PARIS — The
Cannes Film Festival will hope to
relaunch the industry’s hopes with another star-packed line-up to be announced
on Thursday.
اضافة اعلان
After a slow return to cinema-going after the
COVID-19 pandemic, the film business will be hoping for a boost on the French
Riviera when the 75th edition of the world’s leading film festival returns from
May 17 to 28.
Tom Cruise is already confirmed for the
festival promoting the world premiere of “Top Gun: Maverick”, the sequel to his
1986 blockbuster. Also attending is Tom Hanks, who co-stars in “Elvis” as the
rock’n’roll star’s manager, Colonel Tom Parker.
The latter is the latest spectacle from Australian
director
Baz Luhrmann, who has previously lit up Cannes with “Moulin Rouge!”
and “Gatsby”.
The rest of the line-up will be announced on
Thursday, including the 20-odd films competing for the top prize Palme d’Or.
The selection committee, who have been
working their way through more than 2,000 entries in recent weeks, have a tough
act to follow after last year’s vintage edition.
Coming after the festival was canceled by the
pandemic in 2020, it launched several films that went on to global success,
especially “Drive My Car”.
After picking up three awards at Cannes, it
went on to win this year’s
Oscar for best international feature film — and was
the first Japanese film to be nominated in the best picture category.
Big-name
speculation
Last
year’s jury — led by US director
Spike Lee — gave the Palme d’Or to Julia
Ducournau’s body-horror “Titane” — ensuring the festival maintained its
reputation for boosting bold and edgy filmmaking alongside starry
entertainment.
The organizers have left it late to announce
who will chair the jury this year, but Penelope Cruz and Marion Cotillard are
among the favorites according to industry insiders.
Film experts have also been picking through
the release schedules for ideas on who might be in competition.
Many are hoping to see the return of
David Cronenberg, whose upcoming sci-fi/horror cross-over stars Viggo Mortensen,
Kristen Stewart, and Lea Seydoux.
Also hotly tipped is Australian
George Miller, the man behind “Mad Max”, who takes a new direction with “Three
Thousand Years of Longing” about a djinn (played by Idris Elba) offering three
wishes to Tilda Swinton.
Another possibility is Terrence Malick, who
won previously for “Tree of Life” starring
Brad Pitt. His new film follows the
life of Jesus Christ and stars Mark Rylance as Satan.
Though women have been getting more of a
presence on the festival circuit, they remain poorly represented.
One possible contender in competition at
Cannes might be US director Kelly Reichardt, with her new film, “Showing Up”. Her
lo-fi hit “First Cow” was on many critics’ end-of-year lists in 2021.
Shadow
of war
As
with everything in the arts at the moment, the
Russian invasion of Ukraine
hangs over the selection.
Possible names include exiled Russian
filmmaker Kantemir Balagov, 30, whose film “Beanpole” won the directing award
of the Un Certain Regard section in 2019.
Or there may be the return of
Kirill Serebrennikov, who was unable to attend Cannes last year for his Palme nominee
“Petrov’s Flu”, after being banned from traveling due to a controversial court
case.
One possible Ukrainian entry is a film about
the Allied destruction of German cities at the end of World War II by director
Sergei Loznitsa.
Meanwhile, festival director
Thierry Fremaux has been pushing for a change to the rule that bars streaming platforms from
competing at Cannes.
But French cinema distributors, who have a
seat on the festival board, continue to block the move even as big-name
directors such as Martin Scorsese and Jane Campion have turned to
Netflix and
other streamers for financial support.
In the short term, that means that the much-anticipated
Marilyn Monroe biopic, “Blonde”, starring Ana de Armas, a Netflix film, cannot
compete for Palme, although fans are still hoping it will get a premiere on the
Cote d’Azur.
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