Cannes Film Festival director Thierry Fremaux (L) and the President of the Cannes Film Festival ... [+]
The 73rd Festival de Cannes did not take place last May, however, 56 films will be branded with the Cannes’ Official Selection 2020 label. No competition this year, and therefore no prizes. Below is the full list of films in the Official Selection.
Cannes’ artistic director Thierry Frémaux announced Wednesday evening during a TV interview on Canal Plus the full list of films selected in the Official Selection for this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
The festival received a total of 2067 feature films from which to pick their selection this year. This is the first year the number of films submitted to Cannes exceeded 2000. From these thousands of films submitted, only around 60 become part of the Official Selection. This year, the selection committee chose 56 feature films. Fifteen of the films selected are from first time filmmakers. Sixteen films in the Official Selection were directed by women.
The selection is usually divided into different categories: Compétition, Un Certain Regard, Hors Compétition, Séances de minuit, séances spéciales. For this year’s special list, the selection was grouped into “The Faithful,” films made by filmmakers who have already attended the festival in previous years, “The Newcomers,” first-feature films, documentaries, comedies, and animated films.
Among the films selected that were most expected to appear at Cannes are Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch, François Ozon’s Summer ’85, Naomi Kawase’s True Mother, Thomas Vinterberg’s Druck.
Films created by Cannes regulars in the selection include: two films by British director/artist Steve McQueen Lovers Rock and Mangrove, Jonathan Nossiter’s Last Words, Maïwenn’s ADN, IM Sang-Soo’s Heaven: To the Land of Happiness, Lucas Belvaux’s Des Hommes, Fernando Trueba’s El Olvido que Seremos, YEON Sang-Ho’s Peninsula, Sharunas Bartas’ In the Dusk, Kôji Fukada’s The Real Thing.
Selected films created by “newcomers,” for whom this would have been their first time at the Cannes festival are: Passion Simple by Danielle Arbid, A Good Man by Marie Castille Mention-Schaar, Les Choses qu’on dit, les choses qu’on fait by Emmanuel Mouret, Souad by Ayten Amin, Limbo by Ben Sharrock, Rouge by Farid Bentoumi, Sweat by Magnus Von Horn, Teddy by Ludovic and Zoran Boukherma, February by Kamen Kalev, Ammonite by Francis Lee (starring Saoirse Ronan and Kate Winslet), Un Médecin de nuit by Elie Wajeman, Enfant Terrible by Oskar Roehler, Nadia, Butterfly by Pascal Plante, and Here We Are by Nir Bergman.
The fifteen debut feature films include Falling by Viggo Mortensen, Garçon Chiffon by Call My Agent actor Nicolas Maury, Slalom by Charlène Favier, John And The Hole by Pascual Sisto, Pleasure by Ninja Thyberg, Casa de Antiguidades by Joao Paulo Miranda Maria, Broken Keys by Jimmy Keyrouz, Ibrahim by Samir Guesmi, Beginning by Déa Kulumbegashvili, Gargarine by Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh, 16 Printemps by Suzanne Lindon, Vaurien by Peter Dourountzis, Si le vent tombe by Nora Martirosyan, Striding into the Wind by Wei Shujun, and The Death of Cinema And My Father Too by Dani Rosenberg.
Four feature length animations were selected: from the Studio Ghibli, Aya To Majo (Earwig and the Witch) by Gorô Miyazaki (Hayao Miyazaki’s son); from Disney, Pixar’s Soul by Pete Docter; Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s Flee; and Aurel’s Josep, which is also a debut film.
The five comedy films selected are all French: Emmanuel Courcol’s Un Triomphe, Caroline Vignal’s Antoinette Dans les Cévènnes, Bruno Podaydès’ Les Deux Alfred, Laurent Lafitte’s L’Origine du monde, and Laurent Tirard’s Le Discours.
Three documentaries are part of the Official Selection: The Billion Road by Dieudo Hamadi, The Truffle Hunters by Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw, and 9 Jours a Raqqa by Xavier de Lauzanne.
Finally, an omnibus film was also chosen: Septet: The Story of Hong Kong by Ann Hui, Johnnie TO, Tsui Hark, Sammo Hung, Yuen Woo-Ping and Patrick Tam.
All films with the Cannes Official Selection 2020 label will be invited to screen in other festivals. Some from the Official Selection will exceptionally this year be able to compete at the San Sebastian Film festival.
