Cannes 2023 Potentials Include Scorsese, Nolan, Anderson, Lanthimos, Haynes and More

The Cannes Film Festival will announce its entire lineup during the third week of April. The deadline to submit movies happens in early March. Press got their accreditations confirmed this morning as well.

We’re still impatiently waiting on the announcement of the President and this year’s jury. The opening night film is supposed to get announced in the coming weeks, with rumors pointing at Pedro Almodovar’s “Strange Way of Life” having been chosen for that slot.

There is some intel coming in now every week, and I post most of it on this site. For example, you can forget Ladj Ly’s “Les Indesirables” from making an appearance this year, since it’s still shooting in France.

Also still in production and likely not going this year are Steven McQueen’s “Blitz,” Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis,” Michael Mann’s “Ferrari” and Rose Glass’ “Love Lies Bleeding.”

Alexander Payne, a Cannes regular, won’t be going with his new film, “The Holdovers,” which is due for release in November. Any other year, this would be a big loss for Cannes boss Thierry Fremaux, but this year it seems like an afterthought given all the great titles that might appear.

The latest rumor I’m hearing about Woody Allen’s 50th film, titled “Coup de Chance,” is that Cannes is on its radar, but Allen had such a bad experience the last time he went there with “Rainy Day in New York,” that he might skip it in favor of Venice. Further details might be in store for a future write-up. However, for now, “Coup de Chance” is eyeing Cannes.

I haven’t heard a peep about Greta Gerwig and the WB bringing “Barbie” to the Croisette. If the rumors are true that Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” will be premiering there, then “Barbie,” its same-date competition, making an appearance would be quite something. Don’t hold your breath.

So far, I’ve heard nothing that would indicate that Terrence Malick’s “The Way of the Wind” is ready. Ditto Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest.” I’d scratch both of these out.

I’m still hopeful about Aki Kaurismaki’s “Dead Leaves” making it in, his first movie in over a decade, but it’s set to premiere at the Finnish filmmaker’s own Midnight Sun Film Festival this summer. Right now, it’s being dubbed as a world premiere there.

We’re starting to get very excited about the possibilities this year. As I do each month, I’ve updated my predictions for March (even though it’s still two days away). As far as Out of Competition titles go, I’d bet on these:

Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon”
Woody Allen’s “Coup de Chance”
Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer”
James Mangold’s “Indiana Jones 5”

That’s already an impressive slate.

Titles vying for competition are aplenty. Fremaux will have a real headache figuring out what to choose from. Many A-list directors have new movies ready to go. These are the 40 big ones that need to be focused on —

Wes Anderson’s “Asteroid City”
Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things”
Todd Haynes’ “May/December”
Jeff Nichols’ “The Bikeriders”
Sofia Coppola’s “Priscilla”
Sean Durkin’s “The Iron Claw”
Michel Franco’s “Memory”
Hayao Miyazaki’s “How Do You Live?”
Ethan Coen’s Untitled Road Movie
Roman Polanski’s “The Palace”
Abdherrane Sissako’s “The Perfumed Hill”
Alice Rohrwacher’s “La Chimera”
Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s “On Barren Weeds”
Ken Loach’s “The Old Oak”
Hirokazu Kore-eda’s “Monster”
Matteo Garrone’s “The Captain”
Lisandro Alonso’s “Eureka”
Nanni Moretti’s “Il sol dell'avvenire”
Marco Bellocchio’s “La Conversione”
Cristi Puiu’s “MMXX”
Radu Jude’s “Do Not Expect too Much”
Kirill Serebrenikkov’s “Limonov”
Joachim Lafosse’s “Un Silence”
Victor Erice’s “Cerrar Los Ojos”
Miguel Gomes’ “Selavjaria”
Robin Campillo’s “Red Island”
Catherine Breillat’s “Last Summer”
Bruno Dumont’s “The Empire”
Bertrand Bonnello’s “The Beast”
Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall”
Robert Guédiguian’s “Et la fête continue”
Léa Domenach’s “Bernadette”
Vanessa Filho’s “Le Consentement”
Jessica Hausner’s “Club Zero”
Jean-Luc Godard’s “Scenario” and “Funny Wars”
Catherine Corsini’s “Le Retour”
Maiwenn’s “Jeanne Du Barry”
Valerie Donzelli‘s “Love and Forests”
Amat Escalante’s “El estado del imperio”