Cannes: A Documentary Will Compete for the Palme d’Or, First Time Since 2004

I had already written about this year’s Cannes competition likely having a record number of female filmmakers in its lineup. Now non-fiction is also set to break the trend.

Cannes very rarely includes documentaries in their competition lineup, the last time that happened was in 2004 and, of course, the festival that year ended with Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11” winning the Palme d’Or.

Word is starting to spread, via Cédric Succivalli, that a documentary film has indeed been chosen to compete this year for the Palme d’Or — the first one in over 19 years.

After docs won Venice (All the Beauty and the Bloodshed) and Berlin (On the Adamant), Fremaux probably figured it was time to have some non-fiction back in contention for the Palme d’Or. This inclusion will shake things up for the better.

So, what’s the documentary that will be in competition next month? It could be Kaouther Ben Hania and Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir’s “Ze,” which has been the subject of a lot of competition rumors these last few days.

I’d love to see Steve McQueen’s “Occupied City” get in as well — a WWII doc told via the perspective of occupied Amsterdam. With a $5M+ budget, this isn’t your average doc, it’s also being produced by A24.

Then you have Lucrecia Martel’s “Chocobar.” The doc tackles Javier Chocobar – who was shot dead fighting the removal of his indigenous community from their ancestral land in Argentina. Martel is a big arthouse name and you can bet Cannes would want her film there.

The lineup for the 76th Cannes Film Festival will be announced next Thursday morning.