Written by The Location Guide on May 9, 2023. Posted in Awards and Festivals

Cannes Film 2023: A-list Auteurs Cram the Croisette

After a 2022 edition that premiered three Best Picture Oscar nominees, Top Gun: Maverick, Triangle of Sadness and Elvis, can this year’s Cannes Film Festival top that?

With world premieres for Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon and Harrison Ford’s return as Indy in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, and highly anticipated new titles from Wes Anderson (Asteroid City), Jonathan Glazer and Ken Loach it’s a good bet that it will.

The Official Selection for its 76th edition also includes new work from Catherine Breillat (Last Summer); Alice Rohrwacher (La Chimera); Jessica Hausner (Club Zero); Justine Triet (Anatomie d’une chute); Ramata-Toulaye Sy (Banel et Adama) and Kaouther Ben Hania’s documentary Olfa’s Daughters. These six are female directors, a record for competition at the festival.

By inviting Östlund to head over the Jury, the Festival de Cannes said it wished to pay a tribute to films that are uncompromising and forthright and which constantly demand that viewers challenge themselves.

They will compete for the Palme d’Or with heavyweight male directors including Anderson, Wim Wenders (Perfect Days), Nanni Moretti (The Sun of the Future) and two time Palme d’Or winner Ken Loach (The Old Oak). Jonathan Glazer is also in the mix with The Zone of Interest, an adaptation of Martin Amis’ Auschwitz-set novel. Todd Haynes brings May December with Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore. Another notable entry is Karim Aïnouz’s Henry VIII drama Firebrand with Alicia Vikander and Jude Law.

Among the French competition entries is The Passion of Dodin Bouffant, a period romance directed by Tran Anh Hung, and starring Juliette Binoche and Benoit Magimel.

Thierry Frémaux, the festival’s director said, “We saw more than 2,000 films. These numbers are extravagant and, at the same time, reflect the health of world cinema and the aspiration to make films everywhere.”

Jeanne du Barry © Stephanie Branchu / Why Not Productions.

Fremaux noted that the rare presence of two documentary features in competition reflected their comeback in theatres. Documentaries have won top prizes at recent festivals, such as at Venice 2022, where Laura Poitras’ All The Beauty and the Bloodshed won, and Berlinale 2023, where Nicolas Philibert’s On the Adamant took the Golden Bear.

Outside of the core competition, Cannes’ Un Certain Regard will showcase a wide range of emerging and up-and-coming directors from around the world, including a large delegation of films from the African continent, and a first film from Mongolia with Zoljargal Purevdash’s If Only I Could Hibernate. Un Certain Regard will kick off with the French film Le Règne Animal by Thomas Cailley, whose feature debut Les Combattants won a few Cesar Awards. Japanese actor-writer-director Takeshi Kitano bows Kubi, a period action film, and Pedro Almodovar is taking new short film Strange Way Of Life, screened out of competition.

I will remind my colleagues in the jury about the social function of the cinema. A good movie relates to the collective experience, stimulates us to think and makes us want to discuss what we have seen. So let's watch together!

Cannes Directors’ Fortnight will honour Souleymane Cissé with Carrosse d’Or award at the opening ceremony on May 17. The Malian filmmaker will receive the award of the French directors guild La Société des Réalisateurs which recognises filmmakers for their “innovative qualities”. In Cisse’s 50-year career his work having screened at Cannes six times. His 1987 drama Yelen picked up the jury prize at the festival when it played in competition.

Also premiering out of competition on the Croisette is Steve McQueen’s Occupied City, a film about Amsterdam during its occupation by the Nazis. The festival opener is Jeanne du Barry, a period drama directed by and starring France’s Maïwenn opposite Johnny Depp as Louis XV.

Two-time winner of the Palme d’Or, Ruben Östlund will preside over the Jury. The Swedish director made last year’s winner and Best Picture Oscar nominee Triangle of Sadness and The Square in 2017.

By inviting Östlund to head over the Jury, the Festival de Cannes said it wished to pay a tribute to films that are uncompromising and forthright and which constantly demand that viewers challenge themselves.

Östlund himself said, “I will remind my colleagues in the jury about the social function of the cinema. A good movie relates to the collective experience, stimulates us to think and makes us want to discuss what we have seen. So let's watch together!”

This article appears in the latest issue of makers, our bi-annual magazine for the international production community. Pick up a copy at the Cannes Film Festival between 16/27 May or order it online today.