Cannes Courts Controversy: Kawase and Palme Winner Thai Joe Go to UCR, Terence Davies Out
As it happens every year, the announcement of final addition of films to the In Competition and Un Certain Regard slates have been announced and, as usual, not without controversy. Naomi Kawase’s AN will be the opening night film for Un Certain Regard. Her Still the Water was in competition last year. Previous Palme d’Or winner Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Uncle Boonmee Who Can See His Past Lives) will also be represented in the UCR this year, a perceived step down. In an attempt to quell the impression that this year’s selection was slight on diversity of continents, Latin American films from Brillante Mendoza (Taklub) and José Luis Rugeles Gracia (Alias Maria) will also appear in the UCR and Yared Zeleke’s Lamb becomes the first Ethiopian representative in Official Selection. The highly anticipated Gaspar Noé film Love will show up as a Midnight Screening. Expect that to be a crazy night on the Croisette.
For the In Competition additions we have Cronic from Michel Franco, about a nursing home for the terminally ill and starring Tim Roth and The Valley of Love from Guillaume Nicloux and starring French acting royalty Gérard Depardieu and Isabelle Huppert. Terence Davies’s Sunset Song, about the daughter of a Scottish farmer comes of age in the early 1900s, was on the short list for being added to this year’s competition. He had previously been in competition for the Palme d’Or in 1992 with The Long Day Closes and in 1995 with The Neon Bible.
IN COMPETITION
Cronic by Michel Franco
The Valley of Love by Guillaume Nicloux
UN CERTAIN REGARD
Alias Maria by José Luis Rugeles Gracia
Taklub by Brillante Mendoza
Lamb by Yared Zeleke
Cemetery of Splendour by Apichatpong Weerasethakul
AN by Naomi Kawase (Opening Film)
SPECIAL SCREENING
Une histoire de fou (Don’t Tell Me the Boy Was Mad) by Robert Guédiguian
MIDNIGHT SCREENING
Love by Gaspar Noé
He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.
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