The final week before the Cannes Film Festival announces its lineup is always an exhausting one for Thierry Fremaux and his stalwart team of uber-cinephiles. I’m being told that only 80% of the lineup has, more or less, been locked up. There is still a lot of work to be done before the big June 4th announcement of the entire selection.
With that being said, we already got the news today that Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch” will most definitely be having its world premiere at Cannes in July and at the New York Film Festival in October. The film also is set to be released Stateside on October 22nd. [via Variety]
I can also exclusively report that a very trustworthy source has confirmed to me that Tom McCarthy’s “Stillwater,” starring Matt Damon, has clinched a spot for Cannes 2021. Fremaux and his team couldn’t pass up on the film because a ) they liked it and b) the amount of American films this year may be lower than in previous years. Almost certainly going are the already-mentioned “The French Dispatch,” and Sean Penn’s “Flag Day.”
As for Joel Coen’s “The Tragedy of Macbeth,” a film that would easily be one of the most anticipated of this years edition of Cannes, well, A24 and Apple are still in discussions with the Cannois selection committee. We will likely not know if it’s in or out until next Tuesday’s announcement.
Meanwhile, I am being told that Paolo Sorrentino’s Diego Maradona biopic “The Hand of God” will world premiere at the Venice Film Festival in September and a day, or so, later at the Telluride Film Festival.