By Maria Gkika,
After two years of the pandemic, the Cannes World Film Festival returns this May, from 17th to 28th, with all of its usual glam and a special line-up, which includes familiar faces but also new talented artists. Being a point of reference for world cinema since 1939, with various significant side events, such as the Directors’ Fortnight, the Critics’ Week, and the Marché du Film, the festival has become the most influential annual meeting of the film industry. Now, let us look at the full list of the finalists for this year! The list has been updated many times in the past few weeks, bringing excitement and surprises with each update.
Competing for the Palme d’Οr Section are the following films:
1) Armageddon Time (James Gray – United States)
A coming-of-age story about growing up in Queens in the 1980s.
2) Holy Spider (Ali Abbasi – France, Germany, Sweden, Denmark)
Family man Saeed embarks on his own religious quest — to “cleanse” the holy Iranian city of Mashhad of immoral and corrupt street prostitutes. After murdering several women, he grows ever more desperate about the lack of public interest in his divine mission.
3) Forever Young (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi – France)
It is the end of the 80s in Paris. A young troupe of comedians has just been admitted to Les Amandiers, the prestigious theater school headed by Patrice Chéreau. They set out in life and in their early career. Along the way, they will learn, act, love, fear, live to the fullest, and experience their first tragedies.
4) Crimes of the Future (David Cronenberg – Canada, Greece, France)
A deep dive into the not-so-distant future, in which humankind is learning to adapt to its synthetic surroundings. This evolution moves humans beyond their natural state and into a metamorphosis, which alters their biological makeup.
5) Tori and Lokita (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne – Belgium, France)
In today’s Belgium, a young boy and an adolescent girl, who has traveled alone from Africa, pit their invincible friendship against the cruel conditions of their exile.
6) Stars at Noon (Claire Denis – U.S., France)
A mysterious English businessman and an American journalist who struck up a romance must now team up to escape Nicaragua during the Nicaraguan Revolution.
7) Brother and Sister (Arnaud Desplec – France)
The story of a brother and sister who are nearing their fifties — Alice is an actress and Louis was a teacher and a poet. They no longer speak to one another and have been avoiding each other for over twenty years, but the death of their parents will force them to cross paths.
8) Close (Lukas Dhont – Belgium, Netherlands, France)
Leo and Remi, two thirteen-year-old boys, have their close friendship suddenly thrown into disarray as the prospect of adolescence looms. Trying to understand what has gone wrong, Leo seeks comfort and grows closer to Remi’s mother, Sophie, as the boys pursue forgiveness and reconciliation to try and get their friendship back together.
9) Broker (Hirokazu Kore-eda – South Korea)
Boxes that are left out for people to anonymously drop off their unwanted babies.
10) Nostalgia (Mario Martone – Italy)
After 40 years of absence, Felice returns to her hometown: Naples. He rediscovers the places, the codes of the city, and a past that eats away at him.
11) RMN (Cristian Mungiu – Romania, France)
A reflection on the history of Romania through the meeting of its Romanian, Hungarian, and Moldavian communities.
12) Le Otto Montagne (Charlotte Vandermeersch, Felix van Groeningen – Italy, Belgium)
Using the mountains of Aosta Valley, a tale of friendship between father and son.
13) Mother and Son (Léonor Serraille – France)
In the late 1980s, Rose moves from Africa to the Paris suburbs with her two young sons. Spanning 30 years from their arrival in France to the present day,
14) Triangle of Sadness (Ruben Östlund – Sweden, U.K., U.S., France, Greece)
A dark comedy about a fashion model celebrity couple who are invited on a luxury cruise for the super-rich.
15) Pacifiction (Albert Serra – Spain)
On an island in French Polynesia, a writer returns to her country, after having triumphed in France with a novel. However, faced with the impossibility of writing new works, she decides to accept a simultaneous translation job together with an ambassador. A strange love attraction begins between them, full of contrasts and conflict.
16) Eo (Jerzy Skolimowski – Italy, Poland)
On his journeys, a donkey encounters good and bad people, and experiences joy and pain, exploring a vision of modern Europe through his eyes.
17) Zhena Chaikovskogo (Tchaikovsky’s Wife) (Kirill Serebrennikov – Russia, France)
Russian Empire. Second half of the 19th century. The film talks about the wife of the composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, who cannot accept his unconventional orientation and, as a result, she gradually loses her mind.
18) Showing Up (Kelly Reichardt – United States)
An artist, on the verge of a career-changing exhibition, finds inspiration in the chaos of life.
19) Haeojil Gyeolsim (Decision to Leave) (Chan-Wook Park – South Korea)
A detective falls for a mysterious widow after she becomes the prime suspect in his latest murder investigation, he discovers an underground fighting ring, consisting of large furry animals, he discovers that this is linked to his murder investigation, and he dives into an underground world of ghosts and shape-shifting humans.
20) Leila’s Brothers (Saeed Roustayi – France)
A picture of Iranian society, riddled with corruption and ravaged by drug abuse.
21) Boy from Heaven (Tarik Saleh – Sweden)
On the first day back after the summer holidays, the grand imam collapses and dies in front of his students in a prestigious university in Cairo. A ruthless battle for influence to take his place begins.
In the Un Certain Regard Section, the competitors are:
- Les Pires (1st film) (Lise Akoka, Romane Gueret – France)
- Kurak Günler (Burning Days) (Emin Alper – Turkey)
- More than Ever (Emily Atef – Germany, France)
- Metronom (1st film) (Alexandru Belc – Romania)
- Sick of Myself (Kristoffer Borgli – Norway)
- All The People I’ll Never Be (Davy Chou – France)
- Plan 75 (1st film) (Chie Hayakawa – Japan)
- Mediterranean Fever (Maha Haj – Palestine)
- War Pony (1st film) (Riley Keough, Gina Gammell – United States)
- Corsage (Marie Kreutzer – Austria, France, Germany, Luxembourg)
- The Stranger (Thomas M. Wright – Australia)
- Domingo y la Niebla (Domingo and The Mist) (Ariel Escalante Meza – Costa Rica, Qatar)
- Bachennya Metelyka (Butterfly Vision) (1st film) (Maksym Nakonechnyi – Croatia, Czech Republic, Sweden, Ukraine)
- Harka (1st film) (Lotfy Nathan – Tunisia)
- Rodeo (1st film) ( Lola Quivoron – France)
- Vanskabte Land / Volaða Land (Godland) (Hlynur Pálmason – Denmark, Iceland, France, Sweden)
- Joyland (1st film) (Saim Sadiq – Pakistan)
- The Silent Twins (Agnieszka Smoczyńska – Poland, U.K., U.S.)
- The Blue Caftan (Maryam Touzani – Morocco).
The following films were selected to be screened out of competition:
- Elvis (Baz Luhrmann – Australia, U.S.)
- L’Innocent (Louis Garrel – France)
- Mascarade (Nicolas Bedos – France)
- Three Thousand Years of Longing (George Miller – Australia, U.S.)
- Top Gun: Maverick (Joseph Kosinski – U.S.)
- Novembre (Cédric Jimenez – France)
The Cannes Premiere nominations are:
- Dodo (Panos H. Koutras – Greece, France, Belgium)
- Esterno Notte (Exterior Night) (Marco Bellocchio – Italy)
- Irma Vep (Olivier Assayas – United States)
- Nos Frangins (Rachid Bouchareb – France)
- Don Juan (Serge Bozon – France)
- La Nuit du 12 (Dominik Moll – France)
- Diary of a Fleeting Affair (Emmanuel Mouret – France)
- As Bestas (Rodrigo Sorogoyen – Spain, France).
As for the last two sections, the Midnight Screenings category includes Hunt (Jung-Jae Lee), Smoking causes Coughing (Quentin Dupieux), Moonage Daydream (Brett Morgen) and Rebel (Adil El Arbi, Bilall Fallah). The selections for the Special Screenings category are:
- All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen – India, U.K., U.S.)
- Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind (Ethan Coen – U.S.)
- Marcel! (1st film) (Jasmine Trinca – Italy)
- My Imaginary Country (Patricio Guzmán – Chile)
- The Natural History of Destruction (Sergei Loznitsa – Ukraine)
- Little Nicholas Happy As Can Be (Amandine Fredon, Benjamin Massoubre – France)
- Remains of the Wind (Tiago Guedes – Portugal)
- Feminist Ripost (1st film) (Marie Perennès, Simon Depardon – France)
- Salam (Diam’s, Houda Benyamina, Anne Cissé – France)
- The Vagabonds (1st film) (Doroteya Droumeva – Germany)
- For the Sake of Peace (1st film) (Christophe Castagne, Thomas Sametin – South Sudan).
We can see that the competition is extremely intense, and we are eager to hear the results. As always, the event celebrates freedom of expression through art in an outstanding way, and is sure to thrill once again with its excellent lineup of diverse and interesting choices!
References
- “The films of the Official Selection 2022”, festival-cannes.com, Available here
- “What is the Cannes Market, and Should You Bring Your Movie There?”, nofilmschool.com, Available here
- “Forever Young”, filmitalia.org, Available here
- 2022 Cannes Film Festival, wikipedia.org, Available here
- 2022 Awards, imdb.com, Available here
- “Mother and Son”, cineuropa.org, Available here
