2019 Cannes Possible Films - The Buzz

As happens every single year, Cannes buzz starts during the Berlinale and gets louder when Berlinale ends.  But this year there are good news, buzz seems to be a lot more intersting than last year as there are some strong filmmakers with movies ready to be screen in competition, out of competition, any other fest section or parallel section.

Then we have to consider that after 2018 fiasco, smaller changes could make fest a lot more interesting and well, better.  No one will forget that thanks to French movie theaters owners, Netflix was banned and Roma was not accepted.  So, Roma went to La Biennale only to win the Golden Lion and the rest is history.  Much buzz (or is just plain gossip?) is going around about the discussions between festival organizers and Netflix but know problem is not Thierry Fremaux, who almost lost his job in 2017 due to this issue; problem is with the board of directors where there are a few movie theaters owners.  Soon we will see the end to current year discussions and hopefully, Neflix films are included in competition and elsewhere or the 2018 story will repeat and films will again end-up in Venice to their truly delight.

Discussions must be going full as it's the first time in many years that the Festival President announcement comes very late, so who knows what is keeping their minds busy (streaming services?).  This year the first ever Mexican director has become the Jury President, Alejandro González Iñárritu, who  as a matter of fact is the first ever Latin American filmmaker to held the honorable position.

If the jury president announcement came really late, imagine official press conference to announce Official selection will be announced very-late too as of today there are no news, not even speculation of dates from no section of the festival.  Then closing date for submitting films has been postponed to March 11th, so today it's still open and not until after it closes, we will learn the press conference dates. Update: non-official dates for Official Competition on April 18, Critic's Week on April 19 or 22, and Directors' Fortnight on April 23.

No, this is not my Wish List but the usual compilation of possible films that could make it to Cannes, a list by main country of production or director's place of birth as it's how is done almost everything here.

Before starting the list there is one film I wish to share some info besides listing it, so let's start with this puzzling film that will bring Catherine Deneuve as the mother with Juliette Binoche as the daughter in the first international film of Hirokazu Kore-eda. Gosh, has to be must-be-seen for me.

La Vérité (The Truth) by Hirokazu Kore-eda
Title is provisional.  Director's first international production with a stellar cast: Juliette Binoche, Catherine Deneuve, Ethan Hawke, Ludivie Sagnier.  Produced by French 3B (France3 and CNC are backers) and Japan's Bunbuky and M.i Movies; Wild Bunch with most international sales, Gaga with Asia markets apart from China.

There are many films but as we can clearly see if we talk about good cinema then French cinema is king, sigh.  By-the-way there are some fabulous films that surely are not ready for 2019 like the one that stay in my head after reading something about all those films in the list, Leos Carax musical (!!!) starring Michelle Williams and Adam Driver, the name: Annette. Film is a French-American co production.  Another film that unfortunately was put on hold (was in post-production) because director illness is Benedetta by Paul Vehoeven; let's hope he gets well soon so the 2020 release becomes real.

After a few days compiling list and reading about each film in list I'm going to publish today.  Hope many make it to Cannes but soon we will find it as of next month we will know which films went to the competition, the official selection, the parallel sections or the independent sections and which probably will appear in Locarno or La Mostra.

The List

France
Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche with Terminal Sud
Nabil Ayouch with Positive School
Yamina Benguigui with Soeurs (Sisters) (Maïwenn, Isabelle Adjani)
Fabienne Berthaud with Un Monde Plus Grand (A Bigger World) (Cécile De France, Ludivine Sagnier)
Bertrand Bonello with Zombi Child
Lucie Borleteau with Chanson douce
Zabou Breitman and Eléa Gobbé-Mévellec with Les Hirondelles de Kaboul (animation)
Hélier Cisterne with De nos frères blessés (My Traitor, My Love)
Jérémy Clapin with J'ai Perdu Mon Corps (Grab) (1st film)
Abdel Raouf Dafri with Qu’un sang impur… (1st film)
Antoine de Bary with Le Jour de glorie (My Days of Glory) (1st film)
Stéphane Demoustier with La Fille au bracelet (The Girl with a Bracelet) (1st film)
Arnaud Desplechin with Roubaix, une lumière (Roubaix, a Light) (Léa Seydoux)
Mati Diop with La Prochaine Fois, le Feu (The Atlantides) (1st film)
Valérie Donzelli with Notre Dame
Maïmouna Doucouré with Mignonnes (Cuties) (1st film)
Bruno Dumont with Jeanne
Quentin Dupieux with Le Daim (Deerskin) (Adèle Haenel)
Benoît Forgeard with Yves (All About Yves)
Robert Guédiguian with Gloria Mundi
Oliver Laxe with La part du feu (The Sun That Never Sets)
Mia Hansen-Løve with Bergman Island
Blaise Harrison with Les particules (1st film)
Jean-Charles Hue with Tijuana Bible
Cédric Kahn with Joyeaux anniversaire (Happy Birthday) (Catherine Denueve, Emmanuelle Bercot)
Abdellatif Kechiche with Mektoub my love: Intermezzo
Hirokazu Kore-eda with La Vérité (The Truth)
Manèle Labidi with Arab Blues (1st film) (Golshifteh Farahani)
Claude Lelouch with Les plus belles années (The Most Beautiful Years) (Un homme et un femme sequel)
Boris Lojkine with Camille
Ladj Ly with Les Misérables (1st film)
Dominik Moll with Seules les bêtes (Only Beasts)
Guillaume Nicloux with C'est extra (Just Great)
Jessica Palud with Revenir (1st film)
David Perrault with L’État sauvage
Atiq Rahimi with Notre-Dame du Nil (Our Lady of the Nile)
Aude Rapin with Les Héros ne meurent jamais (Heroes Never Die) (1st film) (Adèle Haenel)
Régis Roinsard with Les Traducteurs (The Translators)
Jean-Paul Salomé with La Daronne (Isabelle Huppert)
Céline Sciamma with  Portrait de la jeune fille en feu (Portrait of a Lady On Fire) (Adèle Haenel)
Sarah Suco with Les Voeux (1st film)
Elia Suleiman with It Must Be Heaven
Justine Triet with Sibyl (Virginie Efira)
Christian Volckman with La Chambre (The Room)
Alice Winocour with Proxima
Zoé Wittock with Jumbo (1st film) (Emmanuelle Bercot)
Rebeca Zlotowski with Une fille facile (An Easy Girl)

Austria
Jessica Hausner with Little Joe
Ulrich Seidl with Böse Spiele (Wicked Games)

Belgium
Peter Brosens and Jessica Woodworth with The Barefoot Emperor
Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardene with Ahmed
Frédéric Fonteyne with La Frontière (The Border)
Fabrice du Welz with Adoration

Denmark
Jonas Alexander Arnby with Selvmordsturisten (Suicide Tourist)
Brian De Palma with Domino

Georgia
Zaza Urushadze with Anton

Germany
Katrin Gebbe with Pelikanblut (Pelican Blood)
Vadim Perelman with Persian Lessons
Christian Petzold with Undine
Burhan Qurbani with Alexanderplatz
Sebastian Schipper with Roads

Hungary
Agnes Kocsis with Eden

Iceland
Katrin Olfasdottir with The Wind Blew On (1st film)
Runar Runarsson with Echo
Grímur Hákonarson with The County

Italy
Marco Bellocchio with Il traditore (The Traitor)
Andrey Konchalovsky with Il Peccato (Sin)
Pietro Marcello with Martin Eden
Lorenzo Mattotti with La Fameuse Invasion des Ours en Sicile (The Bears' Famous Invasion of Sicily) (animation)
Carlos Sironi with Sole (1st film)

Netherlands
Mees Peijnenburg with Paradise Drifters (1st film)
Gust Van den Berghe with Wees blij dat het regent (Rain Away)

Poland
Lech Majewski with Valley of Gods
Malgorzata Szumowska with All Inclusive

Portugal
Pedro Costa with As filhas do Fogo (Vitalina Varela)
João Nicolau with Technoboss

Romania
Catalin Mitulescu with Heidi
Corneliu Porumboiu with The Whistlers (aka The Passenger)
Cristi Puiu with Malmkrog (The Manor House)

Russia
Kantemir Balagov with Дылда The Beanpole
Pavel Lungin with Эсав Esau

Slovakia
Ivan Ostrochovský with The Disciple

Spain
Pedro Almodovar with Dolor y Gloria (Penelope Cruz, Antonio Banderas; Spain's release date is March 22)
Alejandro Amenabar with Mientras Dure La Guerra (As Long as the War Lasts)
Olivier Laxe with La Part Du Feu (A Sun That Never Sets)
Rodrigo Sorogoyen with Madre (Mother)

Sweden
Roy Andersson with Om det oändliga (About Endlessness)
Jesper Ganslandt with 438 Days
Ninja Thyberg with Jessica (1st film)

UK
Julie Delpy with My Zoe
Dexter Fletcher with Rocketman
Ken Loach with Sorry We Missed You
Gerard Johnson with Muscle
Eva Riley with Perfect 10 (1st film)
Marjane Satrapi with Radioactive
Wash Westmoreland with Earthquake Bird (Alicia Vikander, Riley Keough)

Asia/Oceania

Afghanistan
Shahrbanoo Sadat with The Orphanage

Australia
Benedict Andrews with Against All Enemies (Kristen Stewart)
Justin Kurzel with The True History of the Kelly Gang

China
Flora Lau with Luz (Isabelle Huppert)
Lou Ye with 兰心大剧院 Saturday Fiction (Li Gong)
Diao Yi'nan with Nan Fang Che Zhan De Ju Hui (The Wild Goose Lake)
一秒鐘 Yi miao zhong (One Second), Zhang Yimou, China
Dalei Zhang with 蓝色列车 Blue Train

Japan
Kiyoshi Kurosawa with 旅のおわり、世界のはじまり Tabi no Owari, Sekai no Hajimari (To the Ends of the Earth)
Kôji Fukada with よこがお Yokogao (A Girl Missing)

Iran
Massoud Bakhshi with Yalda

Philippines
Lav Diaz with 2019 (Locarno? Venice? but he already has the Leopard and the Lion, needs La Palme!)

Singapore
Anthony Chen with Wet Season

South Korea
Bong Joon-ho with 기생충 Gisaengchoong (Parasite)

Taiwan
Hou Hsiao-Hsien with Shulan River
Chang Tso-chi with 那個我最親愛的陌生人 The Beloved Stranger

Thailand
Apichatpong Weerasethakul with Memoria (Tilda Swinton, set in Colombia)

Latin America

Argentina
Juan José Campanella con Regreso Triunfal (aka El Cuento de las Comadrejas) (opens May 16 in Argentina... has to be in Cannes!)

Brazil
Karim Aïnouz with A Vida Invisível (The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao)
Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles with Bacurau (Nighthawk) (Sonia Braga)

Colombia
Franco Lolli with Litigante (The Defendant)

Chile
Patricio Guzman with La Cordillera de los Sueños (The Cordillera of Dreams)
Pablo Larrain with Ema

Mexico
Michel Franco with Lo que algunos soñaron (The Dreams of a Few)
Fernando Frias with Ya No Estoy Aqui (I'm No Longer Here)
Arturo Ripstein with El Diablo Entre Las Piernas (The Devil Between the Legs)
Lorenzo Vigas with La Caja (The Box)
David Zonana with Mano de Obra (Labor)

Peru
Melina León with Canción Sin Nombre (Song Without a Name) (1st film)

North America

Canada
Xavier Dolan with Mathias et Maxime
Atom Egoyan with Guest of Honour
Matthew Rankin with The 20th Century (1st film)

USA
Ari Aster with Midsommar
Sean Durkin with The Nest
Roberet Eggers with The Lighthouse
Greta Gerwig with Little Women (most likely in Venice)
James Gray with Ad Astra
Jim Jarmusch with The Dead Don't Die (Brad Pitt)
Ang Lee with Gemini Man (Venice? Will Smith)
Terrence Malick with A Hidden Life
Vadim Perelman with Persian Lessons
Kelly Reichardt with First Cow
Ira Sachs with Frankie (Venice?) (Isabelle Huppert)
Tre Edward Shults with Waves
Quetin Tarantino with Once upon a time in Hollywood
Nicolas Winding Refn with Too Old To Die Young (TV serie) 
Benh Zeitlin with Wendy (remember Beasts of the Southern Wild?)
Chloe Zhao with Nomadland

Neflix
David Michod with The King
Josh an Benny Safdie with Uncut Gems
Martin Scorsese with The Irishman
Steven Soderbergh with The Laundromat (Meryl Streep)