(Paris) Margot Robbie, Tom Hanks and Scarlett Johansson at Wes Anderson? A series with Lily-Rose Depp and music star The Weeknd? The controversial return of Woody Allen? All bets are off ahead of the selection for the 76th Cannes Film Festival being announced on Thursday.
One month before the start of the race for the Palme d’Or, the general delegate Thierry Frémaux will reveal the names of the elected from 11 a.m., in a cinema on the Champs-Élysées.
The 76th edition (May 16 to 27) has already ensured the presence of cinema monuments, starting with Martin Scorsese, with his river film Killers of the Flower Moon, and his favorite actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert de Niro.
And, after Tom Cruise last year for Top Gun, another blockbuster veteran, Harrison Ford, will climb the steps, whip in hand, for the 5th part of the saga, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.
Cannes will also see a big comeback which will not fail to cause ink to flow, that of Johnny Depp, after the judicial soap opera which pitted him against his former wife Amber Heard, against a backdrop of accusations of domestic violence and then of mutual accusations of defamation, settled with blows of millions of dollars.
The former “Pirate of the Caribbean” was chosen by French actress and director Maïwenn to play Louis XV in Jeanne du Barry, screened at the opening of the festival.
Wes Anderson, a regular on the Croisette, is approached. After The French Dispatch, he once again brings together a procession of stars, from Tilda Swinton to Adrien Brody via Tom Hanks, for Asteroid City.
Pedro Almodovar will probably also be there, with Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal, the actor of the series The Last of Us. The Spaniard offered these two stars for a short film which he envisages as a “queer western “.
The suspense remains for the rest of the selection, between big names in the 7th art, such as Hirokazu Kore-eda, Aki Kaurismäki or Ken Loach, rising stars, from Justine Triet to Alice Rohrwacher, and films that have been fueling the buzz for months, like the candy pink Barbie with Margot Robbie, and Ryan Gosling as Ken.
The place of female directors in the official selection and in competition, which is still very much in the minority, will be scrutinized, as will that of diversity. And the question of the fate reserved for artists targeted by accusations of sexual violence continues to hover.
Thierry Frémaux seemed to rule out, in an interview with Variety, a presence in the latest film by Roman Polanski, shot in Switzerland, and which would not be ready anyway.
Could Woody Allen be selected for his 50th film, the first shot in French? The 87-year-old filmmaker saw almost the entire industry turn its back on him when his adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow, accused him of sexually abusing her as a child. Woody Allen denies these accusations for which neither of the two investigations launched were successful.
In a world where actors and directors alternate on the small and big screen, Cannes could also make room for a highly anticipated series, The Idol, created by Sam Levinson (Euphoria) and The Weeknd, who co-stars there with Lily-Rose Depp. . His filming was accompanied by controversy.
In terms of feature films, Cannes stands out from other major festivals by only accepting in competition films released in cinemas in France, before being put online.
Netflix still refuses to comply with the rule, shunning Cannes for the Venice Film Festival. But a comeback of dark rooms could begin: Apple TV is now forging partnerships with majors to release its most emblematic films on the big screen, such as the next Scorsese or Napoleon by Ridley Scott.
Thierry Frémaux and the new president of the Cannes Film Festival, Iris Knobloch, will probably also be questioned about the composition of the jury. We only know its president, Ruben Östlund, a Swedish director who won his second Palme d’Or last year with Sans Filtre.
