As usual, it is live from the UGC Les Halles that the president (Pierre Lescure) and the general delegate (Thierry Frémaux) of the Festival de Cannes announced the list of sixty films screened this year. Focus!
Opening film: Todos lo Saben (Asghar Farhadi)
The first Spanish-language film by the Iranian will kick off the festivities. A new family drama is planned for the talented director (A Separation, The Client…). XXL casting with the couple on screen and in life Penelope Cruz/Javier Bardem. The Spanish actress is a regular on the Croisette and was recently awarded a César d'Honneur last March. To give them the answer, Ricardo Darín (who touched us with his role of Bombita in the excellent The New Savages by Damián Szifron in 2015). Todos Lo Saben is a thriller
The competition:
- En Guerre by Stéphane Brizé (France)
- Dogman by Matteo Garonne (Spain)
- The Image Book by Jean Luc Godard (France)
- Netemo Sametemo Asako 1&2 by Ryûsuke Hamaguchi (Japan)
- Plaire, Aimer et Courir Vite by Christophe Honoré (France)
- The Daughters of the Sun by Eva Husson (France)
- Ash Is Purest White by Jia Zhang Ke (China)
- Manbiki Kazoku (Shop Lifter) by Hirokazu Kore-eda (Japan)
- Capernaum by Nadine Labaki (Iran)
- Beoning (Burning) by Lee Chang-Dong (Korea)
- BlacKkKlansman by Spike Lee (United States)
- Under the Silverlake by David Robert Mitchell (United States)
- Three Faces by Jafar Panahi (Iran)
- Zimna Wojna by Pawel Pawlikowski (Poland)
- Lazzaro Felice by Alice Rohrwacher (Italy)
- Yomedinne d' A.B Shawki (Egypt)
- Leto by Kirill Serebrennikov (Russia)
Un Certain Regard:
- Gräns by Ali Abassi (Sweden)
- Sofia by Meyem Benm'barek (Morocco)
- Les Chatouilles by Andréa Bescond and Eric Metayer (France)
- Long Day's Journey Into Night by Gang Bi (China)
- Manto by Nandita Das (India)
- Girl by Lukas Dhont (Belgium)
- Gueule d'Ange by Vanessa Filho (France)
- Euphoria by Valérie Golino (France)
- My Favorite Fabric by Gaya Jiji (Syria)
- Les Moissonneurs by Etienne Kallos (South Africa)
- In My Room by Ulrich Köhler (Germany)
- My Angel by Luis Ortega (Argentina)
- The Gentle Indifference of the World by Adilkhan Yerzhanov (Russia)
- A genoux les Gars by Antoine Desrosières(France)
- Rafiki by Wanuri Kahiu (Kenya)
Out of Competition:
Solo – A Star Wars Story (Ron Howard): the third film in the Star Wars saga presented in the Official Selection.
Le Grand Bain by Gilles Lellouche: a comedy with a XXXXXXL cast, produced by Alain Attal and Les Films du Trésor.
Special Screenings:
- Ten Years in Thailand of a quartet (Thailand)
- The State Against Mandela and the Others : documentary about Mandela
- The Great Mystical Circus : a fiction and a tribute to Carlos Diegues
- A Tous Vents by Michel Toesca: documentary on migrants
- La Traversée by Romain Goupil, Daniel Cohn-Bendit = documentary on the 2018 France
- A Man of Speech by Wim Wenders: documentary on Pope Francis (aired on a Sunday!)
- Bing Wang's Dead Souls : the longest film of the selection = 8h15!
2 midnight sessions are scheduled (plus an additional one to be announced in the coming days):
- Joe Pena's Artic: survival film starring Mads Mikkelsen
- GongJak by Jong-Bing Yoon: Korean cinema
Exceptionally the Festival will start on a Tuesday and end on a Saturday (instead of going from a Wednesday to a Sunday). A total of 1,906 feature films were viewed and 3,943 short films. The Competition has eighteen films so far and will probably have a pair more. Four French films are eligible for the supreme award. There are also many first films in Competition and Un Certain Regard.
The first big part of the Selection of this year 2018 has just been revealed by Thierry Frémaux and Pierre Lescure. The sequel should arrive in the coming days. We are waiting for the restored films of Cannes Classics as well as some additions in Competition and in the other categories.
