After taking a short break from the live press conference the first thing I notice is that there was NO Short Films selection announcement! Last year the shorts were announced one day before the press conference but this year wonder when as what follows is Quinzaine, Semaine and ACID selections announcement next week. Strange.Before going into the list let's share what we already know. There is a lovely Cannes 2019 poster, Alejandro González Iñárritu is the competition jury president, Nadine Labaki is the Un Certain Regard jury President, Alain Delon will accept an honorary Palme d'O, Claire Denis is the Short Films and Cinéfondation jury President and the opening film is by Jim Jarmusch with a film that many, including me, bet will go to Midnight Screenings (!!!) but instead not only opens the festival but also is in competition. Also today we learned that Virginie Ledoyen is the Queer Palm jury president.
The festival will run from May 14 to 25. Post will be in progress until after we learn all films in competition, in the official selection and all juries members, so there will be constant updates as soon as organizers announce the news.
So, yes there are many, many omissions but found only two major surprises as was betting films will be in Cannes but not in competition. First is Mati Diop first feature film, La Prochaine Fois, Le Feu (The Atlantides) or as what is called now in the Cannes list, Atlantique; second is Ladj Ly first feature film, Les Misérables. It's not often that first films land in the competition, so that's the reason why I was surprised; but then, it is a good surprise after all.
It will take a complete article to talk about those films that are not in the competition nor in the selection, but will mention that Quentin Tarantino's film is not ready yet and seems there is a possibility they'll finish it before the fest starts; my best guess, is that producers will wait for Venice as fest has become the Oscars vehicle and Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, Margot Robbie and more will look nice in La Mostra red carpet. Also not ready, James Gray film, but I'm no fan of the director so no loss there for me.
So with the in competition films guess who will be walking and climbing the stairs of the red carpet? Let start with the ones I like, Isabelle Huppert, Valeria Golino, Adèle Haenel, Virginie Efira, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Léa Seydoux, Penélope Cruz, and Sônia Braga. Then we have Tilda Swinton, Chloë Sevigny, Adam Driver, Bill Murray, Selena Gomez and more but they are in a film about zombies which, no it's not one of my favorite characters in any movie and believe me, I LOVE vampires, werewolfs, fairies, witches but definitively NO zombies (lol), so will not talk much about festival opening film, sigh.
During the press conference Thierry Fremaux mentioned there were 13 female directors but as we can see below, in competition there are only four (4) in the up-to-this-moment 19 titles announced. We know there could be 1 or 2 more films in competition but doubt will be from a female director (buzz says could be Tarantino and Kechiche); so, gender proportion is on the low side of the scale, below the 25% industry standard. Female directors are identify by their names in BLUE.
The Selection
Competition
Opening Film: The Dead Don't Die, Jim Jarmusch, USA and Sweden
A Hidden Life, Terrence Malick, USA and Germany
Atlantique, Mati Diop, France, Senegal and Belgium (1st film)
Bacurau (Nighthawk), Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles, Brazil
Dolor y Gloria (Pain and Glory), Pedro Almodóvar, Spain
Frankie, Ira Sachs, France and Portugal
기생충 Gisaengchoong (Parasite), Bong Joon-ho, South Korea
Il Traditore (The Traitor), Marco Bellocchio, Italy, France, Brazil and Germany
It Must Be Heaven, Elia Suleiman, France, Germany, Turkey and Canada
La Gomera (The Whistlers), Corneliu Porumboiu, Romania, France and Germany
Le Jeune Ahmed (Young Ahmed), Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Belgium
Les Misérables, Ladj Ly, France (1st film)
Little Joe,Jessica Hausner, Austria, UK and Germany
Matthias et Maxime (Matthias and Maxime), Xavier Dolan, Canada
南方车站的聚会 Nan Fang Che Zhan De Ju Hui (The Wild Goose Lake), Diao Yi'nan, China
Portrait de la jeune fille en feu (Portrait of a Lady On Fire), Céline Sciamma, France
Roubaix, une lumière (Roubaix, a Light), Arnaud Desplechin, France
Sorry We Missed You, Ken Loach, UK
Sybil, Justine Triet, France
Out of Competition
Diego Maradona, Asif Kapadia, UK
La Belle époque, Nicolas Bedos, France
Les plus belles années d'une vie (The Best Years of a Life), Claude Lelouch, France
Rocketman, Dexter Fletcher, USA and UK
Too Old to Die Young, Nicolas Winding Refn, USA (TV series)
The Jury
President: Alejandro González Iñárritu, director, writer and producer, Mexico
Check in and out of competition films available info and trailers @MOC
Un Certain Regard
Adam, Maryam Touzani, Morocco, France and Qatar
Bull, Annie Silverstein, USA (1st Film)
Дылда Dylda (Beanpole), Kantemir Balagov, Russia
Додому Evge, Nariman Aliev, Ukraine (1st film)
Jeanne (Joan of Arc), Bruno Dumont, France
La femme de mon frère (A Brother's Love), Monia Chokri, Canada (1st film)
Les hirondelles de Kaboul (The Shallows of Kabul), Zabou Breitman and Éléa Gobbé-Mévellec, France, Luxembourg and Switzerland (animation)
Liberté, Albert Serra, France, Portugal and Spain
六欲天 Liu Yu Tian (Summer of Changsha), Zu Feng, China (1st film)
Musique de chambre (aka Chambre 212), Christophe Honoré, France
O Que Arde (A Sun That Never Sets), Oliver Laxe, Spain, France and Luxembourg
Papicha, Mounia Meddour, France, Algeria and Belgium
Port Authority, Danielle Lessovitz, USA (1st film)
The Climb, Michael Covino, USA (1st film)
Vida Invisivel (Invisible Life), Karim Aïnouz, Brazil
灼人秘密 Zhuo Rem Mi Mi, Midi Z, Taiwan
Un Certain Regard Jury
President: Nadine Labaki, director, writer and producer, Lebanon
Special Screenings
Etre vivant et le savoir, Alain Cavalier, France (documentary)
Family Romance, LLC., Werner Herzog, Germany (documentary)
For Sama,Waad Al Kateab, UK (documentary)
Que Sea Ley, Juan Solanas, Argentina (documentary)
Share, Pippa Bianco, USA (1st film)
Tommaso, Abel Ferrara, Italy
Midnight Screenings
악인전 Akinjeon (The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil), Lee Won-tae, South Korea
Camera d'Or Jury
President:
Short Films Competition
Cinéfondation Selection
Short Films and Cinéfondation Jury
President: Claire Denis, director, writer and producer, France
Check short films list at official site here.
Check available Movie Posters for ALL films at my Pinterest here.