- Festivals
Cannes 2022 Preview: A Return to Normal for the Festival
This year, Cannes will be really Cannes! The festival, which celebrates its 75th anniversary this year, will be held from May 17 to 28 in an almost normal configuration and will offer top-of-the-range competition.
After 2020’s edition was canceled due to Covid and a smaller version held in summer 2021, this year the festival anticipates normal attendance levels. Festival Director Thierry Frémaux, however, is muted in his enthusiasm because of the war in Ukraine; he calls it “a time of sadness.”
While there has been some criticism of the presence of Russian filmmaker Kirill Serebrennikov in the competition (he has always been opposed to the current regime in Russia), the organizers of the festival have not hesitated to express solidarity with the Ukrainians. In this regard, in addition to several charity events planned during the Festival, two Ukrainian films will be in the official selection: Butterfly Vision, the first film by a young filmmaker, Maksym Nakonechnyi, selected in the “Un Certain Regard” section; and The Natural History of Destruction, a documentary by Sergei Loznitsa, which will be screened at a special screening.
This year, French actor Vincent Lindon (Titane), will lead the Festival jury which will include two-time Oscar-winning filmmaker Asghar Farhadi (A Hero, prize for best screenplay at Cannes in 2016 for Le ClientTake ShelterRebecca Hall (PassingChennai ExpressLambMiele, prize for best actress in the Un Certain Regard section for Fortunata in 2017); French director Ladj Ly (Les MisérablesJoachim Trier (Oscar-nominated The Worst Person in the World, selected at Cannes in 2015 for Back Home).
Actress Virginie Efira will be Mistress of Ceremonies for the opening and closing evenings of the world’s largest festival dedicated to the seventh art.
On May 17, 2022, Michel Hazanavicius will open the event with Coupé. The acclaimed French director changed the title of his latest film, previously called Z, to avoid association with the Russian symbol of the war in Ukraine. Among the films that will be screened on the Croisette this year are Top Gun: Maverick directed by Joseph Kosinski (along with a tribute to Tom Cruise) and Elvis by Baz Luhrmann, both out of competition.
The movies in competition are Holy Spider by Ali Abbasi, Les Amandiers by Valéria Bruni-Tedeschi, Les Crimes du Futur by David Cronenberg, Tori et Lokita by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Stars at Noon by Claire Denis, Frère et Sœur by Arnaud Desplechin, Close by Lukas Dhont, Armageddon Time by James Gray, Broker by Hirokazu Koreeda, Nostalgia by Mario Martone, Rmn by Cristian Mungiu, Le Triangle de la Tristesse by Ruben Östlund, Decision to Leave by Park Chan-Wook, Showing Up by Kelly Reichardt, Leila’s Brothers by Saeed Roustaee, Boy from Heaven by Tarik Saleh, La Femme de Tchaïkovski by Kirill Serebrennikov, Eo by Jerzy Skolimowski, Le Otto Montagne by Charlotte Vandermeersch & Felix Van Groeningen, Un Petit Frère by Léonor Serraille and Tourment sur les Iles by Albert Serra.
Other movies screening out of competition are Novembre by Cédric Jimenez, Three Thousand Years of Longing by George Miller, Mascarade by Nicolas Bedos and L’innocent by Louis Garrel.