Sun, sea and Sokurov… yes, it’s nearly Cannes time again and in a couple of months some of the brightest and best of the movie world will be descending on the Croisette in a rampage of languid art house flicks and urgent social realism. Among them this year will be Steven Spielberg, Shane Black and festival favourites Ken Loach and the Dardenne brothers.
Spielberg and Black will be debuting their newest offerings – The BFG and The Nice Guys – in a starry looking non-competition line-up that also features Jodie Foster’s fourth feature, the George Clooney-starring media satire Money Monster. Woody Allen has the honour of opening the festival with his new movie, Café Society*.
In competition, meanwhile, are entries by Paul Verhoeven (Elle), Jim Jarmusch (Paterson), Xavier Dolan (It’s Only The End Of The World), Park Chan-Wook (Agassi), Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (La Fille Inconnue), Olivier Assayas (Personal Shopper) and Pedro Almodóvar (Julieta).
A pair of filmmaking firebrands, Sean Penn and Nicolas Winding Refn, will also be vying for the big prize with The Last Face and The Neon Demon respectively. And hot on the heels of Midnight Special, Jeff Nichols is back with Loving. That’s the film’s name, he won’t just be patrolling the town hugging people.
Rumours of Ken Loach’s retirement, meanwhile, appear to have been wildly overstated. He’s back with I, Daniel Blake this year. Fans of abstract performance art should note that Shia LaBeouf will have a presence at Cannes. He’s appearing in Andrea Arnold’s new film, American Honey, alongside Sasha Lane (pictured below). Arnold’s follow-up to Wuthering Heights, Fish Tank and Red Road has LeBeouf playing a salesman in a cut-throat world of bullying and abuse.
George Miller and his jury (comprising Furiosa, the Doof Warrior and a couple of the guys from the Bullet Farm) will be deliberating over the full competition line-up and bestowing a shiny and chrome Palme d’Or on their favourite on May 22. Head here for the full Cannes competition line-ups.