On April 14th Thierry Frémaux, director of the Cannes Film Festival, announced the official selection of films for the 75th festival, scheduled for May 17th – 28th.
This year 21 films are in the running for the Palme d’Or. Among the directors, the Romanian Cristian Mungiu, who has already won several awards at Cannes. In 2007 he received the Palme d’Or for 4 months, 3 weeks, 2 days, in 2012 Best Script for Beyond the Hills and in 2016 Best Director for Baccalauréat. His new film, R.M.N produced by Why Not Productions, is about a young father who leaves his job in Germany to return to his family in Transylvania. The Italian theatre and film director Mario Martone makes his comeback in the Official Selection for the first time since 1995 with his film Nostalgia. Taken from Ermanno Rea’s novel of the same name, the film is about a character returning to Naples after 40 years’ absence.
The selection for Un Certain Regard, which looks at emerging talent (eight first films) and more challenging films, is showing 19 feature-length films from several countries. Greece is represented by Panos H. Koutras’ Dodo, Italy by Marco Bellochio’s Esterno Notte, Morocco by Maryam Touzani Le bleu du caftan and Turkey by Emin Alper’s Kurak Günler.
The organisers also announced selections parallel to the Festival. The 61st Critics’ Week schedules 7 feature-length films and 10 shorts, including two shorts by women directors – Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren’s Cuerdas (Spain) and Evi Kalogiropoulou’s Sur le trône de Xerxès (Greece). This year the 54th Directors’ Fortnight will show 23 feature-length films, including The Dam, first feature by Lebanese director Ali Cherri, and Under the Fig Trees by Tunisian woman director Erige Sehiri.
Sources: Festival de Cannes, Cineuropa, Quinzaine des Réalisateurs, Semaine de la Critique
