Cannes: All-Stars Edition
The Cannes Film Festival has announced the official selection for its 75th edition to take place from May 17 to 28.
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This includes films to be exhibited in the In Competition, Un Certain Regard, Out of Competition, Midnight Screenings, Cannes Premiere, and Special Screenings sections.
Many of this year’s competitors are past winners, participants, and even jury members.
Here is a guide to all 18 titles in the In Competition section of the Cannes Film Festival 2022. These are eligible to win the highest prize and one of the industry’s most prestigious awards, the Palme d’Or (Golden Palm).
Holy Spider—Ali Abbasi
Synopsis: In Holy Spider, we follow family man Saeed as he embarks on his own religious quest—to “cleanse” the holy Iranian city of Mashhad of immoral and corrupt street prostitutes. After murdering several women, he grows ever more desperate about the lack of public interest in his divine mission.
Abbasi won the top prize in the 2018 Cannes Un Certain Regard competition for Border.
Les Amandiers—Valeria Bruni Tedeschi
Synopsis: At the end of the 1980s, Stella, Victor, Adèle, and Etienne are 20 years old. They take the entrance exam to the famous acting school created by Patrice Chéreau and Pierre Romans at the Théâtre des Amandiers in Nanterre. Launched at full speed into life, passion, and love, together they will experience the turning point of their lives, but also their first tragedy.
Tedeschi’s A Castle In Italy was nominated for the Palme d’Or at the 2013 Cannes.
Crimes Of The Future—David Cronenberg
Synopsis: A deep dive into the not-so-distant future in which humankind is learning to adapt to its synthetic surroundings. This evolution moves humans beyond their natural state and into a metamorphosis, which alters their biological makeup.
Cronenberg, a pioneer of the body horror genre, returns to the themes of his earlier films. At Cannes, he won the Special Jury Prize for Crash in 1996 and competed for the Palme d’Or with Cosmopolis in 2012.
Tori And Lokita—Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
Synopsis: In Belgium today, a young boy and an adolescent girl who have traveled alone from Africa pit their invincible friendship against the cruel conditions of their exile.
The Dardenne brothers have won the Palme d’Or twice for Rosetta in 1999 and L’Enfant in 2005.
Stars At Noon—Claire Denis
Synopsis: In 1984’s Nicaragua, a mysterious English businessman and a headstrong American journalist strike up a romance as they soon become embroiled in a dangerous labyrinth of lies and conspiracies and are forced to try and escape the country.
Denis’ first film Chocolate was In Competition in 1988, while I Can’t Sleep was selected in the Un Certain Regard section.
Frère Et Sœur—Arnaud Desplechin
Synopsis: The story revolves around a brother and sister who are nearing their fifties—Alice is an actress, Louis was a teacher and a poet. They no longer speak to one another and have been avoiding each other for over twenty years, but the death of their parents will force them to cross paths.
Desplechin was nominated for the Palme d’Or in 2013 for Jimmy Picard and in 2019 for Oh Mercy!
Close—Lukas Dhont
Synopsis: The intense friendship between two 13-year-old boys Leo and Remi suddenly gets disrupted. Struggling to understand what has happened, Léo approaches Sophie, Rémi’s mother.
Dhont’s feature-length debut, Girl, won the Caméra d’Or award for best first feature film at the 2018 Cannes.
Armageddon Time—James Gray
Synopsis: A coming-of-age story about growing up in Queens in the 1980s.
Four of Gray’s films have competed for the Palme d’Or: The Yards in 2000, We Own the Night in 2007, Two Lovers in 2008, and The Immigrant in 2013.
Broker—Kore-eda Hirokazu
Synopsis: Boxes that are left out for people to anonymously drop off their unwanted babies.
Kore-eda won the Cannes Jury Prize in 2013 for Like Father, Like Son and the Palme d’Or for Shoplifters in 2018.
Nostalgia—Mario Martone
Synopsis: After 40 years of absence, Felice returns to her hometown: Naples. He rediscovers the places, the codes of the city, and a past that eats away at him.
Martone’s L’amore molesto was entered into the 1995 Cannes.
RMN—Cristian Mungiu
Synopsis: A reflection on the history of Romania through the meeting of its Romanian, Hungarian, Moldavian communities.
Mungiu won the Palme d’Or in 2007 for 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days.
Triangle Of Sadness—Ruben Östlund
Synopsis: A pair of models find themselves at a crossroads in their careers.
Östlund won the Palme d’Or for The Square in 2017.
Haeojil Gyeolsim (Decision To Leave)—Park Chan-wook
Synopsis: A detective investigating a man’s death in the mountains meets the dead man’s mysterious wife in the course of his dogged sleuthing.
Park won the Grand Prix at the 2004 Cannes for Oldboy and the Jury Prize in 2009 for Thirst.
Showing Up—Kelly Reichardt
Synopsis: A sculptor preparing to open a new show must balance her creative life with the daily dramas of family and friends, in Kelly Reichardt’s vibrant and captivatingly funny portrait of art and craft.
Leila’s Brothers—Saeed Roustaee
Boy From Heaven—Tarik Saleh
Synopsis: On the first day back after the summer holidays, the grand imam collapses and dies in front of his students in a prestigious university in Cairo. This marks the start of a ruthless battle for influence to take his place.
Zhena Chaikovskogo (Tchaïkovski’s Wife)—Kirill Serebrennikov
Synopsis: Tumultuous relationship between Pyotr Tchaikovsky, the most famous Russian composer of all time, and his wife Antonina Miliukova.
EO—Jerzy Skolimowski
Synopsis: Follows a donkey who encounters on his journeys good and bad people, experiences joy and pain, exploring a vision of modern Europe through his eyes.
Skolimowski has won the Cannes Special Jury Prize in 1978 for The Shout as well as Best Screenplay in 1982 for Moonlighting.
Banner Photo via Jaume Ripoll Vaquer’s Twitter
