This year’s Cannes Film Festival features 21 films, including four past Palme d’Or winners and many cult favorites. The festival opens on Tuesday and the winners will be announced at the closing ceremonies on May 28.
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The Future
David Cronenberg, the horrible genius behind The Fly as well as Crash is back to his body horror roots. He tells a story starring Kristen Stewart, Lea Seydoux, and Viggo Mortensen about people who indulge in revolting surgical alterations in order to achieve artistic and sexual pleasure. Get your buckets ready.
Triangle Of Sadness
Ruben Ostlund, the king of cringe in Sweden, took a scalpel and shaved modern bourgeois manners with his 2017 Palme d’Or-winning novel “The Square”. His latest place two models and a cleaner on a desert island together with a group billionaires.
Tchaikovsky’s Wife
Kirill Serebrennikov, the enfant terrible of Russian theatre and film, was a target of authorities for his savage attacks on conservative values. He was banned from traveling to Cannes for his two previous nominations. He should now be present to tell the historical story about the composer, even though he is in exile.
Armageddon Time
James Gray has been a big star in many dramatic dramas. These range from the space odyssey with Brad Pitt, “Ad Astra”, to Amazon’s adventure “The Lost City of Z”. This movie is based upon his childhood in New York City in 1980s. It stars Anne Hathaway, and Anthony Hopkins.
Broker
Japan’s Hirokazu Core-eda was awarded the Palme d’Or 2018 for his touching and beautiful family story “Shoplifters”. This one stars Song Kang-ho (Star of Parasite). It’s about babies being dropped off in “baby boxes” and then taken care by other families.
Decision To Leave
Park Chan-wook’s nightmarish thriller “Old Boy”, which won him the Grand Prix in 2004, was an international success. The South Korean actor brings his own unique style to the classic trope of a detective falling in love with the prime suspect during a murder investigation.
Showing up
Kelly Reichardt slowly built a following through her mini-masterpieces on American society’s fringes, including the 2019 sleeper hit “First Cow”. For a self-reflective look into a small-town artist struggling to overcome distractions, she is reunited again with Michelle Williams, her favorite muse.
Tori and Lokita
Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne, Belgian brothers, tell simple but powerful slice-of-life stories. They are one of a few to have been awarded the Palme d’Or twice. The latest story is about the friendship between two exiled African teens.
Stars At Noon
Claire Denis, one of France’s most highly acclaimed auteurs is enjoying a busy year. She has already won this year’s Berlinale’s directing prize. Robert Pattinson stars in her Cannes entry, a political thriller set on Central America.
R.M.N
Romania’s Cristian Mungiu was awarded the Palme d’Or 2007 for his dark but essential abortion film, “4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days”. This film explores the ethnic and political tensions that exist in a remote Transylvanian community.
Belgium’s Lukas Daont was awarded the Camera d’Or 2018 newcomer award for his debut film “Girl”, which is about a trans dancer. He tackles the story of two teenage girls who have been separated by tragedy.
Boy from Heaven
Tarik Saleh, a Swedish director, has made a bold film about power struggles at the Al-Azhar University, Egypt’s leading Sunni Islam center.
Holy Spider
After winning the Un Certain Regard section with Border in 2018, Ali Abbasi, a Danish-Iranian, heads to Mashhad, an Iranian religious city where a family man attempts to get rid of prostitutes.
Forever Young
Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, a French-Italian director, tells the story of love and loss in a Paris theatre troupe fighting AIDS in 1980s.
Nostalgia
Mario Martone, an Italian director, pays tribute to Naples.
Sister
Marion Cotillard stars as a character in the drama about siblings who are reunited after their parents’ deaths, directed by Arnaud Deplechin.
Leila’s Brothers
Iran’s Saeed Rustaee made waves last year with his punchy cop thriller, “Just 6.5”. His latest film explores the economic difficulties of a family living in a country that has been hit hard by international sanctions.
EO
This treatise against animal cruelty follows a donkey from circus to slaughterhouse. It is written by Jerzy Skolimowski (84), a Polish director who won the Cannes Film Festival’s first prize in 1972.
Pacification
Albert Serra, the Spanish director, heads to Tahiti in order to investigate diplomatic tensions surrounding French nuclear testing.
Mother and Son
France’s Leonor Serrail follows a Senegalese mother as she attempts to build a life in Paris suburbs.
