Cannes Film Festival lineup features Wes Anderson, Sean Penn
The Cannes Film Festival on Thursday unveiled a lineup of films from big-name auteurs â including Wes Anderson, Asghar Farhadi, Mia Hansen-Løve and Sean Penn â for its 74th edition, an in-person, summertime event that aims to make a stirring return in July after being canceled last year because of the pandemic.
Among the films that will be competing for Cannesâ Palme dâOr are the festival opener, âAnnette,â by Leox Carax and starring Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard; Andersonâs âThe French Dispatch,â a film originally set to premiere in Cannes last year with an ensemble cast including TimotheĚe Chalamet; âRed Rocket,â Sean Bakerâs follow-up to his acclaimed âThe Florida Projectâ; Paul Verhoevenâs âBenedettaâ; and Sean Pennâs âFlag Day,â in which he stars alongside his daughter, Dylan Penn, as a conman.
Spike Lee set to lead Cannes Film Festival jury, first Black person in that role
Pierre Lescure, president of the festival, and Thierry FreĚmaux, artistic director, announced the Cannesâ lineup at the UGC Normandie theater in Paris in a live-streamed event that was part press conference and part pep rally for world cinema.
âCinema is not dead. The extraordinary and triumphant return of the audience to movie theaters in France and around the world was the first good news,â said Fremaux. âI hope the film festival will be the second very good news.â
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As cinemaâs preeminent global stage, the annual French Riviera extravaganza is hoping to make a triumphant comeback when it runs July 6-17 â two months later than its usual May perch. But many things will be different at this yearâs festival. Attendees will be masked inside theaters and required to show proof of full vaccination or a recent negative COVID-19 test. Cannesâ famed red carpet leading up to the stairs of the Palais des Festivals will resume in full, but with tweaks to the traditional pageantry.
âWeâre used to kissing one another at the top of the stairs. We will not kiss one another,â said Fremaux.
Cannes Film Festival postponed to July by COVID-19 pandemic
Still, there are many questions leading up to a Cannes that will unfold just as France is reopening and loosening restrictions. Audience capacity limitations will be removed just five days before the festival opens. Concern over a new virus strain led France last week to institute a seven-day quarantine for travelers arriving from the United Kingdom â a potential blow to the British film industry that regularly decamps to Cannes.
For such an international festival as Cannes, many other travel regulations could pose complications. Fremaux acknowledged some filmmakers may not be able to attend. The movie market that typical runs in tandem with the festival and draws much of the film industry for a week of frenzied deal-making, will be held virtually in late June.
But the Cannes program, while perhaps lacking a Hollywood title as anticipated as Quentin Tarantinoâs âOnce Upon a Time in Hollywoodâ (an entry in 2019, when Bong Joon Hoâs âParasiteâ won the Palme), was praised as top-class. It includes former Palme dâOr winners Jacques Audiard (âParis 13th Districtâ) and Apichatpong Weerasethakul (âMemoria,â starring Tilda Swinton).
Cannesreveals lineup for film festival canceled by the coronavirus pandemic
Four of the 24 films in competition are directed by women, a low percentage but one that ties the festivalâs previous top mark. That includes new films from Mia Hansen-Løve (âBergman Island,â with Mia Wasikowska, Tim Roth and Vicky Krieps) and Hungarian filmmaker IldikoĚ Enyedi.
Cannes has previously refused to play in competition any film that doesnât have a theatrical release in France, leading to an impasse with Netflix. Though other movie institutions like the Academy Awards have bended theatrical rules during the pandemic, Cannes has not.
Among the standouts playing out of competition, or in Cannesâ new âCannes Premiereâ are: Andrea Arnoldâs âCowâ; Todd Haynesâ documentary âThe Velvet Undergroundâ; Tom McCarthyâs âStillwaterâ; and the Oliver Stone documentary âJFK: Through the Looking Glass.â
Spike Lee, who debuted âDo the Right Thingâ at Cannes in 1989, will preside over the jury selecting the Palme dâOr winner. Heâs the first Black person to ever head the Cannes jury. At the opening ceremony, an honorary Palme will be given to Jodie Foster, who first came to Cannes as a 13-year-old for the premiere of Martin Scorseseâs âTaxi Driver.â
Speaking to The Associated Press after the press conference, Fremaux said it will be âthe ultimate Cannes.â
âIt will be something special. In five years people will be asking âWere you in Cannes in 2021?â and people would say âNo I wasnât.â âOh you werenât? Thatâs a pity. It was really great,ââ said Fremaux. âItâs going to be a special Cannes.â