Cannes 2016 - Competition: From Veterans to Newbies
Here are the 20 films in Competition for the Palme d'Or!
The Unknown Girl
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director/writer: Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne (Belgium)
Cannes history: Rosetta (1999) - Palme d'Or, Best Actress The Son (2002) - Best Actor (Olivier Gourmet) The Child (2005) - Palme d'Or Lorna's Silence (2008) - Best Screenplay The Kid with a Bike (2011) - Grand Prix Two Days, One Night (2014) - Competition starring: Adèle Haenel (Love at First Fight, The Forbidden Room) release: October 16 (France). A doctor attempts to uncover the identity of a patient who died after she refused her treatment. |
I, Daniel Blake
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director: Ken Loach (UK)
Cannes history: Looks and Smiles (1981) - Competition Hidden Agenda (1990) - Jury Prize Riff-Raff (1991) - Competition Raining Stones (1993) - Jury Prize Land and Freedom (1995) - Competition My Name is Joe (1998) - Best Actor (Peter Mullan) Bread and Roses (2000) - Competition Sweet Sixteen (2002) - Best Screenplay The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006) - Palme d'Or Looking for Eric (2009) - Competition The Angels' Share (2012) - Jury Prize Jimmy's Hall (2014) - Competition starring: Hayley Squires, Natalie Ann Jamieson, Dave Johns release: unknown. Daniel Blake is a 59-year-old joiner in the North-East of England who falls ill and requires state assistance. While he endeavours to ovecome the red tape involved in getting this assistance, he meets single mother Katie, who, in order to escape a homeless persons' hostel, must take up residence in a flat 300 miles away. |
Graduation
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director/writer: Cristian Mungiu (Romania)
Cannes history: 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days (2007) - Palme d'Or Beyond the Hills (2012) - Best Actress, Best Screenplay starring: Vlad Ivanov, Maria-Victoria Dragus, Ioachim Ciobanu trivia: Co-produced by the Dardenne brothers. release: May 20 (Romania). "Bacalaureat" is a film about compromises and the implications of the parent's role. |
Slack Bay
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director/writer: Bruno Dumont (France)
Cannes history: Humanity (1999) - Grand Prix Flandres (2006) - Grand Prix starring: Fabrice Luchini, Juliette Binoche, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi release: May 11 (France). Summer 1910. Several tourists have vanished while relaxing on the beautiful beaches of the Channel Coast. Infamous inspectors Machin and Malfoy soon gather that the epicenter of these mysterious disappearances must be Slack Bay, a unique site where the Slack river and the sea join only at high tide. There lives a small community of fishermen and other oyster farmers. Among them evolves a curious family, the Bréfort, lead by the father nick-named "The Eternal", who rules as best as he can on his prankster bunch of sons, especially the impetuous "Ma Loute", aged 18. |
The Handmaiden
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director/writer: Park Chan-Wook (South Korea) based on the novel by Sarah Waters
Cannes history: Oldboy (2004) - Grand Prix Thirst (2009) - Jury Prize starring: Jung-woo Ha, Min-hee Kim, Jin-woong Jo trivia: After Stoker, Park is back to Korean productions. release: June (South Korea). An heiress falls in love with a petty thief. A modernized Korean version of Sarah Waters's novel, Fingersmith. |
Julieta
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director/writer: Pedro Almodóvar (Spain)
Cannes history: All About My Mother (1999) - Best Director Volver (2006) - Best Actress (Penélope Cruz & cast), Best Screenplay Broken Embraces (2009) - Competition The Skin I Live In (2011) - Competition starring: Adriana Ugarte, Michelle Jenner, Rossy de Palma trivia: As a producer, Pedro was in Competition with Wild Tales (2014). release: May 18 (France), August 26 (UK). Julieta lives in Madrid and has just lost her husband Xoan. Her daughter, Antía, has just turned 18 and decides to run away without any explanation. Julieta searches by all means to find her, but the only thing she discovers is how little she knows her daughter. |
American Honey
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director/writer: Andrea Arnold (UK)
Cannes history: Red Road (2006) - Jury Prize Fish Tank (2009) - Jury Prize starring: Sasha Lane, Shia LaBeouf, McCaul Lombardi trivia: After winning 2 jury prizes with her first 2 features, Arnold premiered Wuthering Heights in Venice and directed 2 episodes of Transparent. release: unknown. A teenage girl with nothing to lose joins a traveling magazine sales crew, and gets caught up in a whirlwind of hard partying, law bending and young love as she criss-crosses the Midwest with a band of misfits. |
Paterson
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director/writer: Jim Jarmusch (USA)
Cannes history: Down by Law (1986) - Competition Mystery Train (1989) - Competition Coffee and Cigarettes III (1993) - Palme d'Or for Short Film Dead Man (1995) - Competition Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999) - Competition Broken Flowers (2005) - Grand Prix Only Lovers Left Alive (2013) - Competition starring: Adam Driver, Golshifteh Farahani, Kara Hayward release: unknown. Set in the present in Paterson, New Jersey, this is a tale about a bus driver and poet. |
It's Only the End of the World
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director/writer: Xavier Dolan (Canada) based on the play "Juste la fin du monde" by Jean-Luc Lagarce
Cannes history: Mommy (2004) - Jury Prize starring: Gaspard Ulliel, Léa Seydoux, Marion Cotillard, Vincent Cassel, Nathalie Baye trivia: All Dolan films premiered in Cannes, except Tom at the Farm who also was based on a play. release: September 21 (Canada, France). Louis, a terminally ill writer, returns home after a long absence to tell his family that he is dying. |
The Neon Demon
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director/writer: Nicolas Winding Refn (Denmark)
Cannes history: Drive (2011) - Best Director Only God Forgives (2013) - Competition starring: Elle Fanning, Keanu Reeves, Jena Malone, Christina Hendricks release: June 8 (France, USA), July 8 (UK), August 18 (Brazil). Jesse, an aspiring model, moves to Los Angeles, where her vitality and youth are devoured by a group of beauty-obsessed women who will use any means to get what she has. |
Ma' Rosa
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director/writer: Brillante Mendoza (Philippines)
Cannes history: Serbis (2008) - Competition Kinatay (2009) - Best Director starring: unkown. release: unkown. Not much is known about this film at this point. |
Personal Shopper
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director/writer: Olivier Assayas (France)
Cannes history: Les destinées sentimentales (2000) - Competition Demonlover (2002) - Competition Clean (2004) - Best Actress (Maggie Cheung) Clouds of Sils Maria (2014) - Competition starring: Kristen Stewart, Lars Eidinger, Nora von Waldstätten trivia: After winning the César, Stewart reteams with her Sils Maria director. This story reminds me of Assayas' short with Maggie Gyllenhaal in Paris je t'aime. release: unknown. A ghost story that takes place in the fashion underworld of Paris. |
From the Land of the Moon
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director/writer: Nicole Garcia (France), co-written with Jacques Fieschi, based on a novel by Milena Agus
Cannes history: 15 Août (1986) - Palme d'Or for Short Film L'Adversaire (2002) - Competition Selon Charlie (2006) - Competition starring: Marion Cotillard, Louis Garrel release: October 19 (France). Set after WWII, "Mal de Pierres" ("Mal di Pietre") spans 20 years, following the destiny of a passionate, free-spirited woman who is in a loveless marriage and falls for another man. |
The Last Face
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director: Sean Penn (USA)
writer: Erin Dignam Cannes history: The Pledge (2001) - Competition starring: Charlize Theron, Javier Bardem, Jean Reno, Adèle Exarchopoulos release: unknown. A director (Theron) of an international aid agency in Africa meets a relief aid doctor (Bardem) amidst a political/social revolution, and together face tough choices surrounding humanitarianism and life through civil unrest. |
Elle
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director: Paul Verhoeven (Netherlands)
writer: David Birke based on a novel by Philippe Djian (Betty Blue) Cannes history: Basic Instinct (1992) - Competition starring: Isabelle Huppert, Charles Berling, Virginie Efira, Laurent Lafitte release: May 25 (France). Michèle seems indestructible. Head of a successful video game company, she brings the same ruthless attitude to her love life as to business. Being attacked in her home by an unknown assailant changes Michèle's life forever. When she resolutely tracks the man down, they are both drawn into a curious and thrilling game that may, at any moment, spiral out of control. |
Loving
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director/writer: Jeff Nichols (USA)
Cannes history: Mud (2012) - Competition starring: Ruth Negga, Joel Edgerton, Michael Shannon trivia: Nichols also was in Competition in Berlin this year with Midnight Special. release: November 4 (USA). Richard and Mildred Loving, an interracial couple, are sentenced to prison in Virginia in 1958 for getting married. |
Toni Erdmann
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director/writer: Maren Ade (Germany)
Cannes history: none. Berlin Grand Prix for Everyone Else (2009). starring: Peter Simonischek, Sandra Hüller (Requiem, Amour Fou) trivia: Germany's back in Competition after Wim Wenders' Palermo Shooting (2008). Ade also co-produced Miguel Gomes' Tabu (2012). release: unknown. Without any prior warning, a father pays a visit to his daughter, who's living abroad. He thinks, she might have lost her humor and hits her with a rampage of jokes. |
Aquarius
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director/writer: Kleber Mendonça Filho (Brazil)
Cannes history: none. Remarked with his directorial debut O Som ao Redor - Neighbouring Sounds (2012). starring: Sonia Braga (Sex and the City), Jeff Rosick, Irandhir Santos trivia: Brazil's back in Competition after Walter Salles' Linha de Passe who won Best Actress in 2008. release: unknown. Clara, a 65 year old widow and retired music critic is the last resident of the Aquarius, an original two-story building, built in the 1940s, in the upper-class, seaside Avenida Boa Viagem, Recife. All the neighboring apartments have already been acquired by a company which has other plans for that plot. Clara has pledged to only leave her place upon her death, and will engage in a cold war of sorts with the company, a confrontation which is both mysterious, frightening and nerve wracking. This tension gets her thinking about her loved ones, her past and her future. |
Sieranevada
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director/writer: Cristi Puiu (Romania)
Cannes history: none. Won the Un Certain Regard Award with The Death of Mr Lazarescu (2005). starring: Andi Vasluianu, Mimi Branescu, Bogdan Dumitrache release: unknown. The screenplay focusses on Lary, who goes together with his wife to the memorial meal of commemorating his father who passed away one year before. The entire family gathered and while long waiting for the priest to come, people start talking on different topics, the atmosphere gets tense, the resentments and traumatic memories emerge to the surface. |
Staying Vertical
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director/writer: Alain Guiraudie (France)
Cannes history: none. Won Best Director in the Un Certain Regard section with Stranger by the Lake (2013). starring: Damien Bonnard, Christian Bouillette, Laure Calamy release: August 24 (France). Filmmaker Leo is searching for the wolf in the south of France. During a scouting excursion he is seduced by Marie, a free-spirited and dynamic shepherdess. Nine months later she gives birth to their child. Suffering from post-natal depression and with no faith in Leo, who comes and goes without warning, Marie abandons both of them. Leo finds himself alone, with a baby to care for. It’s not easy, but deep down, he loves it. Through a series of unexpected and unusual encounters, struggling to find inspiration for his next film, Leo will do whatever it takes to stay standing. |
