2022 Cannes Film Festival Lineup: Notable auteurs, blockbusters, and the king of rock & roll

Earlier this morning, the lineup for the 75th Cannes Film Festival was revealed by festival director Thierry Fremaux and exiting president Pierre Lescure (who will be replaced soon by Iris Knobloch, the first female president of the festival). Over the last two years, the festival has been in flux due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the 2020 festival canceled and last year’s festivities taking place in July. But things seem to be getting back on schedule, as the films announced today will take place in the festival’s normal timeframe of May 17 through May 28.

Speculation over the last couple of weeks looked to be mostly correct as 19 films were selected for competition, with Michel Hazanavicius’s Z kicking off the festival as the opening night film. It is noted that the film was scheduled to premiere earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival, but due to the Omnicron variant and Sundance switching to a digital online platform, the film was held back. Joining the auteur director in the competition is the long-awaited return of David Cronenberg (Crimes of the Future) and Park Chan- Wook (Decision to Leave), as well as new films from James Gray (Armageddon Time), Hirokazu Kore-eda (Broker), Kelly Reichardt’s first appearance in competition (Showing Up), Claire Denis returning for the first time since 1988’s Chocolat with The Stars at Noon, and Ruben Ostland (Triangle of Sadness), and many other extraordinary filmmakers, all whom will be vying for the Palme d’Or. Per Fremaux and Lescure, the juries for this year’s festival will be announced soon.

While this year’s lineup is jam packed with exciting names and talents, it is worth noting that there was a drop off in the number of female directors within the main competition. Denis, Reichardt, and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi (Les Amandiers or Forever Young) are the only female directors up for the Palme d’Or this year, an award given to Julia Ducournau (Titane) a year ago in which there were four female directors in competition. Ducournua’s win marked only the second time in Cannes Film Festival history that a film directed by a female director won the top prize. This year’s lineup falls short yet again of the festival’s pledged 50:50 Future goal of having equal representation within its festivities.

The Un Certain Regard section tells a slightly better story. Out of 15 films announced, six of them were directed or co-directed by women. Those titles include Lise Akoka and Romane Gueret’s Les Pires, Hayakawa Chie’s Plan 75, Riley Keough and Gina Gammell’s Beast (officially listed as “Untitled Pine Ridge Project” in Cannes materials), Marie Kreutzer’s Corsage, Lola Quivoron’s Rodeo, and Agnieszka Smoczynska’s The Silent Twins.

Other notable films announced out of competition that are premiering are Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis, starring Austin Butler and Tom Hanks, as well as the long awaited debut of Joseph Kosinski’s action spectacle Top Gun: Maverick, starring Tom Cruise. Cannes audiences will also get to see the return of George Miller with Three Thousand Years of Longing, his first film behind the camera since Mad Max: Fury Road. And in the special screening section of the festival, Ethan Coen looks to make his own mark as a solo director with the documentary Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind.

Mysteriously missing from this morning’s announcement was the reveal of the jury president or the jury lineup itself, both of which are usually known in advance of the film lineup. Speculation was that multiple Cannes prize winner Asghar Farhadi (A Separation, The Salesman, A Hero) had been tapped to lead this year’s jury but after being found guilty of plagiarizing his film A Hero from one of his film students, Fremaux was sent scurrying for a last minute replacement.

UPDATE: Additions to all sections of the festival have been added today, including three new competition titles: Le Otto Montage from Charlotte Vandermeersch and Felix Van Groeningen (Italy/Belgium), Un petit frère from Léonor Serraille (France) and Tourment sur les Îles from Albert Serra (Spain). This ups the women-directed titles to from three to five (a Cannes record) of a total of 22 titles.

This is the first Cannes appearance of any kind for Vandermeersh, with her debut feature film. Serraille is a Golden Camera winner (for first film) for her 2017 feature Juene femme. Her co-director, Van Groeningen brought 2009’s The Misfortunates to the fest. This is her first appearance in the main competition. This is Serra’s third Cannes appearance. He was previously a Golden Camera nominee in 2006, a Queer Palme nominee in 2008 and won the Special Jury Prize for 2019’s Liberté in the Un Certain Regard section.

Here is the lineup of the 75th Cannes Film Festival.

OPENING NIGHT

“Z,” Michel Hazanavicius

COMPETITION

• “Armageddon Time,” James Gray
• “Boy from Heaven,” Tarik Saleh
• “Broker,” Hirokazu Kore-eda
• “Close,” Lukas Dhont
• “Crimes of the Future,” David Cronenberg
• “Decision to Leave,” Park Chan-Wook
• “Frere et Soeur,” Arnaud Desplechin
• “Hi-Han (Eo),” Jerzy Skolimowski
• “Holy Spider,” Ali Abbasi
• “Leila’s Brothers,” Saeed Roustayi
• “Les Amandiers,” Valeria Bruni Tedeschi
• “Nostalgia,” Mario Martone
• “R.M.N.,” Cristian Mungiu
• “Showing Up,” Kelly Reichardt
• “The Stars at Noon,” Claire Denis
• “Tchaikovsky’s Wife,” Kirill Serebrennikov
• “Tori and Lokita,” Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
• “Triangle of Sadness,” Ruben Östlund

LE OTTO MONTAGNE (The Eight Mountains) Charlotte Vandermeersch, Felix Van Groeningen Italy/Belgium

UN PETIT FRÈRE Léonor Serraille France

TOURMENT SUR LES ÎLES Albert Serra Spain

UN CERTAIN REGARD

• “Les Pires,” Lise Akoka and Romane Gueret
• “Burning Days,” Emin Alper
• “Metronom,” Alexandru Belc
• “Retour a Seoul,” Davy Chou
• “Sick of Myself,” Kristoffer Borgli
• “Domingo y La Niebla,” Ariel Escalante Meza
• “Plan 75,” Hayakawa Chie
• “Beast,” Riley Keough and Gina Gammell
• “Corsage,” Marie Kreutzer
• “Butterfly Vision,” Maksym Nakonechnyi
• “Volada Land,” Hlynur Palmason
• “Rodeo,” Lola Quivoron
• “Joyland,” Saim Sadiq
• “The Stranger,” Thomas M. Wright
• “The Silent Twins,” Agnieszka Smoczynska

PLUS QUE JAMAIS Emily Atef Germany/France

MEDITERRANEAN FEVER Maha Haj Palestine

LE BLEU DU CAFTAN Maryam Touzani Morocco

HARKA Lotfy Nathan Tunisia (1st film)

OUT OF COMPETITION

• “Elvis,” Baz Luhrmann
• “Masquerade,” Nicolas Bedos
• “November,” Cédric Jimenez
• “Top Gun: Maverick,” Joseph Kosinski
• “Three Thousand Years of Longing,” George Miller

L’INNOCENT Louis Garrel

MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS

• “Hunt,” Lee Jung-Jae
• “Moonage Daydream,” Brett Morgen
• “Smoking Makes You Cough,” Quentin Dupieux

REBEL Adil El Arbi, Bilall Fallah Belgium

SPECIAL SCREENINGS

• “All That Breathes,” Shaunak Sen
• “Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind,” Ethan Coen
• “The Natural History of Destruction,” Sergei Loznitsa

MI PAIS IMAGINARIO Patricio Guzmán Chile (Documentary)

THE VAGABONDS Doroteya Droumeva Germany (1st film)

RIPOSTE FÉMINISTE Marie Perennès, Simon Depardon France 
(Documentary – 1st film)

RESTOS DO VENTO Tiago Guedes Portugal 

LE PETIT NICOLAS QU’EST-CE QU’ON ATTEND POUR ÊTRE HEUREUX ? Amandine Fredon, Benjamin Massoubre France (Animation – 1st film)

CANNES PREMIERES

• “Dodo,” Panos H. Koutras
• “Irma Vep,” Olivier Assayas (Series)
• “Nos Frangins,” Rachid Bouchareb
• “Outside Night,” Marco Bellocchio

DON JUAN Serge Bozon France

LA NUIT DU 12 Dominik Moll France

CHRONIQUE D’UNE LIAISON PASSAGÈRE Emmanuel Mouret France