Saturday, March 07, 2015

2015 Cannes Possible Films - The Buzz




This is NOT my wish list but a compendium of possible films that could make it to Cannes this year. List is made from several Cannes articles plus some lists with most anticipated films of 2015 and what I know from my daily readings.

As one Le Monde article says: "It is no secret, Cannes begins in Berlin" and it does, not in red carpet but in the industry market. Consequently it's no surprise that in the last days of the Berlinale press articles (see my pinterest here) started to appear with possible films that surely are fast running to reach La Croisette on time.

Before going deep into the list let me remind you that the 68th edition of the Festival de Cannes will run from May 13 to 24, Ethan and Joel Coen are the co-presidents of the Official Competition jury and the selection will be unveiled in mid-April by Thierry Frémaux.

As matter of fact there are big probabilities that Thierry Frémaux (Official Selection), Edouard Waintrop (Quinzaine) and Charles Tesson (Semaine de la Critique) will have to do their selections from a list similar to this one. But no matter if films make it or not, the most exciting news are that the list of 2015 films looks fantastic as there are many films that are must be seen for me just because are made by many of my favorite directors. So let's the cinema feast start with the possibility that soon we will be able to enjoy so many films.

France
Merzak Allouache with Madame Courage
Nassim Amaouche with Des Apaches
Danielle Arbid with Peur de rien
Emmanuelle Bercot with La tête haute (Catherine Deneuve, Benoît Magimel)
Thomas Bidegain with Les Cowboys (debut feature) (in French with John C. Reilly)
Christine Carrière with Une mère
Catherine Corsini with La Belle Saison (Cécile De France, Izïa Higelin - L interest)
Arnaud Desplechin with Trois souvenirs de ma jeunesse (aka Nos Aracadies opening in France on May 20- Cannes?)
Diastème with Un Français
Valérie Donzelli with Marguerite et Julien
Philippe Faucon with Fatima
Léa Fehner with Les Ogres (Adèle Haenel, Lola Dueñas)
Benoît Forgeard with Gaz de France
Louis Garrel with Les deux amis (debut feature)
Philippe Garrel with L'ombre des femmes (Shadow of Women) (opening May in France - Cannes?)
Xavier Giannoli with Marguerite
Michel Gondry with Microbe et Gasoil (Audrey Tautou)
Robert Guédiguian with Une histoire de fou
Lucile Hadzihalilovic with Evolution (horror)
Arthur Harari with Diamant Noir (debut feature)
Mikhaël Hers with Ce sentiment de l'été
Eva Husson with Bang Gang (debut feature)
Luc Jacquet with La glace et le ciel (documentary)
Ounie Lecomte with Je vous souhaite d'être follement aimée (Céline Sallette)
Olivier Loustau with La fille du patron (debut feature)
Maïwenn with Mon Roi (Vincent Cassel, Louis Garrel, Emmanuelle Bercot, Isild Le Besco - release October 21 in France)
Guillaume Nicloux with The Valley of Love (with Gerard Depardieu and Isabelle Huppert)
Gaspar Noé with Love
Damien Odoul with La Peur
Mark Osborne with Le Petit Prince (animation)
Bruno Podalydès with Comme un avion
Jean-Paul Rappeneau with Belles Familles (Mathieu Amalric, Marine Vacth)
Nicolas Saada with Taj Mahal (Alba Rohrwacher, Louis-Do de Lencquesaing)
Barbet Schroeder with Amnesia
Joann Sfar with La Dame dans l'auto avec des lunettes et un fusil (Elio Germano)
Elie Wajeman with Les Anarchistes (Tahar Rahim, Adèle Exarchopoulos)
Alice Winocour with Maryland (Close Protection) (Matthias Schoenaerts, Diane Kruger)

Italy
Marco Bellocchio with L'Ultimo Vampiro (Alba Rohrwacher)
Matteo Garrone with The Tale of Tales (Vincent Cassel, Alba Rohrwacher, Salma Hayek, John C. Reilly -film is in English, again - release date May 14 in Italy - Cannes?)
Luca Guadagnino with A Bigger Splash (Tilda Swinton, Matthias Schoenaerts, Ralph Fiennes, Dakota Johnson - in English, has great cast BUT is a remake of Jacques Deray's La Piscine with Alain Delon and Romy Schneider)
Nanni Moretti with Mia Madre (aka Margherita - release April 2015, no Cannes? Great is in Italian!)
Paolo Sorrentino with The Early Years (Rachel Weisz, Michael Caine - in English but is an European production- release date May 21 in Italy - Cannes? Film is also known as Youth, La Giovinezza, In The Future)

Romania
Marian Crişan with Orizont
Radu Muntean with Un etaj mai jos (One Floor Below)
Corneliu Porumboiu with Comoara (The Treasure)
Florin Șerban with Box

Belgium
Joachim Lafosse with Les Chevaliers Blancs
Jaco van Dormael with Le tout nouveau testament (The Brand New Testament)

Denmark
Thomas Vinterberg with Kollektivet (The Commune)
Tobias Lindholm with Krigen (A War)

Greece
Yorgos Lanthimos with The Lobster (Léa Seydoux, Rachel Weisz, Colin farrell, John C. Reilly in English - release USA date: March 2015)
Athina Tsangari with Chevalier

Hungary
Bence Fliegauf with Liliom ösvény (Lily Lane)
Lazlo Nemes with Saul fia (Son of Saul)

Iceland
Rúnar Rúnarsson with Þröstum (Sparrows)
Grímur Hákonarson with Hrútar (Rams)

Portugal
Miguel Gomes with As 1001 Noites (1001 Nights or Arabian Nights - has full credentials to be in Cannes)
João Salaviza with Montanha (Mountain)

Russia
Alexandr Sokurov with Francophonia (aka Le Louvre sous l'Occupation)

UK
Terence Davies with Sunset Song
Stephen Freas with Icon (the Lance Amstrong stroy staring Ben Foster and Dustin Hoffman)
Todd Haynes with Carol (Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara - L interest))
Justin Kurzel with MacBeth (Marion Cotillard, Michael Fassbender)
Thomas Vinterberg with Far From The Madding Crowd
Ben Wheatley with High Rise (Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Irons, Sienna Miller, Elizabeth Moss)

Other European Countries
Bulgaria: Kamen Kalev with Face Down (Melvil Poupaud)
Netherlands: Alex van Warmerdam with Scheneider vs. Bax
Poland: Andrzej Zulawski with Cosmos
Slovenia: Olmo Omerzu with Rodinny Film (Family Film)
Spain: Alejandro Amenabar with Regression (Emma Watson, Ethan Hawke, in English)

Australia: George Miller with Mad Max Fury Road (Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron)

Canada: Denis Villeneuve with Sicario (Emily Blunt)

USA
Brad Bird with Tomorrowland (George Clooney, France release date May 20! - This is Cannes bound)
Pierre Coffin and Kyle Balda with Minions (animation)
Scott Cooper with Black Mass (Johnny Depp, Benedict Cumberbatch, Sienna Miller, Dakota Johnson)
Jodie Foster with Money Moster (George Clooney, Julia Roberts)
Cary Fukunaga with Beasts of No Nation (Idris Elba)
Alfonso Gomez-Rejon with Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
Angelina Jolie with By The Sea (Melvil Poupaud, Mélanie Laurent, Niels Arestrup, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt)
Jeff Nichols with Midnight Special (Kristen Dunst, Adam Driver)
Mark Osborne with The Little Prince (animation - but has France release date for 29 July)
Sean Penn with The Last Face (Javier Bardem, Charlize Theron, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Jean Reno)
Gus Van Sant with The Sea of Trees (film has full credentials to be in Cannes - Matthew McConaughey, Ken Watanabe, Naomi Watts, )
Joachim Trier with Louder Than Bombs (in English, cast: Isabelle Huppert, Jesse Eisenberg)

Latin America
Pablo Trapero with  El Clan (The Clan)
Santiago Mitre with La Patota

Africa
Olivier Hermanus with The Endless River

Asia
Hou Hsiao-hsien with Nie yin niang (The Assasin)
Mamoru Hosoda with Bakemono no ko (The Boy and the Beast) (animation
Naomi Kawase with An (Sweet Red Bean Paste)
Anurag Kashyap with Bombay Velvet
Takeshi Kitano with Ryûzô to 7 nin no kobun tachi
Eric Khoo with In the Room
Hirokazu Kore-Eda with Unimachi Diary (Kamakura Story aka Our Little sister)
Kiyoshi Kurosawa with Kishibe no tabi (Journey to the Shore)
Takashi Miike with The Outsider (Tom Hardy)
Brillante Mendoza with Taklub
Im Sang-soo with My Friendly Villains
Sono Sion with Shinjuku suwan (Shinjuku Swan)
Johnnie To with Hua Li Shang Ban Zou (Design for Living) (Yun-Fat Chow)
Apichatpong Weerasethakul with Love in Khon Kaen
John Woo with The Crossing 2 (Ziyi Zhang)
Jiajia Zhang with 擺渡人 The Ferryman (co written with Wong Kar Wai - starring Tony Leung)

Other Countries
Israel: Hagar Ben-Asher with The Buglar
Kazakhstan: Emir Baigazin with L'ange blessé
Palestine: Arab and Tarzan Abunasser with Dégradé (Hiam Abbass, debut feature)

Seem will run out of time for Cannes
Babi Yar by Sergei Loznitsa
Belgica by Felix van Groeningen
Dheepan (aka Erran) by Jacques Audiard
Elle by Paul Verhoeven
Evita by Pablo Aguero
Flashmob by Michael Haneke
Shan He Gu Ren (Mountains May Depart) by Jia Zhangke
Sur la voie lactée (On the milky road) by Emir Kusturica
The Hateful Eight by Quentin Tarrantino
Triple Nine by John Hillcoat
Voyage of Time by Terrence Malick
Zama by Lucrecia Martel

From this long exercise one thing seems a "sure thing" for me, in 2015 Cannes there will be one or more movies made by Italian cinema great contemporary directors. Fantastic.  Also there are strong probabilities that Alba Rohrwacher will be in Cannes again this year.

Next week will do my wish list based on this long list and with much more info than just listing the director and the name of the movie.  Yes, read about each of the above films, so by now have a good idea of which films have to make my Cannes Wish List.

No comments yet