Cannes Film Festival 2017: What Films Are Expected To Stand Out?

The Cannes Film Festival got underway today in France, to celebrate the best of the film industry.

WHAT TO EXPECT FROM THE CANNES FILM FESTIVAL

The festival runs from May 17 to May 28, and is invitation-only. Some of the best artistic films have screened at Cannes, and 19 are up for the prestigious top prize, the Palme d’Or, this year. The international festival brings together the top filmmakers across the globe to compete in various categories. Last year, Ken Loach won the Palme d’Or for his film I, Daniel Blake.

Those up for the award are:
Wonderstruck, Todd Haynes
Le Redoutable, Michel Hazanavicius
Geu-Hu (The Day After), Hong Sangsoo
Hikari (Radiance), Naomi Kawase
The Killing of a Sacred Deer, Yorgos Lanthimos
A Gentle Creature, Sergei Loznitsa
Jupiter’s Moon, Kornél Mundruczó
L’amant Double, François Ozon
You Were Never Really Here, Lynne Ramsay
Good Time, Benny Safdie and Josh Safdie
Loveless, Andrey Zvyagintsev
The Meyerowitz Stories, Noah Baumbach
Ismael’s Ghosts, Arnaud Desplechin
In the Fade, Fatih Akin
Okja, Bong Joon-Ho
120 Battements Par Minute, Robin Campillo
The Beguiled, Sofia Coppola
Rodin, Jacques Doillon
Happy End, Michael Haneke

The films to keep an eye on in particular are The Killing of a Sacred Deer, The Beguiled, Wonderstruck, Okja, Loveless, and You Were Never Really Here. Lanthimos’ film stars Nicole Kidman (who is in an impressive 4 films this year) and Will Farrell, and is about a teen boy forming a sinister friendship with a surgeon. The Beguiled comes to us from Sofia Coppola, one of three female directors at the festival with films in competition. Her film is both a remake of Clint Eastwood‘s 1971 film and an adaptation of the original material. Wonderstruck comes from Todd Haynes, whose Carol was widely adored last year.

Okja is being produced by Netflic and is both an action and monster film. Loveless, from Zvyagintsev, is about a divorced couple who must work together to find their lost son. You Were Never Really Here follows a war veteran (Joaquin Phoenix) who attempts to save a girl from a sex trafficking ring, but something goes terribly wrong.

In addition to films, two television shows will make their debut at the festival: Top of the Lake: China Girl and the Twin Peaks revival.

The other films that are not up for competition but are debuting at the festival, are listed below.

Opening film – out of competition
Les Fantômes d’Ismaël (dir: Arnaud Desplechin)

Un Certain Regard
Barbara (dir: Mathieu Amalric) – opening film
April’s Daughter (dir: Michel Franco)
Beauty and the Dogs (dir: Kaouther Ben Hania)
Before We Vanish (dir: Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
Closeness (dir: Kantemir Balagov)
The Desert Bride (dir: Cecilia Atan and Valeria Pivato)
Directions (dir: Stephan Komandarev)
Dregs (dir: Mohammad Rasoulof)
Jeune Femme (dir: Léonor Serraille)
L’Atelier (dir: Laurent Cantet)
La Cordillera (dir: Santiago Mitre)
Lucky (dir: Sergio Castellitto)
The Nature of Time (dir: Karim Moussaoui)
Out (dir: György Kristóf)
Walking Past the Future (dir: Li Ruijun)
Western (dir: Valeska Grisebach)
Wind River (dir: Taylor Sheridan)

Out of competition
Based on a True Story (dir: Roman Polanski)
Blade of the Immortal (dir: Takashi Miike)
How to Talk to Girls at Parties (dir: John Cameron Mitchell)
Visages, Villages (dirs: Agnès Varda & JR)

Midnight screenings
A Prayer Before Dawn (dir: Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire)
The Merciless (dir: Byun Sung-hyun)
The Villainess (dir: Jung Byung-gil)

Special screenings
12 Jours (dir: Raymond Depardon)
24 Frames (dir: Abbas Kiarostami)
An Inconvenient Sequel (dir: Bonni Cohen & Jon Shenk)
Carré 35 (dir: Eric Caravaca)
Claire’s Camera (dir: Hong Sang-soo)
Demons in Paradise (dir: Jude Ratman)
Le Vénérable W (dir: Barbet Schroeder)
Napalm (dir: Claude Lanzmann)
Promised Land (dir: Eugene Jarecki)
Sea Sorrow (dir: Vanessa Redgrave)
They (dir: Anahita Ghazvinizadeh)
Top of the Lake (TV – dir: Jane Campion)
Twin Peaks (TV – dir: David Lynch)

Children’s screening
Zombillénium (dir: Arthur de Pins and Alexis Ducord)

Virtual reality
Carne y Arena (dir: Alejandro G Iñárritu)

Directors Fortnight
A Ciambra (dir: Jonas Carpignano)
Alive in France (dir: Abel Ferrara)
L’Amant d’un Jour (dir: Philippe Garrel)
Bushwick (dirs: Cary Murnion & Jonathan Milott)
Cuori Puri (dir: Roberto de Paolis)
The Florida Project (dir: Sean Baker)
Frost (dir: Sharunas Bartas)
I Am Not a Witch (dir: Rungano Nyoni)
Jeannette: The Childhood of Joan of Arc (dir: Bruno Dumont)
L’Intrusa (dir: Leonardo Di Costanzo)
La Defensa Del Dragón (dir: Natalia Santa)
Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts (dir: Mouly Surya)
Mobile Homes (dir: Vladimir De Fontenay)
Nothingwood (dir: Sonia Kronlund)
Ôtez-moi d’un Doute (dir: Carine Tardieu)
Patti Cake$ (dir: Geremy Jasper) – closing film
The Rider (dir: Chloé Zhao)
Un Beau Soleil Intérieur (dir: Claire Denis) – opening film
West of the Jordan River (Field Diary Revisited) (dir: Amos Gitai)

Critics’ Week

Competition
Ava (dir: Léa Mysius)
La Familia (dir: Gustavo Rondón Córdova)
Gabriel and the Mountain (dir: Fellipe Gamarano Barbosa)
Makala (dir: Emmanuel Gras)
Oh Lucy! (dir: Atsuko Hirayanagi)
Los Perros (dir: Marcela Said)
Tehran Taboo (dir: Ali Soozandeh)

Special Screenings
Sicilian Ghost Story (dir: Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza) – opening film
Brigsby Bear (dir: Dave McCary) – closing film
Bloody Milk (dir: Hubert Charuel)
A Violent Life (dir: Thierry de Perretti)