Cannes Film Festival organisers have revealed the films competing for the coveted Palme d'Or prize on Thursday. Six women are among the 19 directors nominated, including the 2021 winner, French filmmaker Julia Ducournau with her new film Alpha.
Festival director Thierry Frémaux revealed the list of 19 films in the main competition at a press conference, accompanied by festival president Iris Knobloch, who promised the list would take people "to the moon and back".
Familiar names including American director Wes Anderson, Iran's Jafar Panahi and perennial favourites the Dardenne brothers from Belgium are among the 19 directors vying for the Palme d'Or at the event, which gets under way next month.
Anderson's The Phoenician Scheme stars Benicio Del Toro, Tom Hanks and Scarlett Johansson, who are all expected to make an appearance on the red carpet.
Johansson is also nominated for her work behind the camera this year, with her directorial debut Eleanor the Great, about an elderly woman coping with the death of her best friend, listed in the secondary Un Certain Regard competition.
Panahi, who has been repeatedly detained and banned from film-making, will present his latest production, A Simple Accident.
Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne – who won Palme d'Or awards for Rosetta in 1999 and L'Enfant (The Child) in 2005 – are back with Jeunes Mères (Young Mothers).
Making waves
The main competition this year also features veteran US independent filmmaker Richard Linklater with Nouvelle Vague – a look back at France's New Wave cinema and its iconic figures, such as Jean-Luc Godard.
Other directors in competition include American horror director Ari Aster, his first time in Cannes, whose Western black comedy Eddington stars Joaquin Phoenix.
The three French contenders in the main competition are Dominik Moll with Dossier 137 ("File 137"), 2021 Palme d'Or winner Julia Ducournau with Alpha and Hafsia Herzi with La Petite Dernière ("The Last One").
"These films depict something about our world ... of difficulty, tension, violence, where you need to make your mark, but also a world that is familiar to us, that we long for, and that we still hope to see emerge," Frémaux said of the entries.
In the documentary section, Frémaux announced eye-catching entries such as a film about U2 frontman Bono, Bono: Stories of Surrender, and another by Haitian director Raoul Peck about British writer George Orwell, entitled Orwell.
Frémaux also announced that French newcomer Amelie Bonnin would be opening the festival on 13 May with her debut feature Partir un jour ("Leave One Day"), adding that this will be the first time that a debut film will open the festival.
French actress Juliette Binoche to head Cannes Film Festival jury
French screen legend Juliette Binoche will chair the jury, while Robert De Niro will also be on the Riviera to receive an honorary Palme d'Or.
Tom Cruise is set to appear for the world premiere of the final instalment in the Mission: Impossible series, entitled Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. It will be released worldwide from the middle of May.
Although he was not mentioned by organisers on Thursday, former jury president Spike Lee wrote on Instagram that his new film Highest 2 Lowest with Denzel Washington would premiere out of competition in Cannes.
The master of ceremonies this year is French actor Laurent Lafitte, who starred in The Count of Monte Cristo alongside Pierre Niney.
American director Todd Haynes to be awarded Carrosse d'Or at Cannes
Ethics under the microscope
The build-up to Thursday's announcement was dominated by discussion of a French parliamentary inquiry into the entertainment industry.
MPs concluded that "moral, sexist and sexual violence in the cultural sector is systemic, endemic and persistent", according to the inquiry's chairwoman, Sandrine Rousseau, following six months of testimony from actors, agents and directors.
Knobloch said the festival was "attentive" and was approaching MPs' recommendations to improve the safeguarding of performers "with seriousness and determination".
Abuse in French entertainment sector 'endemic', parliamentary report finds
"[Women] are no longer asking for their place, they are taking it," Knobloch told a news conference in Paris. "We are honoured to amplify their voices, to shine a light on incredible talent that broadens our view of the world."
The opening day of Cannes on 13 May is also set to coincide with the verdict in the first sexual assault trial of French film legend Gerard Depardieu, who is accused of having assaulted two women on the set of a film in 2021. He denies the allegations.
(with newswires)
