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