A barrage of hopefuls for the Croisette

by Fabien Lemercier

18/02/2016 - There is a very tantalising list of potential candidates for the 69th Cannes Film Festival, which will unspool from 11-22 May 2016

While the 66th Berlin Film Festival will deliver its final verdict on Saturday, the world’s film-industry professionals will now be hitting the road leading to the 69th Cannes Film Festival (11-22 May 2016), which could be thought of as the Olympic-size swimming pool of the seventh art. The fight to reach the most coveted swimming lanes of the competition (whose jury will be chaired by George Miller – read the news) promises to be particularly brutal this year. Fuelled by the lists drawn up by film buffs, the ever-thrilling great game of armchair philosophising and forecasting in the international film-loving community is already well under way, as is the "top-secret" work of Cannes selector Thierry Frémaux.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

Standing proud in the vanguard of this overview of possible candidates and hopefuls on the quest for the 2016 Palme d'Or are, naturally, the new films by former victors and award-winners. This is because, with all due respect to supporters of change, the best have never been crowned by mere chance, and when it comes to art, the status of a “master” is not necessarily synonymous with conventionalism, but often, on the contrary, with encouragement to achieve perfection. As a result, fans are eagerly awaiting the following titles at Cannes: The Unknown Girl [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
film profile] by Belgian directors Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (read the news), Family Photos (Aventura Park) by Romanian director Cristian Mungiu, Julieta [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Pedro Almodóvar
film profile] by Spaniard Pedro Almodóvar (news), the new, as-yet untitled film [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Iran’s Asghar Farhadi, It’s Only the End of the World [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Canada’s Xavier Dolan (news), The Handmaid by Korea’s Park Chan-wook, After the Storm by Japan’s Hirokazu Kore-Eda, The Neon Demon [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Nicolas Winding Refn
film profile] by Danish filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn (news), Goodbye Berlin [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Germany’s Fatih Akin (news), Sweet Dreams [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Marco Bellocchio
film profile] by Italy’s Marco Bellocchio (news), Untamed [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Mexico’s Amat Escalante, American Honey [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Andrea Arnold
film profile] by the UK’s Andrea Arnold and I, Daniel Blake [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by her fellow countryman Ken Loach (news).

On the US side, movie buffs are dreaming about Martin Scorsese’s return to the Croisette with Silence, but are also hoping for Sully by Clint Eastwood, Loving [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Jeff Nichols, perhaps a new opus by Terrence Malick, The Lost City of Z by James Gray (although its release seems to have been scheduled for late 2016 or early 2017...) and Paterson [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Jim Jarmusch (but is this compatible with its recent acquisition by Amazon?), not to mention The Light Between Oceans [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by rising star Derek Cianfrance, as well as outsiders Nocturnal Animals [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Tom Ford and La La Land by Damien Chazelle.

The French hopefuls are really jostling for space at the gates of the competition, with Paris Is Happening [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bertrand Bonello
film profile] by Bertrand Bonello (news), Orphan [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Arnaud des Pallières
film profile] by Arnaud des Pallières (news), Slack Bay [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Bruno Dumont
film profile] by Bruno Dumont (news - scheduled for a French release on 11 May), Personal Shopper [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Artemio Benki
interview: Olivier Assayas
film profile] by Olivier Assayas (news - set to be released in France on 19 October), A Woman's Life [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Stéphane Brizé
film profile] by Stéphane Brizé (news), Planetarium [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Rebecca Zlotowski
film profile] by Rebecca Zlotowski (news), Staying Vertical [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alain Guiraudie
film profile] by Alain Guiraudie (news - French release set for 24 August), Frantz [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: François Ozon
film profile] by François Ozon (news - French release on 14 September), 150 Milligrams [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Emmanuelle Bercot (news) and From the Land of the Moon [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Nicole Garcia (news - French release on 19 October).

As for the most serious South American candidates, we could mention titles such as Neruda [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Chile’s Pablo Larrain, Zama [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lucrecia Martel
film profile] by Argentina’s Lucrecia Martel and Aquarius [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by up-and-coming Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho, while Asia is also in with a good chance with the French-language films Eternité [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Vietnam’s Tran Anh-hung (news) and The Woman in the Silver Plate [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Japan’s Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Harmonium [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by his fellow countryman Koji Fukada, and even Gokseong by Korea’s Na Hong-jin.

Also back with a vengeance on the most comprehensive lists are titles such as the French production Elle [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Dutch filmmaker Paul Verhoeven (news), L'économie du couple [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Joachim Lafosse
film profile] by Belgium’s Joachim Lafosse (news), the enigmatic On the Milky Road [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Serbia’s Emir Kusturica, Florence Foster Jenkins [+see also:
trailer
making of
film profile] by British director Stephen Frears, Oppenheimer Strategies by Israel’s Joseph Cedar, Story of Your Life by Canada’s Denis Villeneuve, Snowden [+see also:
trailer
interview: Oliver Stone
film profile] by US director Oliver Stone, The Last Face by his fellow countryman Sean Penn, The History of Love [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Romania’s Radu Mihaileanu (news), Les Beaux jours d'Aranjuez [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Germany’s Wim Wenders, Viceroy's House [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by the UK’s Gurinder Chadha and The Sense of an Ending [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by India’s Ritesh Batra (news).

French film production, which is increasingly tending to bank on applications for Cannes, which then gives rise to an excessive amount of competition that is relatively lethal for the unsuccessful, may also be able to count on The Heart [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Katell Quillévéré
film profile] by Katell Quillévéré (news), The Stopover [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Delphine and Muriel Coulin
film profile] by sisters Delphine and Muriel Coulin (news), Into the Forest [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Gilles Marchand (news), Le jeune Karl Marx [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Raoul Peck (news), Félicité [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alain Gomis
film profile] by Alain Gomis (news), The Apple of My Eye [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Axelle Ropert (news), Victoria [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Justine Triet
film profile] by Justine Triet (news), the animated film My Life as a Zucchini [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Claude Barras
film profile] by Claude Barras (news), Struggle for Life [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Antonin Peretjatko (news - set to be released in France on 15 June), and the feature debuts M [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Sara Forestier
film profile] by Sara Forestier (news), The Dancer [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Stéphanie di Giusto (news), Raw by Julia Ducourneau, Mon nom à Pigalle by Ekoué and Hamé (in other words, the pioneering duo from rap group La Rumeur), Mercenaire by Sacha Wolf (news) and A Taste of Ink [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Morgan Simon
film profile] by Morgan Simon (news).

Lastly, among the films by budding filmmakers from the rest of the world, we could highlight Heartstone [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson
film profile] by Icelandic director Gudmundur Arnar Gudmundsson (news), Valley of Shadows [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jonas Matzow Gulbrandsen
film profile] by Norway’s Jonas Matzow Gulbrandsen, The Giant [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Johannes Nyholm
film profile] by Sweden’s Johannes Nyholm, Zoology [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ivan I Tverdovsky
film profile] by Russia’s Ivan I Tverdovsky, the Danish production Wolf and Sheep [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Shahrbanoo Sadat
film profile] by Afghan director Shahrbanoo Sadat, Dogs [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bogdan Mirica
film profile] by Romania’s Bogdan Mirica (news), Glory [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Petar Valchanov
interview: Petar Valchanov, Kristina G…
film profile] by Bulgaria’s Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov (news), I Want to Be Like You [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by their fellow countryman Konstantin Bojanov (news), Quit Staring at My Plate [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Hana Jušić
film profile] by Croatia’s Hana Jusic, Berlin Syndrome by Australia’s Cate Shortland, Skoran by the Czech Republic’s Petr Vaclav and The Darkness [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Mexico’s Daniel Castro Zimbron.

This non-exhaustive inventory of the powers at play as Cannes 2016 looms will no doubt be livened up by a few wild cards and new discoveries, but it already holds a great deal of promise for a fascinating 2016 edition. All that remains to do now is await the confirmation of these potential titles in the beautiful setting of the Grand Théâtre Lumière.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

(Translated from French)