Who Won: Cannes or Venice?

UPDATE: I’m reupping this post since many of the Venice and Cannes films are now out in theaters.

Now that the dust has settled, and we’ve more less explained why “Saint Omer” wasn’t part of Cannes, some are wondering if Cannes needs to do a little re-evaluating in their selection process. I say that’s bollocks.

It's generally been a weak year for movies in general, and we even saw that at Venice this year which, yet again, was hailed as a worthy edition even though many titles underwhelmed over there.

I remain attached to the idea that a bad edition of Cannes will always best a good Venice lineup. It's hard to fuck up Cannes, considering that almost every world auteur would pick it over any other festival. The number of high-level submissions they receive every given year is staggering, with Venice basically picking up its crumbs and adding in top-notch American productions who are too scared of Cannes.

Yes, for the Oscar race Venice seems to be the go-to destination, but even this year Cannes premiered two Best Picture contenders, albeit, out of competition.

Let’s compare the competition highlights first:

Cannes: Pacifiction, EO, Triangle of Sadness, Decision to Leave, Armageddon Time, Crimes of the Future, RMN, Showing Up, Close, Holy Spider, and Tori et Lokita.

Venice: Saint Omer, Tar, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, Banshees of Inisherin, Bones and All, No Bears, Argentina 1985, The Whale, The Eternal Daughter, Other People’s Children.

I’ve seen almost all of these. It’s practically a tie in my books. What breaks the draw for me is the unending amount of highlights that show up in the Cannes sidebars.

As mentioned, Cannes world premiered two potential Best Picture nominees (Top Gun: Maverick and Elvis) not to mention the sidebars which had breakouts like Aftersun, One Fine Morning, De Humanis Corporis Fabrica, Corsage, Enys Man, Return to Seoul, Godland, The Blue Caftan, and Moonage Daydream.