2018 Cannes Film Festival Selections Revealed, Featuring Spike Lee, Jean-Luc Godard, More

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2018 Cannes Film Festival Selections Revealed, Featuring Spike Lee, Jean-Luc Godard, More

The 2018 Cannes Film Festival has been the subject of a lot of buzz lately after the recent controversy banning films without French theatrical release dates (i.e., Netflix). Now, some positive buzz flows its way with the festival’s official lineup, which includes an interesting range of films from diverse filmmakers.

In the in-competition selection, two American films made the cut. Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman starring Adam Driver will premiere at Cannes, along with David Robert Mitchell’s Under the Silver Lake, starring Andrew Garfield and Riley Keough.

Franco-Swiss auteur and film legend Jean-Luc Godard will premiere his Le Livre d’image (The Book of Images). The 87-year-old director was at Cannes four years ago with his 3D film Goodbye to Language.

Japan has two in-competition titles with Cannes regular Hirokazu Koreeda’s Shoplifters and newbie Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Asako I & II. Korea’s Lee Chang-dong will return this year with his new thriller Burning after his 2010 Cannes screenplay winner Poetry.

Academy Award winner Pawel Pawlikowski (Ida) will screen in competition for the first time with Cold War, a romantic black-and-white drama. The main competition will close with first-time Egyptian director A.B. Shawky with his leper film Yomeddine and Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov with his rock ‘n’ roll tale Summer. As previously announced, Asghar Farhadi’s Everybody Knows, starring Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem, will open the festival on May 8.

Other notable mentions that are not competing for the Palme d’Ore include Ron Howard’s Solo: A Star Wars Story, which we now know will have a two hour, 15 minute run time, and Wim Wenders’ Pope Francis – A Man of His Word. It will be interesting to see if the actual Pope shows up to walk the red carpet—Cannes artistic director Thierry Fremaux hinted that he would.

Some interesting exclusions from the full lineup include Cannes favorite Xavier Dolan with the highly anticipated The Life and Death of John F. Donovan, which recently cut out Jessica Chastain’s character altogether, and another Cannes veteran, Jacques Audiard (Dheepan), with his English-language Western The Sisters Brothers, starring John C. Reilly, Joaquin Phoenix and Jake Gyllenhaal. Another surprising snub was Lars Von Trier’s serial killer drama The House that Jack Built, starring Matt Dillon and Riley Keough. The Matthew McConaughey and Zac Efron starrer from Cannes vet Harmony Korine, The Beach Bum, was also expected to hit the festival. Mike Leigh’s historical drama Peterloo, about a massacre of British unarmed protesters, was thought to be a shoo-in. Fremaux also suggested that some additions could be included in the full lineup in the coming days so stay tuned.

Find the full lineup below.

Competition
Everybody Knows, Asghar Farhadi (opening-night film)
At War, Stephane Brize
Dogman, Matteo Garrone
Le Livre d’image (The Book of Images), Jean-Luc Godard
Asako I & II, Ryusuke Hamaguchi
Sorry Angel, Christophe Honore
Girls of the Sun, Eva Husson
Ash is Purest White, Jia Zhangke
Shoplifters, Hirokazu Koreeda
Burning, Lee Chang-dong
Capernaum, Nadine Labaki
BlacKkKlansman, Spike Lee
Under the Silver Lake, David Robert Mitchell
Three Faces, Jafar Panahi
Cold War, Pawel Pawlikowski
Happy, Lazzaro, Alice Rohrwacher
Yomeddine, A.B. Shawky
Summer, Kiril Serebrennikov

Out of Competition
Solo: A Star Wars Story, Ron Howard
Le Grand Bain, Gilles Lellouche

Un Certain Regard
Border, Ali Abbasi
Sofia, Benm’ Barek
Little Tickles, Andrea Bescond and Eric Metayer
Long Day’s Journey Into Night, Bi Gan
Manto, Nandita Das
Sextape, Antoine Desrosieres
Girl, Lukas Dhont
Angel Face, Vanessa Filho
Euphoria, Valeria Golino
Friend, Wanuri Kahiu
My Favorite Fabric, Gaya Jiji
The Harvesters, Etienne Kallos
In My Room, Ulrich Kohler
El Angel, Luis Ortega
The Gentle Indifference of the World, Adilkhan Yerzhanov

Midnight Screenings
Gongjak (The Spy Gone North), Yoon Jong-Bing
Arctic, Joe Penna

Special Screenings
Pope Francis – A Man of His Word, Wim Wenders
The State Against Mandela and the Others, Nicolas Champeaux and Gilles Porte
La Traversee, Romain Goupil
To the Four Winds, Michel Toesca
Les Ames Mortes (Dead Souls), Wang Bing
O Grande Circo Mistico (Le Grand Cirque Mystique), Carlo Diegues
10 Years in Thailand, Aditya Assarat, Wisit Sasanatieng, Chulayarnon Sriphol and Apichatpong Weerasethakul

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