2018 Cannes Possible Films - The Buzz

As happens every single year, Cannes buzz starts during Berlinale and gets louder when Berlinale ends.  Even do been following the buzz since then this year haven't post anything as some of you guessed right, my life has changed and now it's not easy to keep on writing for you, loyal readers.  But no matter how many changes have happened or will occur, Cannes is Cannes for me and have to (or at least will try to) write my regular posts about the buzz, my wish list and all the other stuff done in the previous years.

No, this is not my Wish List but the usual compilation of possible films that could make it to Cannes which usually do in February but well, I'm doing it a month later and by now most industry publications have done their own lists, so it's not a novelty but will be a lot easier to make it, lol.

Before going deep into the list let me remind you of some important news, the 71st edition of the Festival of Cannes will run from May 8 to 19, Cate Blanchett is the Official Competition Jury President, Bertrand Bonello is the President of the Cinéfondation and Short Films competition, we already know the dates when the Official plus the Parallel sections selections will be announced by their respective directors.

Official Selection on April 12 by Thierry Frémaux
Quinzaine des Réalisateurs April 17 by Édouard Waintrop (for the last time - New Artistic Director is Paolo Moretti, who will take office on November 2018)
Semaine de la Critique on April 16 by Charles Tesson

After an awards season worth forgetting, today I'm starting the Cinema Feast with the possibility that soon we will be able to enjoy magnificent oeuvres d'art... sigh.  

The List

France
Cédric Anger with L'amour est une fête (Paris Pigalle)
Olivier Assayas with Non Fiction (with Juliette Binoche)
Jacques Audiard with The Sisters Brothers (Joaquin Phoenix, Jake Gyllenhaal) (USA, France, Romania and Spain)
Julie Bertuccelli with Le dernier vide-grenier de Claire Darling (Claire Darling)
Margaux Bonhomme with Head Above Water
Stéphane Brizé with Un Autre monde (At War)
Valeria Bruni Tedeschi with Les estivants (The Summer House)
Claire Burger with C'est ça l'amour
Catherine Corsini with Un Amour Impossible (An Impossible Love)
Benoît Delépine and Gustave Kervern with I Feel Good
Claire Denis with High Life (with Juliette Binoche) (UK, Germany and France production)
Quentin Dupieux with Au poste (Keep an Eye Out)
Bruno Dumont with Coincoin et les z'inhumains (Coincoin and the extra Humans)
Asghar Farhadi with Todos Lo Saben (with Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz and Ricardo Darin) (France, Spain and Italy)
Philippe Faucon with Amin
Romain Gavras with Le monde est à toi
Jean-Luc Godard with Le livre d'image (The Image Book)
Fabienne Godet with Nos vies formidables (Our Wonderful Lives)
Yann Gonzalez with Un couteau dans le coeur (Knife + Heart)
Mia Hansen-Løve with Maya
Christophe Honoré with Plaire, aimer et courir vite (Sorry Angel)
Eva Husson Les filles du soleil (Girls of the Sun)
Lou Jeunet with Curiosa
Nadav Lapid with Synonymes (Synonyms)
Sébastien Marnier with L'heure de la sortie (School's Out)
Marie Monge with Joeueurs (Treat Me Like Fire) (with Tahar Rahim)
Emmanuel Mouret with Mademoiselle De Joncquières
Guillaume Nicloux with Les Confins du monde (To The Ends Of The Earth)
David Oelhoffen with Territoires (Close Enemies)
Antoine Raimbault with Intime Conviction (Conviction)
Pierre Schoeller with Un people et son roi (One Nation, One King)
Thomas Vinterberg with Kursk (France, Belgium, Luxemburg)

Austria
Markus Schleinzer with Angelo
Ulrich Seidl with Böse Spiele (Evil Games)

Belgium
François Damiens with Dany
Bas Devos with Hellhole
Lukas Dhont with Girl
Joachim Lafosse with Keep Going
Olivier Masset-Depasse with Mother's Instinct
Koen Mortier with Angel
Guillaume Senez with Nos Batailles

Germany
Terrence Malick with Radegund (USA and Germany co production)
Sebastian Schipper with Roads

Hungary
László Nemes with Sunset

Italy
Andrea Caccia with Tutto l’oro che c’è (Gold Is All There Is) (dialogue-free!)
Matteo Garrone with Dogman
Valeria Golino with Euphoria
Alice Rohrwacher with Lazzaro Felice
Paolo Sorrentino with Loro (Them)

Netherlands
Ena Sendijarević with Take Me Somewhere Nice
Ester Rots with Retrospekt

Poland
Pavel Pawlikowski with Zimna wojna (Cold War)
Agnieszka Smoczynska with Fuga (The Fugue)

Romania
Radu Muntean with Alice T.

Russia
Kirill Serebrennikov with Leto (The Summer)

Spain
Terry Gilliam with The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (Spain, UK, France and Portugal production)
Jaime Rosales with Petra
Carlos Vermut with Quién te cantará

UK
Lenny Abrahamson with The Little Stranger
Joanna Hogg with The Souvenir: Part 1
Yorgos Lanthimos with The Favourite (Ireland, USA and UK co production)
Mike Leigh with Peterloo
Steve McQueen with Windows (will love to see Viola Davis in Cannes)

Ukraine
Sergei Loznitsa with Donbass

Turkey
Emin Alper with Sisters
Nuri Bilge Ceylan with Ahlat Ağai (Wild Pear Tree) (French co production)

China
Gan Bi with 地球最后的夜晚 Di qiu zui hou de ye wan (Long Day's Journey into Night)
Lou Ye with 蘭心大劇院 The Lyceum Theatre (aka Saturday Fiction or Lanxin Theater (???) with Gong Li!!!)
Wang Xiaoshuai with 地久天长 Di jiu tian chang 
Zhang Yimou with 影 Shadow
Jia Zhang-ke with Jiang hu er nv (Ash is Purest White)

Japan
Kôji Fukada with 海を駆ける Umi wo kakeru (The Man from the Sea)
Naomi Kawase with Vision (with Juliette Binoche)
Hirokazu Kore-eda with Manbiki Kazoku (Shoplifters)

South Korea
Lee Chang Dong with Beoning (Burning) 

Canada
Xavier Dolan with The Death and Life of John F. Donovan

USA
Brian de Palma with Domino
Luca Guadagnino with Suspiria (yes, it's Dario Argento's remake-with Tilda Swinton)
Felix van Groeningen with Beautiful Boy
Harmony Korine with Beach Bum
David Robert Mitchell with Under the Silver Lake
Julian Schnabel with At Eternity's Gate

Argentina
Pablo Trapero with La Quietud (The Quietude) - French co production

Chile
Dominga Sotomayor with Late To Die Young

Colombia
Ciro Guerra and Cristina Gallego with Pájaros de Verano (Birds of Passage)
Alejandro Landes with Monos

Ecuador
Jamaica Noproblem and Pablo Aguero with Son of Man

Guatemala
Jayro Bustamente with Temblores (Tremors) (gay interest)

Mexico
Alfonso Cuaron with Roma
Carlos Reygadas with Donde Nace La Vida (Where Life is Born)

Will organizers allow Lars von Trier to come back?  His latest, The House Jack Built, has a great cast Riley Keough, Uma Thurman, Bruno Ganz ... it's Horror!!! Maybe for Midnight Screenings ...

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43rd César Awards Winners

Last night the French Academy had their award ceremony and no, was not able to watch it live but as expected the big winner of the night was BPM as collected 6 awards but was followed very closely by See You Up There with 5.

What I really regret is not watching live the surprise appearance by Marion Cotillard to present along with Pedro Almodovar the Honorary César to Penelope Cruz, sigh.  Also, there are not many opportunities to see Juliette Binoche, Isabelle Huppert and Marion Cotillard in one and the same event!!! But I'm watching videos and as soon as full awards ceremony video becomes available will include it in post.

Was not aware there was an event president this year -after what happened last year; but yes, there was a presented as such by Many Payet, Vanessa Paradis who opened the ceremony and gave remarkable homage to Jeanne Moreau.  Video is at post bottom.  Trying to see homages for Mireille Darc and Johnny Hallyday, but haven't been able to find clips, so will wait until full video is available.

There were some unexpected surprises but most -if not all- were unpleasant as hardly can understand why fantastic Visages Villages didn't win or more relevant, amazing Raw was ignored.  Sigh.

Winners are in *BLUE.

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1/31/18
Today Alain Terzian, President of the French Academy of Cinema Arts and Techniques and Many Payet, awards ceremony host, announced during a breakfast press conference at Fouquet's restaurant on the Champs-Elysees in Paris the nominees for the 2018 edition of the awards that honor films released during 2017.

Terzain congratulated Agnes Varda for her honorary Oscar and also her nomination in the best documentary category with Faces Places.  He also praised 2017 as a great year for French cinema abroad and unveiled a new award this year, the Audience Award (César du Public) that will be given to the film with more tickets sold in cinemas during a 10-week period in 2017.

The awards ceremony will take place on March 2 at Salle Pleyel in Paris and will be broadcast live on Canal+.  Vanessa Paradis will open the ceremony dedicated to Jeanne Moreau where Penelpe Cruz will receive an Honorary César.



Cannes Grand Prix winner 120 BPM and See You Up There lead with 13 nominations each followed by C'est la Vie with 10.  Many find remarkable that a comedy was able to collect 10 nominations and another box office success Le Brio by Yvan Attal was honored with a best film nomination. 

Once again the acting categories assure the awards ceremony presence of many well-known actors like Juliette Binoche (get her tenth nomination), Charlotte Gainsbourg, Daniel Auteuil, Guillaume Canet and Louis Garrel which obviously attracts many, including me, to check what goes on as with a couple of exceptions most honored films are not really my cup-of-tea and do not belong to what I call great French cinema as they tend to be normal, leaning toward entertaining more than anything else.  Sigh.

The 4,680 academy members will now vote in the second round to select a winner.  According to press reports only 60% voted in the first round, so perhaps the second round could attract more voters.

The exercise gave me a couple of films that will check one in the foreign film category, Noces and another in the best actor as was not aware that Marion Cotillard was in a film by Guillaume Canet and with him in the lead, Rock 'n Roll.  Some comment that Cotillard should have been nominated in a supporting role and her quebecois accent (!?) ... I'm curious.

The Nominees

Best Film
*120 battements par minute (120 BPM), Robin Campillo
Au revoir là-haut (See You Up There), Albert Dupontel
Barbara, Mathieu Amalric
Le brio, Yvan Attal
Le sens de la fête (C'est la Vie!), Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache
Patients, Grand Corps Malade and Mehdi Idir
Petit paysan (Bloody Milk), Hubert Charuel

Best Debut Film
Grave (Raw), Julia Ducornau
Jeune femme (Montparnasse Bienvenue), Leonor Serraille,
Monsieur & Madame Adelman (Mr. & Mrs. Adelman), Nicolas Bedos
Patients, Grand Corps Malade and Mehdi Idir
*Petit paysan (Bloody Milk), Hubert Charuel

Best Documentary Film
12 jours (12 Days), Raymond Depardon
À voix haute, la force de la parole, Stéphane de Freitas and Ladj Ly
Carré 35, Eric Caravaca
*I am not your negro, Raoul Peck
Visages, Villages (Faces Places), Agnès Varda and JR

Best Animated Feature
*Le Grand Méchant Renard et autres contes... (The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales), Benjamin Renner and Patrick Imbert
Sahara, Pierre Pierre Coré
Zombillénium (Zombillenium), Arthur de Pins and Alexis Ducord

Best Foreign Film
Le Caire confidentiel (The Nile Hilton Incident), Tarik Saleh, Sweden, Germany and Netherlands
Dunkirk, Christopher Nolan, UK, Netherlands, France and USA
L'échange des princesses (The Royal Exchange), Marc Dugain, France and Belgium
*Nelyubov (Loveless), Adnrey Zvyagintsev, Russia, France, Germany and Belgium
La La Land, Damien Chazelle, USA
Noces (A Wedding), Stephan Streker, Belgium, Pakistan, Luxembourg and France
The Square, Ruben Östlund, Sweden, Germany, France and Denmark

Best Director
Robin Campillo for 120 battements par minute (120 BPM)
*Albert Dupontel for Au revoir là-haut (See You Up There)
Mathieu Amalric for Barbara
Julia Ducournau for Grave (Raw)
Hubert Charuel for Petit paysan (Bloody Milk)
Michel Hazanavicius for Le Redoutable (Redoubtable)
Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache for Le sens de la fête (C'est la Vie!)

Best Actress
*Jeanne Balibar in Barbara
Juliette Binoche in Un beau soleil intérieur (Let the Sunshine In)
Emmanuelle Devos in Numéro Une (Number One)
Marina Foïs in L'Atelier
Charlotte Gainsbourg in La Promesse de l'Aube (Promise at Dawn)
Doria Tillier in Monsieur & Madame Adelman (Mr. & Mrs. Adelman)
Karine Viard in Jalouse

Best Supporting Actress
Laure Calamy in Ava
Anaïs Demoustier in La Villa
*Sara Giraudeau in Petit Paysan (Bloody Milk)
Adèle Haenel in 120 Battements par minute (120 BPM)
Mélanie Thierry in Au revoir là-haut (See You Up There)

Most Promising Actress
Iris Bry in Les Gardiennes (The Guardians)
Laetitia Dosch in Jeune Femme (Montparnasse Bienvenue)
Eye Haïdara in Le Sens de la fête (C'est la Vie!)
*Camélia Jordana in Le Brio
Garance Marillier in Grave (Raw) 

Best Actor
*Swann Arlaud in Petit Paysan (Bloody Milk)
Daniel Auteuil in Le Brio
Jean-Pierre Bacri in Le Sens de la fête (C'est la Vie!)
Guillaume Canet in Rock n' Roll (Rock'n'Roll)
Albert Dupontel in Au revoir là-haut (See You Up There)
Louis Garrel in Le Redoutable (Redoubtable)
Reda Kateb in Django

Best Supporting Actor
Niels Arestrup in Au revoir là-haut (See You Up There)
Laurent Lafitte in Au revoir là-haut (See You Up There)
Gilles Lellouche in Le Sens de la fête (C'est la Vie!)
Vincent Macaigne in Le Sens de la fête (C'est la Vie!)
*Antoine Reinartz in 120 Battements par minut (120 BPM)

Most Promising Actor
Benjamin Lavernhe in Le sens de la fête (C'est la Vie!)
Finnegan Oldfield in Marvin ou la Belle Education (Reinventing Marvin)
Pablo Pauly in Patients
*Nahuel Perez Biscayart in 120 Battements par minute (120 BPM)
Arnaud Valois in 120 Battements par minute (120 BPM)

Best Original Screenplay
*120 battements par minute
Barbara
Grave
Petit paysan
Le sens de la fête

Best Adaptation
*Au revoir là-haut
Les gardiennes
Patients
La Promesse de l'aube
Le Redoutable

Best Cinematography
120 battements par minute (120 BPM)
*Au revoir là-haut (See You Up There)
Barbara
Les gardiennes (The Guardians)
Le Redoutable (Redoubtdable)

Best Editing
*120 battements par minute
Au revoir là-haut
Barbara
Petit Paysan
Le Sens de la fête

Best Original Score
*120 battements par minute
Au revoir là-haut
Grave
Petit Paysan
Visages villages

Best Sound
120 battements par minute
Au revoir là-haut
*Barbara
Grave
Le sens de la fête

Best Costume
120 battements par minute
*Au revoir là-haut
Barbara
Les gardiennes
La Promesse de l'aube

Best Production Design
120 battements par minute
*Au revoir là-haut
Barbara
La promesse de l'aube
Le redoutable

Best Short Film
*Les bigorneaux, Alice Vial
Le bleu blanc rouge de mes cheveux, Josza Anjembe
Debout Kinshasa!, Sebastien Maitre
Marlon, Jessica Palud
Les misérables, Ladj Ly

Best Animated Short
Le futur sera chauve, Paul Gabon
I Want Pluto to be a Planet Again, Marie Amachoukeli and Vladimir Mavounia-Kouka
Le jardin de minuit, Benoit Chieux
*Pépé le morse, Lucrece Andreae

Honorary César: Penelope Cruz
César du Public: Raid Dingue, Dany Boon

To check nominees at official site go here and open a pdf file.

To check winners at official site go here; also including a photo from Canal+ with all winners in one photo.

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