Asghar Farhadi’s “Everybody Knows” Will Open Cannes Film Festival

You can mark off another film out of the official competition for the upcoming Cannes Film Festival. 

Variety is reporting that “Everybody Knows,” a Spanish-language psychological thriller from Iranian writer-director Asghar Farhadi ("A Separation") will open the festival. “Everybody Knows” stars Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz, and Ricardo Darin.

Official Synopsis:

“Everybody Knows” tells the story of Laura (Cruz) and her family, as they travel from Buenos Aires to Spain for a celebration. However, upon arriving in Spain, their reunion is disrupted by unexpected events that bring family secrets to light."

I am in no way dismissing Farhadi's film as subpar, but the fact that it is not in competition is worrisome. Take, for example, other opening night slots such as "Moulin Rouge," and "Moonrise Kingdom," which were both IN COMPETITION. What this basically means for Farhadi's film is that Fremaux didn't deem it worthy enough to be in competition. 

The Cannes Film Festival will start on May 8 and we are starting to have an idea of what to expect for competition. Now that Farhadi's film will open, we are left with these possible contenders:

Lars von Trier‘s The House That Jack Built, Laszlo Nemes‘ Sunset, Nuri Bilge Ceylan‘s The Wild Pear Tree, Brian De Palma's Domino, Olivier Assayas‘ NonFiction, Jafar Panahi's Three Faces, Pawel Pawlikowski's Cold War, Mia Hansen-Løve's Maya, Alfonso Cuaron's Roma, Spike Lee's Black Klansman, Jean-Luc Godard Le livre d’image, Matteo Garrone’s Dogman, Hirokazu Kore-eda's Shoplifting, Mamoru Hosada's Mirai, Jia Zhangke’s Ash Is Purest White, Terrence Malick‘s Radegund, Alice Rohrwacher's, Ciro Guerra Birds of Passage, David Robert Mitchell's Under the Silver Lake, Jennifer Kent's Nightingale, Lee Chang-Dong's Burning, Sergei Loznitsa's Donbass, Kirill Serebrennikov’s Leto, Lazarro Felice, Mike Leigh‘s Peterloo, Stéphane Brizé's Un Autre Monde, Catherine Corsini’s, Christophe Honore’s Plaire, Aimer et Courire Vite, Catherine Corsini's, Mikhael Hers' Amanda,  An Impossible Love, Bi Gan, Long Day's Journey Into Night, Paolo Sorrentino, Loro, Thomas Vinterberg’s Kursk, Harmony Korine's Beach Bum, Carlos Reygadas's Where Life is Born, Gaspar Noé's Psyché, Felix van Groeningen’s Beautiful Boy, Ramin Bahrani’s “Fahrenheit 451”, Stefania Solluima‘s Soldado, James Gray‘s Ad Astra, Amos Gitai's Tramway to Jerusalem.

Other contenders:

Koji Fukada The Man from the Sea
Pablo Trapero's The Quietude
Gabriel Mascaro’s Overgod
Joe Penna’s Arctic 
Pierre Schoeller's One Nation, One King, 
Vanessa Filho's Gueule d’Ange
Nadine Labaki’s Cafarnaúm