Gone are the days of the old boys club (although the Dardenne Bros will be attempting to win the record-breaking third Palme), and there are plenty of new faces for the Palme d’Or competition this year from the likes of Ari Aster, Oliver Hermanus, Hafsia Herzi, Chie Hayakawa, Carla Simón, Oliver Laxe and Mascha Schilinski. There’ll be more announcements made next week but so far we have nineteen films in competition. For Japan’s Chie Hayakawa and Germany’s Mascha Schilinski, these are rare sophomore features programmed in comp while for Hafsia Herzi, Spain’s Carla Simón and Palme d’Or winner Julia Ducournau their latest are third features — clearly the freshest cinema is by way of the female filmmakers.
Some names that were being floated around that were not mentioned this morning include Markus Schleinzer, Karim Aïnouz, Ildikó Enyedi, Nadav Lapid, Hlynur Pálmason, Lynne Ramsay, Robin Campillo, Christian Petzold, Laura Wandel and perhaps the biggest surprise of the all, Jim Jarmusch. The opening film slot was given to a first time filmmaker in Amélie Bonnin’s dramedy Partir un jour (which stars Juliette Armanet, Bastien Bouillon and François Rollin). Here are the Palme d’Or hopefuls:
A Simple Accident – Jafar Panahi
Alpha – Julia Ducournau
Dossier 137 – Dominik Moll
The Eagles of the Republic – Tarik Saleh
Eddington – Ari Aster
Fuori – Mario Martone
The History of Sound – Oliver Hermanus
The Mastermind – Kelly Reichardt
Nouvelle Vague – Richard Linklater
La Petite Dernière – Hafsia Herzi
The Phoenician Scheme – Wes Anderson
Renoir – Chie Hayakawa
Romeria – Carla Simon
The Secret Agent – Kleber Mendonça Filho
Sentimental Value – Joachim Trier
Sirat – Oliver Laxe
Sound of Falling – Mascha Schilinski
Two Prosecutors – Sergei Loznitsa
Young Mothers – Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne
