The excitement of the 75th Cannes Film festival was palpable as journalists gathered on the Champs-Elysées in Paris on Thursday for the annual press conference announcing the films both in and out of competition. With a special nod to Ukraine, this year’s selection is an eclectic mix of familiar faces, big names and exciting newcomers. The jury has yet to be revealed.
After viewing close to 2,000 films, the selection committee has chosen 18 for the main Cannes Film Festival competition, which runs from 17-28 May. Three of them are from French directors.
Four past winners of the Palme d'Or are back in the competition: the Dardenne brothers from Belgium with their film "Tori and Lokita", Sweden's Ruben Ostlund with "Triangle of Sadness", Japan's Hirokazu Kore-eda with "Broker" and Romania's Cristian Mungiu with "RMN".
France's Claire Denis is in competition with "Stars at Noon", a thriller set in Central America featuring Robert Pattinson. She won the 2022 Silver Bear for best director at the Berlin Film Festival for "Both sides of the Blade".
Real-life drama
The other French contenders are Valeria Bruni Tedeschi with "Les Amandiers" and Arnaud Desplechin’s "Frère et Soeur".
US director Kelly Reichardt, one of the three women directors in the running returns with "Showing Up".
Fellow American filmmaker James Gray is competing with "Armageddon Time", a tale based on his New York adolescence, featuring Anne Hathaway and Anthony Hopkins.
Canadian director David Cronenberg is to present "Crimes of the Future" starring Kristen Stewart, Lea Seydoux and Viggo Mortensen.
Kirill Serebrennikov is in the running with "Tchaikovsky's Wife" – the third nomination for the Russian director who lives in exile in Germany.
He was unable to attend last year, when his film "Petrov's Flu" was in competition, due to an embezzlement conviction that his supporters say was revenge for his anti-authoritarian stance.
Ukraine welcome
Festival director Thierry Fremaux gave a nod to the difficult global situation, saying the announcement came "after two years of crisis that we won't recover from quickly, and at a time of sadness and war in Europe".
A Ukrainian film will play out of competition. "The Natural History of Destruction", from director Sergei Loznitsa, is set during World War II. Fremaux said the festival was "particularly happ" to welcome the film this year.
Ukraine also features in Un Certain Regard Category, with "Butterfly Vision", a first film from Maksim Nakonechnyi.
Jazzy mix out of competition
There’s plenty of big name sparkle in the out-of competition line-up including a documentary about rock'n'roller Jerry Lee Lewis from Ethan Coen, and "Three Thousand Years of Longing" from "Mad Max" creator George Miller, featuring Idris Elba as a djinn.
Tom Cruise will attend the much-delayed world premiere of "Top Gun: Maverick", the sequel to his 1986 blockbuster, and participate in a masterclass on 18 May – 30 years to the day since his last appearance on the Croisette.
Tom Hanks will be in town for "Elvis", in which he co-stars as the rock'n'roll star's manager Colonel Tom Parker, in the latest from Australian director Baz Luhrmann, who previously lit up Cannes with "Moulin Rouge" and "Gatsby".
Meanwhile, French director Cédric Jimenez will screen his "Novembre", based on the 2015 Paris attacks, and Nicolas Bedos (whose film "OSS 117 From Africa with Love" was the 2021 closing film at Cannes) returns with "Mascarade" – a detective comedy.
There’s plenty of newcomer talent in Un Certain regard, with 7 first feature films on offer, two of them by French directors.
Eight women directors appear in the line-up, which takes on entries from some 14 countries including Japan, South Korea, Austria, Poland, Egypt and Australia.
Saim Sadiq’s "Joyland" is representing Pakistan for the very first time in this category.
More surprises to come
The jury is normally announced ahead of the selection, but Fremaux said it would be named "in the coming days", a challenging task given so many filmmakers are back at work after the pandemic shutdown.
He also indicated more films would be added to some of the sections such as Un Certain Regard.
The films running in the Directors' Fortnight and Semaine de la Critique will also be announced in the coming days.
The opening night film – which under a recent rule must also be released nationally on the same day – will be "Final Cut", ("Z Comme Z") – a zombie film from the makers of the Oscar-winning film "The Artist".
The closing film is still a surprise. French actress Virginie Efira has been chosen as the MC for both the opening and closing soirées.
