Screen profiles all the films in Cannes Film Festival’s Official Selection and parallel sections.

Cannes titles lowdown

Source: ©Christine Tamalet / CG Cinéma International / Charades / Playtime

[L-R] ‘Between Two Worlds’, ‘Annette’, ‘La Traviata, My Brothers And I’, ‘Paris, 13th District’

Last year, the raging Covid-19 pandemic forced Cannes to suspend its physical festival, opting instead for the Cannes label, which applied its coveted status to a list of titles, many of which then surfaced at other festivals. This year, Cannes may have missed its traditional May slot, but the upside is a physical event, unfolding amid rigorous health protocols.

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The Competition line-up is heavy on feted auteurs, many of whom are Cannes regulars including Asghar Farhadi, Bruno Dumont, Sean Penn, Leos Carax (opening the festival with Annette), Joachim Trier plus Palme d’Or winners Jacques Audiard, Nanni Moretti and Apichatpong Weerasethakul. Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch, selected to open Cannes 2020, makes its world premiere one year later.

Missing from the list here are female directors, which this year number four in Competition, including Mia Hansen-Love and Julia Ducournau, whose acclaimed Raw premiered in Critics’ Week in 2016. Cannes delegate general Thierry Frémaux instead points to Un Certain Regard, where there are eight female filmmakers, for those who want to find “the future of cinema”.

This year’s Cannes line-up is once again dominated by white film­makers — a topic likely to attract comment from Spike Lee, who is the first Black jury president, “not just at Cannes but at any big festival”, in the words of Frémaux.

The delegate general and his team made their selection from what was evidently an embarrassment of riches, hence the addition of high-profile strand Cannes Premiere — one of two new sections this year, alongside Cinema For The Climate. Major directors who previously played in Competition pepper the Premiere line-up, including triple Cannes prizewinner Andrea Arnold, six-time Competition entrant Arnaud Desplechin, Oliver Stone, Gaspar Noé, Italian veteran Marco Bellocchio (a recipient of an honorary Palme d’Or this year) and South Korea’s Hong Sangsoo.

Frémaux had toyed with making the Competition even more crammed than its 24-strong line-up, but, as he explains, “In the end, we had to think of Spike Lee and his jury and allow them to work under good conditions.” Even so, we imagine the jury discussions of five women and four men led by Lee — whose Do The Right Thing missed out on Cannes prizes in 1989, the year of Palme d’Or winner sex, lies and videotape — will be especially animated. We can’t wait to join them in discovering what promises to be — as always — a treasure trove of cinema.

Click on the links to each section for the profiles.

Competition

  • Ahed’s Knee
  • Annette 
  • Benedetta
  • Bergman Island 
  • Casablanca Beats
  • Compartment No. 6 
  • The Divide 
  • Drive My Car 
  • Everything Went Fine 
  • Flag Day 
  • France 
  • The French Dispatch 
  • A Hero 
  • Lingui, The Sacred Bonds 
  • Memoria 
  • Nitram
  • Paris, 13th District 
  • Petrov’s Flu 
  • Red Rocket 
  • The Restless 
  • The Story Of My Wife 
  • Three Floors 
  • Titane 
  • The Worst Person In The World 

Out of Competition

  • Aline, The Voice Of Love 
  • Bac Nord 
  • Emergency Declaration 
  • Peaceful 
  • Stillwater 
  • The Velvet Underground 
  • Where Is Anne Frank 

Special Screenings

  • Are You Lonesome Tonight? 
  • Babi Yar. Context 
  • Black Notebooks 
  • H6 
  • The Heroics 
  • Mariner Of The Mountains 
  • Mi Iubita, Mon Amour 
  • New Worlds: The Cradle Of Civilization 
  • The Story Of Film: A New Generation 
  • The Year Of The Everlasting Storm

Midnight Screenings

  • Bloody Oranges 
  • Suprêmes 
  • Tralala 

Cannes Premiere

  • Cow 
  • Deception 
  • Evolution 
  • Hold Me Tight 
  • In Front Of Your Face 
  • Jane By Charlotte 
  • JFK Revisited: Through The Looking Glass 
  • Love Songs For Tough Guys 
  • Marx Can Wait 
  • Mothering Sunday 
  • Val 
  • Vortex 

Un Certain Regard

  • After Yang 
  • Blue Bayou 
  • La Civil
  • Commitment Hasan 
  • Freda 
  • Great Freedom 
  • House Arrest 
  • The Innocents 
  • Lamb 
  • Let There Be Morning 
  • Moneyboys 
  • My Brothers And I 
  • Nora 
  • Onoda — 10 000 Nights In The Jungle 
  • Playground 
  • Prayers For The Stolen 
  • Rehana 
  • Streetwise 
  • Unclenching The Fists 
  • Women Do Cry 

Cinema For The Climate

  • Above Water 
  • Animal 
  • Bigger Than Us 
  • The Crusade 
  • I Am So Sorry 
  • Invisible Demons 
  • The Velvet Queen 

Directors’ Fortnight

  • A Chiara 
  • Ali & Ava 
  • Between Two Worlds 
  • The Braves 
  • A Brighter Tomorrow 
  • Clara Sola 
  • The Employer And The Employee 
  • Europa 
  • Futura 
  • The Hill Where Lionesses Roar
  • Hit The Road 
  • Intregalde 
  • Magnetic Beats 
  • Medusa 
  • Murina 
  • Neptune Frost 
  • A Night Of Knowing Nothing 
  • Our Men 
  • Returning To Reims (Fragments) 
  • Ripples Of Life
  • The Sea Ahead 
  • The Souvenir Part II 
  • The Tale Of King Crab 
  • The Tsugua Diaries 

Critics’ Week

  • Amparo 
  • Anaïs In Love 
  • Bruno Reidal, Confessions Of A Murderer 
  • Feathers 
  • The Gravedigger’s Wife 
  • Libertad 
  • Olga 
  • A Radiant Girl 
  • Robust 
  • Small Body 
  • Softie 
  • A Tale Of Love And Desire 
  • Zero Fucks Given 

Cannes profiles by Nikki Baughan, Charles Gant, Melanie Goodfellow, Elaine Guerini, Jeremy Kay, Lee Marshall, Wendy Mitchell, Jean Noh, Jonathan Romney, Michael Rosser, Silvia Wong

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