Celebrities and prestige filmmakers alike will descend upon the shores of southern France for the 2019 Cannes Film Festival.
The annual cinema event announced Thursday its full competitive and special screening lineups for its 72nd edition, including new projects from Penélope Cruz, Isabelle Huppert, Taron Egerton, Bill Murray, and first-time feature director Mati Diop — reportedly the first black woman to ever screen a film in competition at Cannes.
Among the titles competing for the festival’s highest honor — the elite Palme d’Or prize — are Diop’s Atlantique, Terrence Malick’s World War II-set drama A Hidden Life, Ira Sachs’ Huppert-fronted, Marisa Tomei-starring French film Frankie, Pedro Almodóvar’s latest Cruz collaboration Pain and Glory, about an aging film director (Antonio Banderas) reflecting on his past life, and Xavier Dolan’s fifth film starring his Mommy star Anne Dorval, Matthias & Maxime.
Other international directors screening projects as part of the Cannes competition include Bong Joon-ho (Parasite), Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (The Young Ahmed), Ladj Ly (Les Misérables), and Palme d’Or-winning I, Daniel Blake director Ken Loach (Sorry We Missed You). Diop’s film is one of only four female-directed titles competing for the Palme, with the others being Girlhood helmer Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Justine Triet’s Sibyl, and Jessica Hausner’s Little Joe. This marks a slight increase in representation from the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, during which only three women screened films among the main slate.
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Before unveiling its official poster (which commemorates late festival staple, Agnès Varda), Cannes previously announced Jim Jarmusch’s star-studded zombie comedy The Dead Don’t Die — starring Murray, Tilda Swinton, Selena Gomez, Adam Driver, and Chloë Sevigny — would hold its first screening as the 2019 competition’s opening night film, while Egerton’s Elton John biopic Rocketman will bow as a special screening outside the Palme-contending slate.
Though it was rumored Quentin Tarantino’s 1960s-set, Manson murders-inspired drama Once Upon a Time in Hollywood would premiere on the Croisette, festival director Thierry Frémaux confirmed during Thursday’s press conference that the film “is not ready,” though he revealed he has seen “a large part of the movie” during its lengthy post-production process, which he dubbed “fantastic.” Frémaux also confirmed James Gray’s highly anticipated sci-fi drama Ad Astra, starring Brad Pitt, was considered but ultimately not ready to screen by the festival’s May 14 start date.
Oscar-winner Alejandro González Iñárritu will preside over the main competition’s jury, which will award the 2019 Palme d’Or to one of the 19 films in competition, while Capernaum director Nadine Labaki and French filmmaker Claire Denis (High Life) will lead the Un Certain Regard and Cinéfondation juries.
Read on for the competition and special screening lineup (per Deadline) for the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, which runs from May 14-25.
OPENING NIGHT FILM
The Dead Don’t Die, dir: Jim Jarmusch
COMPETITION
Pain & Glory, dir: Pedro Almodovar
Parasite, dir: Bong Joon-ho
The Wild Goose Lake, dir: Diao Yinan
The Traitor, dir: Marco Bellocchio
Young Ahmed, dirs: Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
Matthias And Maxime, dir: Xavier Dolan
Oh Mercy, dir: Arnaud Desplechin
A Hidden Life, dir: Terrence Malick
Sorry We Missed You, dir: Ken Loach
Little Joe, dir: Jessica Hausner
Portrait Of A Lady On Fire, dir: Céline Sciamma
Atlantique, dir: Mati Diop
Sibyl, dir: Justine Triet
It Must Be Heaven, dir: Elia Suleiman
Frankie, dir: Ira Sachs
Bacurau, dirs: Kleber Mendonça Filho & Juliano Dornelles
The Whistlers, dir: Corneliu Porumboiu
Les Misérables, dir: Ladj Ly
OUT OF COMPETITION
Les Plus Belles Années D’Une Vie, dir: Claude Lelouch
Rocketman, dir: Dexter Fletcher
Too Old To Die Young – North Of Hollywood, West Of Hell (two episodes); dir: Nicolas Winding Refn
Diego Maradona, dir: Asif Kapadia
La Belle Epoque, dir: Nicolas Bedos
MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS
The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil, dir: Lee Won-Tae
SPECIAL SCREENINGS
Tommaso, dir: Abel Ferrara
Share, dir: Pippa Bianco
For Sama, dirs: Waad Al Kateab & Edward Watts
Etre Vivant Et Le Savoir, dir: Alain Cavalier
Family Romance LLC, dir: Werner Herzog
UN CERTAIN REGARD
Invisible Life, dir: Karim Aïnouz
Beanpole, dir: Kantemir Balagov
The Swallows Of Kabul, dirs: Zabou Breitman & Eléa Gobé Mévellec
A Brother’s Love, dir: Monia Chokri
The Climb, dir: Michael Covino
Jeanne, dir: Bruno Dumont
A Sun That Never Sets, dir: Olivier Laxe
Chambre 212, dir: Christophe Honoré
Port Authority, dir: Danielle Lessovitz
Papicha, dir: Mounia Meddour
Adam, dir: Maryam Touzani
Zhuo Ren Mi Mi, dir: Midi Z
Liberté, dir: Albert Serra
Bull, dir: Annie Silverstein
Summer Of Changsha, dir: Zu Feng
Evge, dir: Nariman Aliev
