Cannes has added 14 further films to its Official Selection ahead of next month’s festival, including two more Competition titles.
Jean-Stephane Sauvaire’s Black Flies and Catherine Corsini’s Le Retour take the Competition total up to 21; and increase the record number of films in Competition directed by women to seven.
Black Flies is a US thriller based on Shannon Burke’s 2008 novel of the same name; Sean Penn stars alongside Tye Sheridan, Katherine Waterston, Michael Pitt and Mike Tyson.
Le Retour follows a 40-something woman working for a wealthy Parisian family who joins them on a summer trip.
After festival head Thierry Fremaux had initially said the film would be in Competition, Corsini’s film was pulled from the Official Selection announcement on April 13, following allegations that the director had harassed crew members on set. The festival said it would investigate the allegations before coming to a decision on the film, which it has now chosen to include.
Three films have been added to the Cannes premiere section: Amat Escalante’s Lost In The Night, which The Match Factory is selling; Valerie Donzelli’s Just The Two Of Us, co-written with Happening director Audrey Diwan; and Lisandro Alonso’s Eureka.
Frederic Tellier’s L’Abbé Pierre, about a Second World War resistance fighter, joins as an out of Competition title; while there are two new Un Certain Regard films: Wei Shujun’s Only The River Flows and Alex Lutz’s Une Nuit, the latter of which will play out of competition and will close the Un Certain Regard strand.
The festival will host the international premiere of Robert Rodriguez’s thriller Hypnotic starring Ben Affleck as a Midnight Screening; with Kim Tae-gon’s Project Silence also joining the Midnight strand.
Completing the additions are three special screenings: Mona Achache’s Little Girl Blue, Sahra Mani’s Bread And Roses and Anna Novion’s Le Theoreme de Marguerite; plus Pedro Costa’s short film Filles Du Feu.
The festival gets underway on Tuesday, May 16, and runs until Saturday, May 27, opening with Maiwenn’s Jeanne du Barry starring Johnny Depp.
No comments yet