The lineup for the 69th Cannes Film Festival (how apropos) was announced this morning, and the auteur-courting fest snagged an enviable group of top-tier directors. Steven Spielberg, Woody Allen, and Jodie Foster will all debut their films out of competition (The BFG, Cafe Society, and Money Monster, respectively), while the competitive lineup has a powerhouse list of acclaimed helmers including Pedro Almódovar, Andrea Arnold, Jeff Nichols, the Dardenne brothers, and Xavier Dolan. Ryan Gosling, too, will return to Cannes after his directorial effort Lost River was wanly received there: This time, he’s in front of the camera, starring opposite Russell Crowe in Shane Black’s The Nice Guys.
Among the people who could make their mark on the Croisette are Kristen Stewart, who toplines both the Woody Allen film and the supposedly spooky Olivier Assayas film Personal Shopper; after becoming the first American actress to ever win a César award — the Gallic equivalent of our Oscar — for Assayas’s The Clouds of Sils Maria, K-Stew is surely shoring up her French bona fides with a Cannes double dip. I’m interested to see what will become of the provocative Nicolas Winding Refn, who won the Best Director prize at Cannes for Drive and then followed that up with the booed misfire Only God Forgives: His latest, the Elle Fanning thriller The Neon Demon, is in competition. And you can usually count on Cannes to launch the Best Picture campaign of at least one American film, so watch for the Jeff Nichols–directed Loving, which casts Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga in a period piece about the couple who changed America’s laws on interracial marriage.
Which buzzed-about films didn’t make the list? I heard early on that Cannes wanted Martin Scorsese’s Silence and Damien Chazelle’s La La Land, but neither film was close to done and the latter was pushed from a summer berth to a fall release-date. Generally at least one Sundance Film Festival barnstormer will make its way to Cannes, and I thought that would have been Nate Parker’s The Birth of a Nation; instead, it’s the warmly received family drama Captain Fantastic, starring Viggo Mortensen. There are still a few Cannes sections yet to be announced, though, so there remains room for a few more surprises.
Here’s the current lineup, released early this morning. The festival starts May 11, and Vulture will be there.
Opening Night Film
Cafe Society – directed by Woody Allen
Competition
Toni Erdmann – directed by Maren Ade
Julieta – directed by Pedro Almodóvar
American Honey – directed by Andrea Arnold
The Unknown Girl – directed by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
Personal Shopper – directed by Olivier Assayas
It’s Only the End of the World – directed by Xavier Dolan
Ma Loute – directed by Bruno Dumont
Paterson – directed by Jim Jarmusch
Rester Vertical – directed by Alain Guiraudie
Aquarius – directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho
Mal de Pierres – directed by Nicole Garcia
I, Daniel Blake – directed by Ken Loach
Ma’Rosa – directed by Brilliante Mendoza
Loving – directed by Jeff Nichols
Bacalaureat – directed by Cristian Mungiu
Agassi – directed by Park Chan-Wook
The Last Face – directed by Sean Penn
Sieranevada – directed by Cristi Puiu
Elle – directed by Paul Verhoeven
The Neon Demon – directed by Nicolas Winding Refn
Un Certain Regard
Varoonegi – directed by Behnam Behzadi
Apprentice – directed by Boo Junfeng
Voir du Pays – directed by Delphine Coulin and Muriel Coulin
La Danseuse – directed by Stephanie Di Giusto
Clash – directed by Mohamed Diab
La Tortue Rouge – directed by Michael Dubok de Wit
Fuchi Bi Tatsu – directed by Fukada Koji
Omar Shakhsiya – directed by Maha Haj
Me’Ever Laharim Vehagvaot – directed by Eran Kolirin
After The Storm – directed by Kore-Eda Hirokazu
Hymyileva Mies – directed by Juho Kuosmanen
La Large Noche de Francisco Sanctis – directed by Francisco Marquez and Andrea Testa
Caini – directed by Bogdan Mirica
Pericle Il Nero – directed by Stefano Mordini
The Transfiguration – directed by Michael O’Shea
Captain Fantastic – directed by Matt Ross
Uchenik – directed by Kirill Serebrennikov
Out of Competition
The BFG – directed by Steven Spielberg
Money Monster – directed by Jodie Foster
The Nice Guys – directed by Shane Black
Gok Sung – directed by Na Hong-Jin
Midnight Screenings
Gimme Danger – directed by Jim Jarmusch
The Train to Busan – directed by Yeon Sang-Ho
A Chad Tragedy – directed by Mahamat-Saleh Aroun
The Death of Louis XIV – directed by Albert Serra
L’Ultima Spiaggia – directed by Thanos Anastopoulos and Davide Del Degan