Deadline: PTA's ‘One Battle After Another' Aiming for Venice World Premiere

Here’s Deadline’s spitball of potential Cannes lineup contenders — there’s a few nifty tidbits in there, but much of it was previously reported by yours truly a few weeks ago.

The biggie inside Deadline’s spitball report is that Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another,” currently dated for August 8, might be pushed a little later in the schedule and enter Venice competition. This aligns well with previous rumors that the film would be changing its release date.

That August release date never looked good. It didn’t make much sense to have it open at the end of summer, and if the Venice premiere turns out to be true then this could mean Warner Bros is getting ready for an awards push when it comes to this film.

More or less confirmed for Cannes are Jim Jarmusch’s “Father, Mother, Sister, Brother,” Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardennes’ “Young Mother,” Joachim Trier’s “Sentimental Value,” Kirill Serebrennikov’s “Disappearance” Richard Linklater’s “Nouvelle Vague,” Spike Lee’s “Highest 2 Lowest,” Arnaud Desplechin’s “An Affair,” and Wes Anderson’s “The Phoenician Scheme.”

Meanwhile, not confirmed just yet, but eyeing Cannes competition would be Ari Aster’s “Eddington,” Lazlo Nemes’ “Orphan,” Alice Winocour’s “Couture,” Bi Gan’s Resurrection, Fatih Akin’s “Amrum,” Rebecca Zlotowski’s “Vie Privée,” and Nadav Lapid’s “Yes.”

I had previously reported about a shocker set to enter Cannes competition, an unknown filmmaker whose film, quite frankly, stunned the selection committee. I didn’t know the name, but Deadline seems to indicate that it’s Germany’s Mascha Schilinski, whose sophomore film, spanning four generations, is currently titled “The Doctor Says I’ll Be Alright, But I’m Feelin’ Blue.”

No surprise, Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie’s “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” will most likely debut on the Croisette. However, Joseph Kosinski’s “F1” will not be there — instead opting to premiere in Monaco. Also not going to Cannes are James Gunn’s “Superman,” Pixar’s “Elio” and Danny Boyle’s “28 Years Later.”

Other films set to skip Cannes in favor of Venice are Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Bugonia,” Romain Gavras’ “Sacrifice,” Benny Safdie’s “The Smashing Machine,” Derek Cianfrance’s “Roofman,” Park Chan Wook’s “No Other Choice,” Chloé Zhao’s “Hamnet,” David Lowery’s “Mother Mary,” Luca Guadagnino’s “After the Hunt,” and Pablo Trapero’s “Sons.”

Much like Park’s film, Julia Ducournau’s “Alpha” is still in post-production and might not be ready in time for Cannes, although Deadline does point out that the film is being rushed for the Croisette, but as it stands, time is the enemy for Ducournau’s Cannes return after winning the Palme d’Or in 2021 for “Titane.”

So, I’ve changed some of my predictions for the 78th Cannes Film Festival, but still have Ducournau in there, it’d be foolish for the film not to be there, and added a few new titles based on Deadline’s intel. Here’s 25 potential contenders for competition:

Die, My Love (Lynne Ramsay)  
Alpha (Julia Ducournau)  
Father Mother Sister Brother (Jim Jarmusch)  
The Phoenician Scheme (Wes Anderson)  
The Mastermind (Kelly Reichardt)  
Eddington (Ari Aster)
No Other Choice (Park Chan-wook)  
The Way of the Wind (Terrence Malick)  
Highest 2 Lowest (Spike Lee)
Sentimental Value (Joachim Trier)  
Nouvelle Vague (Richard Linklater)
The Secret Agent (Kleber Mendoca Filho)  
Young Mother (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne)  
Orphan (Laszlo Nemes)  
Resurrection (Bi Gan)  
Yes! (Nadav Lapid)  
Disappearance (Kirill Serebrenikkov)  
Miroirs No. 3 (Christian Petzold)
The Love That Remains (Hlynur Pálmason)  
The History of Sound (Olivier Hermanus)
The Doctor Says I’ll Be Alright (Mascha Schilinski)
Private Life (Rebecca Zlotowski)  
Rosebushpruning (Karim Aïnouz)  
Amrum (Fatih Akin)
Two Prosecutors (Sergei Loznitsa)