The Cannes lineup for its 72nd edition was announced today. Following a falling out with Netflix and the increasingly heavyweight competition of Venice, the 2019 programme feels like it had something to prove – and it looks to have delivered.
About half of the official competition appears to be made up of old hands and familiar faces. Two-time Palme d’Or winner Ken Loach joins Pedro Almodóvar, the Dardennes, Arnaud Desplechin, Marco Bellocchio and Terrence Malick. Another Cannes regular, Jim Jarmusch, will open proceedings with zombie movie The Dead Don’t Die, starring Bill Murray, Adam Driver and Iggy Pop. Although not particularly old, Xavier Dolan is another festival favourite back on the Croisette.
The other half of the selection tries to address the criticisms about a lack of diversity behind the camera. Austrian director Jessica Hausner (Lourdes, Amour Fou) returns to Cannes with the English language Little Joe, starring Ben Whishaw. Elsewhere, Girlhood director Celine Sciamma’s splendidly titled Portrait of a Lady on Fire stars festival favourite Adèle Haenel as a woman who falls in love with the painter commissioned to paint her wedding portrait.
The most notable absences were Quentin Tarantino’s keenly anticipated 9th film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and James Gray’s science fiction thriller Ad Astra, both starring Brad Pitt. The sidebars of Director’s Fortnight and International Critics Week are also yet to announce, as well as the Cannes Classics series, though it was already mentioned that a new restoration of The Shining, presented by Alfonso Cuaròn, will be shown.
Competition
The Dead Don’t Die (dir: Jim Jarmusch)
Atlantique (dir: Mati Diop)
Bacarau (dir: Kleber Mendonça Filho & Juliano Dornelles)
Frankie (dir: Ira Sachs)
A Hidden Life (dir: Terrence Malick)
It Must Be Heaven (dir: Elia Suleiman)
Les Misérables (dir: Ladj Ly)
Little Joe (dir: Jessica Hausner)
Matthias and Maxime (dir: Xavier Dolan)
Oh Mercy! (dir: Arnaud Desplechin)
Parasite (dir: Bong Joon-ho)
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (dir: Céline Sciamma)
Sibyl (dir: Justine Triet)
Sorry We Missed You (dir: Ken Loach)
Pain and Glory (dir: Pedro Almodóvar)
The Traitor (dir: Marco Bellocchio)
La Gomera (dir: Corneliu Porumboiu)
The Wild Goose Lake (dir: Diao Yinan)
The Young Ahmed (dir: Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne)
Un Certain Regard
Adam (dir: Maryam Touzani)
Dylda (dir: Kantemir Balagov)
A Brother’s Love (dir: Monia Chokri)
Bull (dir: Annie Silverstein)
The Climb (dir: Michael Covino)
Evge (dir: Nariman Aliev)
Liberté (dir: Albert Serra)
Invisible Life (dir: Karim Aïnouz)
Jeanne (dir: Bruno Dumont)
Room 212 (dir: Christophe Honoré)
Papicha (dir: Mounia Meddour)
Port Authority (dir: Danielle Lessovitz)
Summer of Changsha (dir: Zu Feng)
The Swallows of Kabul (dir: Zabou Breitman & Eléa Gobé Mévellec)
A Sun That Never Sets (dir: Olivier Laxe)
Zhuo Ren Mi Mi (dir: Midi Z)
Out of Competition
The Best Years of a Life (dir: Claude Lelouch)
Diego Maradona (dir: Asif Kapadia)
La Belle Époque (dir: Nicolas Bedos)
Rocketman (dir: Dexter Fletcher)
Too Old to Die Young – North of Hollywood, West of Hell (TV series – creator: Nicolas Winding Refn)
Midnight Screening
The Gangster, the Cop, the Devil (dir: Lee Won-Tae)
Special Screenings
Family Romance, LLC (dir: Werner Herzog)
For Sama (dir: Waad Al Kateab, Edward Watts)
Que Sea Ley (dir: Juan Solanas)
Share (dir: Pippa Bianco)
To Be Alive and Know It (dir: Alain Cavalier)
Tommaso (dir: Abel Ferrara)
The 72nd Cannes Film Festival takes place from 14-25 May.
John Bleasdale | @drjonty
