A look at the potential contenders for the festival’s awards – The Hollywood Reporter
For most of the 75-year history of the Cannes Film Festival leading up to this year’s edition, which kicks off on Tuesday, relatively few Cannes-premiered films have made it to the Academy Award outside of the Oscar category we now call Best International Film. In fact, only two Cannes first prize winners, the Palme d’Or, and Academy first prize winner, Best Picture Oscar, have been the same film: 1955. Marty and 2019 parasite.
Cannes was the setting for art house films in a variety of languages, while the Academy Awards celebrated English-language films from America or the UK. But in recent years, that gap has begun to shrink—Cannes has occasionally offered more mainstream fare, and Oscar-nominated voters have increasingly embraced artful pictures, not least because the Academy, once a club for Hollywood’s resident members, has become more mainstream. intentionally a lot. More international organizations.
Take, for example, the last four editions of Cannes (which have been spread out over the past five years, since the 2020 festival has been lost to the pandemic). during that time, Seven Films shown at the Cannes Film Festival went to the Oscar nominations for Best Picture (2018 Black Klansman2019 Once upon a time in hollywood And parasite2021 driving my car and 2022 ElvisAnd Top Gun: Maverick And Sadness triangle). managers six Films screened at the Cannes Film Festival went to the Best Director Oscar (Spike Lee to Black Klansman And Pawel Pawlikowski for the year 2018 cold WarAnd Bong Joon Ho to parasitewho won f Quentin Tarantino to Once upon a time in hollywoodAnd Ryūsuke Hamaguchi to driving my car And Robin Ostlund to Sadness triangle). And six Performances in films shown at Cannes went on to represent an Oscar (Adam Driver to Black KlansmanAnd Leonardo DiCaprio And Brad Pitt to Once upon a time in hollywoodand won the last, Antonio Banderas for the year 2019 Pain and glory And Austin Butler to Elvis And Paul Mescal for the year 2022 after the sun).
All this makes one wonder how many – and which – of the films at this year’s Cannes Film Festival might be Oscar winners…
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The main suspect — an unseen sight, but pedigree is undeniable — is him Moonflower Killers, a film about murders in the Osage Nation during the 1920s. Directed by Martin Scorsesewho co-wrote it Eric Rothrepresent his ideas, Leonardo DiCaprio And Robert De NiroPlus Brendan Fraser – All Oscar winners – as well Lily Gladstone and a group of Native American actors. The film’s budget ($200 million) and length (over three hours) are a bit worrying, but Paramount (US theatrical) and Apple (streaming worldwide) backers are certainly optimistic about it. And with Scorsese – his 1976 film taxi driver She won the Palme d’Or – having chosen to be left out of the competition rather than in it, she’s not shooting for the festival awards, but for the kind of hype she gets Elvis And Top Gun: Maverick They got it when they were knocked out of competition at last year’s festival on their way to the Best Picture Oscar.
Wes Anderson He returned to the festival with another blockbuster playing in competition, Asteroid City, which is set at the Junior Stargazer Convention in 1955, and to be released by Focus in June. In terms of awards taste, Anderson is a hit (Grand Budapest Hotel) or Miss (another Cannes French Dispatch).
The same may be said about Todd Haynesfor whom May/December, another contest title, is one of the festival’s most anticipated sales titles. It’s the story of an (Oscar-winning) actress Natalie Portmanalso an EP) Visit the Woman Set to Play in the (Academy Award-Winning) movie Julian MooreHaynes’ frequent collaborator, most notably in 2002 Far from heaven).
Jonathan Glazer He has no Oscar track record whatsoever – his last film, 2013 Under the skinhas been embraced by many critics, but not award collections – but that won’t stop many from speculating about its entry into the competition. area of interestan adaptation of Martin Amis’s 2014 novel of the same name about a Nazi officer infatuated with the camp commandant’s wife, played by Sandra Holler (Palm winner Tony Erdmann). Given that Huller is starring last Competition film as well Justin Treat‘s Fall AnatomyAs a woman trying to prove her innocence after her husband is murdered, she may be one to watch in the top actresses race.
The field of competition also includes the latest – and reportedly definitive – kitchen sink drama from the 86-year-old British master and former Palme winner. Ken Loach. It seems to be looking at how globalization, immigration, and the like affect a small British town. Loach’s films have always fared better with critics than they have with members of the Academy, but never say never.
Other English-language films to watch: Ainouz cream‘s firebrandFilm about Kathryn Parr (Academy Award Winner Alicia Vikander), sixth and final wife of King Henry VIII (Jude Law), which is still seeking distribution in the United States; Jessica Hausner‘s Zero Clubabout a teacher and five students at an elite school, with a cast including Mia Wasikowska And Elsa Zilberstein; And Black bugsAnd Jean Stephen SofferThriller film about a young man preparing for medical school (Tye Sheridan) and an experienced paramedic (Sean Penn), which is based on a blacklisted script, which was actually acquired by Open Road.
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Among the non-English speaking notables in competition are three films by directors of previous Palme winners: MonsterAnd Hirokazu Kure IdaThe first Japanese film since winning the Palme d’Or in 2018 to be nominated for an Academy Award thieves; About dry herbsAnd Nuri Bilge Ceylona photo in Turkish of a teacher accused of abusing a student; And Perfect daysAnd Wim WendersA compilation in Japanese of four short stories.
Finnish master Aki Kaurismaki Back to competition with Fallen leavesa tragicomedy that is the last part of the “Proletariat” series.
Two films in Italian are also in the works: no chimerastarring Josh O’Connor And Isabella Rossellini and take out Alice Rohrwatcherwhose short live action premiered at Cannes last year, Le Popill, it went on to receive an Oscar nomination; and drama Brighter tomorrowwhich he co-wrote, directed, and starred in Nanny Morettiwhich has already been released theatrically in Italy.
And France itself is in a race with both Catherine Brillatfirst movie in 10 years, last summera new version of the 2019 movie heart’s Queen, about the stepmother-stepson relationship; And Tran Anh HongFrench language pot or fauxstarring Juliette Binoche As a chef, you fall in love with the chef you work for.
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Sometimes strong realistic films come out of the festival, such as the films of 2002 Bowling in the bathroom2003 fog of war2010 inside the job and 2015 Amyall of which won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature.
This year, it seems one should keep an eye on that occupied cityAn epic story of Nazi-occupied Amsterdam, directed by an Academy Award winner Steve McQueen and will be distributed by A24 (not in competition); and Arabic language Four daughtersin which actresses play the role of two missing daughters of a Tunisian mother (she).
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Animated films are never shown in competition at Cannes, and racist, This year’s festival closer, is no exception. Directed by Peter Sohn, It’s 27y Feature from Pixar – which was the last time at the festival with inside outwhich often lands at least one film in the Best Animated Feature Oscar category — and will be released to theaters by Disney in June.
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Finally, one cannot ignore any film by Pedro Almodovar, who returns to the festival with him strange way of life, a short film starring Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal that marks his second outing in the English language. As for this movie, which Sony Classics has already acquired the rights to, could it follow Rohrwacher in the Best Live-action Shortcut Oscar race?