously in the Shorts Corner (which, if you are heading to France for the festival, you must spend some time checking out) is Crossroads where our very own Gloria Daniels-Moss was Assistant Director.
What do you think of the line-up and how excited are you for the festival?
Cannes Film Festival starts 13th of May and will continue to the 24th.