Cannes Film Festival Lineup
Regardless of the countless rumors surrounding the release of a David Lynch film at the upcoming 75th Cannes festival, many people are still eager for it.
This year's Cannes Film Festival will feature a plethora of well-known and up-and-coming filmmakers, as well as a slew of notable indies, interesting genre films, and at least one major tentpole film in the running for an official selection. That and the kind of Hollywood star power that should bring the crowds and cameras back.
Even though it's expected that the industry will welcome a revival of interest in Riviera-themed attire, it's not always a good thing. Gender equality efforts at Cannes have fallen behind again, with just three out of the 18 films in the main competition being directed by women, down from four in 2018.
In addition to James Gray (Armageddon Time), Claire Denis (Stars at Noon), Park Chan-wook (Decision to Leave), Michael Hazanavicius (Z, the festival's opening film), Ruben Östlund (Triangle of Sadness), Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (Tori and Lokita), Hirokazu Kore-eda (Broker), Kelly Reichardt (Showing Up), George Miller (Three Thousand Years Of Longing) and David Cronenberg (Crimes of the Future). Cronenberg and Reichardt return to the festival for the first time in more than a decade, Reichardt with Wendy and Lucy in 2008 and Cronenberg with Cosmopolis in 2012, respectively.
Some of the most promising newcomers will be found in the Un Certain Regard section, which has served as a launching pad for a number of filmmakers in this year's main competition Lukas Dhont's second feature Close, Ali Abbasi's Holy Spider, and Lukas Dhont's Border all received Un Certain Regard awards in 2018). Chie Hayakawa (Plan 75), Lise Akoka and Romane Gueret (Lles Pires), Saim Sadiq (Joyland), Lola Quivoron (Rodeo), Maksim Nakaonechnyi (Butterfly Vision), and Alexandru Belc (Metronom) are among the first-timers, while Agnieszka Smocynska's Silent Twins and Riley Keough's directorial debut Beast.
There's also Baz Luhrmann's Elvis and Tom Cruise's return to the skies in Top Gun: Maverick, both of which were previously announced as major projects.
Star-spotters can expect to see the likes of Kristen Stewart, Anne Hathaway, Michelle Williams, Tom Hanks, Andre 3000, Idris Elba, Jeremy Strong, Léa Seydoux, Miles Teller, Viggo Mortenson, Margaret Qualley, Song Kang-ho, Woody Harrelson and Tilda Swinton on the red carpet, as well as Cruise himself.
COVID-19 and the timing of its various iterations and mutations have caused Cannes to lose ground to Venice over the last two years, but Thursday's announcement — even without Lynch shows that Cannes is back.