Cannes competition lineup includes “The Beguiled,” “Wonderstruck”

PanARMENIAN.Net - Cannes Film Festival director Thierry Fremaux and president Pierre Lescure on Thursday, April 13 unveiled the lineup for the iconic Côte d'Azur event's 70th anniversary edition, to be held May 17-28, The Hollywood Reporter said.

Bringing some Hollywood presence to the Croisette this year will be Todd Haynes' period drama Wonderstruck, starring Julianne Moore and Michelle Williams, and Sofia Coppola's The Beguiled, with Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst and Elle Fanning. Cannes veterans Michael Haneke, who won the Palme d'Or twice before, and Michel Hazanavicius also are returning with Happy End and Le Redoutable, respectively.

Fremaux and Lescure took to the stage just after 11 a.m. local time, kicking off the traditional lineup press conference at Paris' UGC Cinema on the French capital's Champs Elysees.

Lescure opened the press event by mentioning the upcoming French election and U.S. President Donald Trump. "We are in a suspenseful moment for the world," he said, adding, "Since we have a new surprise every day from Donald Trump, I hope North Korea, Syria will not cast a shadow" over Cannes.

The festival will include 19 competition titles, four out-of-competition titles, three midnight screenings, one special screening and nine first films from 1,930 submitted movies. Fremaux said 12 female directors will be featured in the official selection, up from nine last year.

Benny and Josh Safdie's Good Time, a crime drama starring Robert Pattinson, and Lynne Ramsay's You Were Never Really Here, toplined by Joaquin Phoenix, will be among the titles bringing extra star power to the Cannes red carpet.

And speaking of star power, Nicole Kidman will feature in four competition and other section entries, having the biggest presence of all the bold names at the fest next month.

The first competition title unveiled was Andrei Zvyagintsev's new film Loveless. After his success with Leviathan, the Russian culture ministry had said Zvyagintsev would get no more state money for his productions, so the film was made without official Russian support and instead put together as a co-production with Germany, France and Belgium, with Eurimages support. Fremaux spoke about a revival of Russian filmmaking in discussing the lineup.

Also in the Cannes lineup is Al Gore's An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power, which follows Gore as he travels the world raising awareness of climate change and trying to push people and governments to embrace renewable energy. Additional political edge comes from a Vanessa Redgrave documentary about refugees called Sea Sorrow.

Adding high-profile TV projects for the first time, Cannes will also screen two episodes of David Lynch's Twin Peaks revival for Showtime and show Jane Campion's Top of the Lake 2 as special events.

As previously announced, Spanish director Pedro Almodovar will oversee the main competition jury that will award the Palme d'Or and other top prizes.

Palme d'Or winner Cristian Mungiu will head up the student and short films jury, and Cesar-winning French actress Sandrine Kiberlain will head the Camera d'Or jury, which selects the best first film from across all sections and sidebars.

Among Thursday's first announcements was that a short virtual reality project from Alejandro G. Inarritu will be part of the festival, as will Kristen Stewart's short film Come Swim.

Inarritu's VR short was produced and financed by Legendary Entertainment and Fondazione Prada, while ILMxLAB, Lucasfilm’s recently established immersive entertainment division, built the virtual world and characters. It explores the experience of a group of immigrants as they cross over the border between Mexico and the U.S. Inarritu, who spent four years developing the project, partnered with his frequent collaborator and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki on it.

The poster for this year's festival, which shows an exuberant Claudia Cardinale dancing, has been a source of controversy, with fans expressing outrage that the actress appeared to be slimmed down and retouched.

The full Cannes lineup is below.

Competition

Loveless, Andrei Zvyagintsev

Good Time, Benny and Josh Safdie

You Were Never Really Here, Lynne Ramsay

L'Amant Double, Francois Ozon

A Gentle Creature, Sergei Loznitsa

The Killing of a Sacred Deer, Yorgos Lanthimos

Hikari (Radiance), Naomi Kawase

The Day After, Hong Sangsoo

Le Redoutable, Michel Hazanavicius

Wonderstruck, Todd Haynes

Happy End, Michael Haneke

The Beguiled, Sofia Coppola

120 Battements par Minute, Robin Campillo

Okja, Bong Joon-Ho

Aus dem Nichts (In the Fade), Fatih Akin

Les Fantomes D’Ismael, Arnaud Desplechin

The Meyerowitz Stories, Noah Baumbach

Out-of-Competition

How to Talk to Girls at Parties, John Cameron Mitchell

Visages, Villages, Agnes Varda & JR

Mugen Non Junin (Blade of the Immortal), Takashi Miike

Un Certain Regard

Barbara, Mathieu Amalric

A Novia Del Desierto (The Desert Bride) by Cecilia Atan &Valeria Pivato

Tesnota (Closeness) by Kantemir Balagov

Aala Kaf Ifrit (Beauty and the Dogs), Kaouther Ben Hania

L’Atelier, Laurent Cantet

Fortunata (Lucky), Sergio Castellito

Las Hijas de Abril (April's Daughter), Michel Franco

Western, Valeska Grisebach

Posoki (Directions), Stephan Komandarev

Out, Gyorgy Kristof

Sanpo Suru Shinryakusha (Before We Vanish), Kiyoshi Kurosawa

En Attendant Les Hirondelles (The Nature of Time), Karim Moussaoui

Lerd (Dregs), Mohammad Rasoulof

Jeune Femme, Leonor Serrraille

Wind River, Taylor Sheridan

Apres La Guerre (After the War), Annarita Zambrano

Special Screenings

Claire’s Camera, Hong Sangsoo

12 Jours, Raymond Depardon

They, Anahita Ghazvinizadeh

Promised Land, Eugene Jarecki

Napalm, Claude Lanzmann

Demons in Paradise, Jude Ratman

Sea Sorrow, Vanessa Redgrave

An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power, Bonni Cohen, Jon Shenk

Midnight Screenings

The Villainess, Jung Byung-Gil

The Merciless, Byun Sung-Hyun

Prayer Before Dawn, Jean-Stephane Sauvaire

Virtual Reality Film

Carne y Arena, Alejandro G. Inarritu

70th Anniversary Events

Top of the Lake: China Girl, Jane Campion & Ariel Kleiman

24 Frames, Abbas Kiarostami

Twin Peaks, David Lynch

Come Swim, Kristen Stewart