2016 Cannes Film Festival: Almódovar, Dolan, Dardennes Set for Cannes Return

As predicted, this year’s Cannes Film Festival is set to be packed with Cannes superstars like the Dardennes, Pedro Almodóvar, Ken Loach, Xavier Dolan and Nicolas Winding Refn – all film makers who have won major prizes at the festival, many the Palme d’Or itself. As previously reported, Woody Allen’s Café Society will open the festival (out of competition). That film, and Olivier Assayas’s official In Competition entry Personal Shopper will gives Cannes audiences a double dose of Kristen Stewart this year. Marion Cotillard also has two films in competition this year – Dolan’s It’s Only the End of the World and Nicole Garcia’s Mal de Pierres.

The Cannes Film Festival is always a rich tapestry of auteur film makers from around the world, films to delight the Francophile and American entries full of stars to light up the red carpet or kick off their awards campaign. This year is no different with the aforementioned Allen and Assayas films as well as Sean Penn’s The Last Face, which will give us Charlize Theron (and some possibly awkward moments between the two former paramours), no less than four French films in competition and Jeff Nichols’ Loving making its debut here at the festival on its way to the Oscars. This year features three female directors; Cannes and Oscar-winner Andrea Arnold with American Honey, Berlin Silver Bear winner Maren Ade with Toni Erdmann and Nicole Garcia with Mal de Pierres, her third In Competition entry. North America and Europe are the most represented continents (as is usual) with a single film to show for South America (Brazil’s Aquarius from Kleber Mendoça Filho) and just two for Asia – Brilliante Mendoza with Ma’ Rosa from the Philippines and Park Chan-Wook’s The Handmaiden from South Korea. No films from Africa are set for the festival as of yet. The list for Un Certain Regard, however, more than makes up for that with Japan, Israel, Egypt, Russia and Singapore all represented.

Stay tuned for Jury President George Miller (Mad Max: Fury Road) to announce his jury but we do know that Kristen Dunst, Valeria Golino and Mads Mikkelsen are on it. Playing out of competition along with Café Society will be Steven Spielberg’s The BFG,  Jodie Foster’s Money Monster, Shane Black’s The Nice Guys and Na Hong-Jin’s Gocksung.

Check out the lists for In Competition, Out of Competition, Un Certain Regard, Midnight Screenings and Special Screenings below. These lists are certain to be changed or tweaked a bit in the coming weeks as Cannes organizer Theirry Fremeaux is always knows to add films sometimes right up to the last minute.

IN COMPETITION

UN CERTAIN REGARD

OUT OF COMPETITION

MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS

SPECIAL SCREENINGS

Check out this morning’s press conference here: