The official selection here.
Jeffrey Wells over at HE has said this is the weakest Cannes lineup anyone can remember.
"Telluride’s Tom Luddy and Julie Huntsinger are having champagne for breakfast. I know titles will be added, of course, but right now, what a letdown. Lame. Weak tea. The Netflix withdrawal was devastating, decimating."
I will say this, at the moment, we do have notable titles that might be fantastic, palme d'or worthy stuff, but the lineup mostly consists of under-the-radar filmmakers that could surprise or could let-down.
I'm particularly excited for Asghar Farhadi‘s "Everybody Knows" (although advanced buzz should steer me off otherwise), Pawel Pawlikowski‘s "Cold War" is the director's follow-up to his critical triumph "Ida,"David Robert Mitchell’s "Under The Silver Lake," Spike Lee‘s "BlacKkKlansman,"Jafar Panahi‘s "Three Faces," Jia Zhang-Ke’s "Ash Is Purest White" and, I guess, Jean-Luc Godard‘s "The Image Book"
I’m leaving home for three weeks, travelling thousands of miles and laying out close to $4K to see these five significant films plus whatever the noteworthy surprises may be.
As previously mentioned missing are Mia Hansen-Love (Maya), Lars Von Trier (The House That Jack Built) Luca Guadagnino (Suspiria), Claire Denis (High Life), Laszlo Nemes (Sunset), Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Pear Tree), Brian De Palma (Domino), Mike Leigh (Peterloo), Paolo Sorrentino (Loro), Jennifer Kent (The Nightingale), Alfonso Cuaron (Roma), Paul Greengrass (Norway), Terrence Malick (Radegund), Woody Allen (A Rainy Day In New York) and Orson Welles (The Other Side of the Wind).
I would think a few of the rejected films might make it to the director's fortnight, most notably Jennifer Kent, Mia Hansen-Love and Claire Denis. Also, there are only 18 films in completion, that makes room for 2-4 additional late announcements.
As far as Paolo Sorrentino's "Loro" goes it's supposedly a possible late addition. Fremaux and committee don't know where to include it (competition or off competition) as it is a rather lengthy two-parter. Ditto Mike Leigh's "Peterloo," which led to Fremaux and the English director having a rumored spat about the film's length. Fremaux asked Leigh to snip the running time, but Leigh wanted to hear none of it.
I also heard that Nuri Belge Ceylan's film was "too experimental" for Cannes' tastes and really turned people off.
As for Lars Von trier, maybe he's still banned for the Nazi comments, or his film just plain sucks.
From Variety: “The competition program includes just three female filmmakers, prompting Frémaux to reiterate his position that ‘the films that were selected were chosen for their own intrinsic qualities,” not the gender of their directors. Acknowledging the importance of the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements, (i.e., “The world will never be the same again, and we will question our own practices about the gender parity” in salaries and jury representation), Fremaux stressed that “there will never be a selection with a positive discrimination for women”
Opening Night Film
Competition
“At War,” Stéphane Brizé
“Dogman,” Matteo Garrone
“The Picture Book,” Jean-Luc Godard
“Asako I & II,” Ryusuke Hamaguchi
“Sorry Angel,” Christophe Honoré
“Girls of the Sun,” Eva Husson
“Ash Is Purest White,” Jia Zhang-Ke
“Shoplifters,” Kore-Eda Hirokazu
“Capernaum,” Nadine Labaki
“Burning,” Lee Chang-Dong
“BlacKKKlansman,” Spike Lee
“Under the Silver Lake,” David Robert Mitchell
“Three Faces,” Jafar Panahi
“Cold War,” Pawel Pawlikowski
“Lazzaro Felice,” Alice Rohrwacher
“Yomeddine,” A.B Shawky
“Summer,” Kirill Serebrennikov
Un Certain Regard
“Border,” Ali Abbasi
“Sofia,” Meyem Benm’Barek
“Little Tickles,” Andréa Bescond & Eric Métayer
“Long Day’s Journey Into Night,” Bi Gan
“Manto,” Nandita Das
“Sextape,” Antoine Desrosières
“Girl,” Lukas Dhont
“Angel Face,” Vanessa Filho
“Euphoria,” Valeria Golino
“Friend,” Wanuri Kahiu
“My Favorite Fabric,” Gaya Jiji
“The Harvesters,” Etienne Kallos
“In My Room,” Ulrich Köhler
“The Angel,” Luis Ortega
“The Gentle Indifference of the World,” Adilkhan Yerzhanov
Out of Competition
“Solo: A Star Wars Story,” Ron Howard
“Le Grand Bain,” Gilles Lellouche
Special Screenings
“10 Years in Thailand,” Aditya Assarat, Wisit Sasanatieng, Chulayarnon Sriphol & Apichatpong Weerasethakul
“The State Against Mandela and Others,” Nicolas Champeaux & Gilles Porte
“Le Grand Cirque Mystique,” Carlo Diegues
“Dead Souls,” by Wang Bing
“To the Four Winds,” Michel Toesca
“La Traversee,” Romain Goupil
“Pope Frances – A Man of His Word,” Wim Wenders
Midnight Screenings
“Arctic,” Joe Penna
“The Spy Gone North,” Yoon Jong-Bing
The 51st Toronto International Film Festival has handed its People's Choice Award to "La Bola Negra," the Los Javis film that premiered at Cannes and has been quietly building steam ever since.