2018 Cannes Film Festival Selections Revealed, Featuring Spike Lee, Jean-Luc Godard, More
Image via Flore Maquin/Georges Pierre
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.