The Cannes Film Festival has recently revealed another stellar lineup for its 77th edition.

studio films like george miller Anger and kevin costner Horizon: An American Saga Indulge in new films from art lovers like Paolo Sorrentino, Yorgos Lanthimos, Jacques Audiard and Andrea Arnold. The searches will include first-time filmmaker Agathe Riedinger, who will play in the competition.

Question marks and anticipation abound, not least in the shape of a Francis Ford Coppola epic Metropolitan, who will play in the competition. Coppola is one of the rare two-time Palme d’Or winners.

Below, we’re presenting five key talking points from this morning’s lineup announcement.

Why so many English language films competing?

There are a total of ten English language films in competition (apprentice, bird, emilia perez, megalopolis, shroud, substance, types of kindness, limonov, anora And oh canada, That’s more than half the competition. According to our preliminary calculations this is a record, but we are still researching it. The festival has not been confirmed yet. This is the highest in the last decade. In 2018 there were only two English-language films in competition. Last year also saw an increase in the competition with seven English-language films. This is a rare number in itself. Frémaux admitted to us today that there is a “strong American-Anglo-Saxon presence” this year, but also claimed it’s a “coincidence.” Could there be underlying reasons why the English language has become so heterogeneous this year and last? Are more big-name arthouse directors looking to make films in English today? Yes. Cannes certainly also knows that attracting big-name English-language projects guarantees the biggest media spotlight. Today, festival president Iris Knobloch was eager to tout last year’s record numbers of attendees, TV viewers and Oscar nominations (Cannes films garnered an impressive 26 nominations). He said that this year’s festival will also be of the same level. Having major studio films and Hollywood stars certainly helps that purpose. The show has been no shy about toning down studio projects and great English-language performances in the past, but it’s hard to imagine that happening so soon after the buzz generated by some of the previous extravaganzas. And if Cannes once again features a lineup full of Oscar nominees, it will be a real question whether awards season is fundamentally redirected to start in May. This in turn will be interesting as a statement about the enduring power of cinema, given that Cannes is a Netflix-free zone and has a light streamer presence in its lineup.

Four women filmmakers in the competition

There are four female directors in the competition this year: Andrea Arnold, Coralie Farguet and relative newcomers Payal Kapadia and Agathe Riedinger. This number is lower than last year, but higher than previous years, when no female filmmakers were selected, only one or two female filmmakers were selected. Frémaux’s statement this morning on the number of female directors in the competition is as follows: “The number of four female directors is the average number for the last few years. This is less than last year. As I’ve said before, Cannes is at the end of the series, an echo of world cinema, which produced a lot of films by women last year and a little less this year. It will take us half a century to understand what is happening but the trend is that there are more and more women directors around the world. We keep saying – and we will soon publish a study on this topic – that there are much more female directors in competition and in official selection, percentage-wise, than anywhere else in the world. Every time we hesitate between a film made by a man and a film made by a woman and we have to make a choice, we will choose the film which is more rare. [the one by the woman], I repeat again, we need to look at this issue not just on the day of the Cannes press conference but throughout the year to ensure the place of women in cinema.

searches

Many people’s favorite festival moments are those unexpected discoveries, unearthing a rare gem filmmaker who may or may not indicate a new voice in cinema, or even on a subject that has never been known before. But not much attention has been paid before. Un Certain Regard is of course dedicated primarily to emerging filmmakers, so the finds are abundant there, but journalists also get to learn about the aforementioned rival filmmakers Riddinger and Kapadia and even Magnus von Horn. Must be struggling. There will be searches by well-known actors making their first or second films (among them Noémie Merlant and Ariane Labed) as well as well-known filmmakers shining a light on subjects that have never been in the spotlight before (Raoul Example For, Peck’s film about South African photographer Ernest Cole).

China and India are having a moment

There were many years when Indian journalists at Cannes press conferences would bemoan the lack of Indian films in the lineup. Frémaux has said that one reason he did not get a chance to ask questions after the lineup conference was because he was tired of answering questions about the lack of films from certain countries. Indian journalists should be happy today. The lineup features three films by Indian or Indian heritage filmmakers. There is also a strong showing from Chinese filmmakers, which Frémaux noted as a welcome return to form for a country that has had little presence on the international film stage until recently. The lineup features three Chinese filmmakers and one from Hong Kong. Cannes usually delivers when it comes to North African filmmakers and this year is no different. There’s also a Somali first film, which will be interesting, and a Saudi first film: Noraby Saudi director Tawfik Alzaidi, which debuted at the Red Sea Film Festival last year. It’s rare for Cannes to take a film that has already been released elsewhere Nora It was greatly welcomed by those who saw it in Jeddah.

Those who did not hear their names called…

Of the many films that have been speculated as potential Cannes films in recent months, some were revealed this morning without being named. These include new projects from Audrey Dewan, Francois Ozon, Arnaud Desplechin, Michel Hazanavicius and Rachel Tsangari. Also with big budget count of monte cristo Film starring Pierre Nini. We were also hoping for something Studio Ghibli related. There are multiple reasons for these omissions, and Frémaux said there will be several changes in the coming weeks.

So while this is an exciting Cannes lineup, we could also be in store for a very strong Venice, TIFF, and Telluride. Among the filmmakers we hope to see this fall, in addition to the above, are Steve McQueen, Luca Guadagnino, Justin Kurzel, Lucretia Martel, Walter Salles, Pablo Larraín, Julie Delpy, Marjan Satrapi, and Mike Leigh, as well. Studios are also included. movies like Joker: Folie A Deux and like streamer photos six triple eight And piano Lesson,

As mentioned above, streamers were still not hearing their names called this morning. Streamers – especially Netflix – have formed a significant part of the conversation about Cannes lineups in recent years, whether through their presence or non-presence. The reasons for this have been much debated and Cannes has been considered weak in the past by not having Netflix films in their lineup. This year, no one is thinking about it and it’s interesting to consider why.

Melanie Goodfellow contributed to this report.