By Helen Barlow
Even if The Cannes Festival has been cancelled, on Wednesday evening it announced 56 films for its Cannes Label, essentially giving a seal of approval for programmed films before they venture off to other festivals later in the year – though as usual probably not to its main competitor, Venice.
“The show must go on,” was the refrain of artistic director, Thierry Fremaux, seated beside the festival’s president, Pierre Lescure, at the empty Normandie Cinema on The Champs Elysees. Cancellation was not an option…it was necessary for the festival to take another form,” he said. He cites how previously the festival was only cancelled once: the inaugural 1939 Festival was held off because of the war, while it also did not run to completion because of the May 1968 demonstrations across France.
Book-ending the 2020 list with two Disney films – Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch and Pete Docter’s Pixar animation Soul (with the voices of Jamie Foxx and Tina Fey) – Fremaux then reeled off the long list of films, many of which are French, or by first-time filmmakers or unknowns. There are no Australian filmmakers on the list, nor Australian actors. Likewise, there are no Italians, with the likes of Nanni Moretti clearly heading for Venice with Three Floors. The high profile French film, Paul Verhoeven’s Benedetta, about 17th century lesbian nuns, is waiting for Cannes 2021.
UK director Francis Lee, who made a splash with 2017’s God’s Own Country, took to Twitter to talk up the inclusion of his film Ammonite, a historical romance between two women played by Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan and set in 18th century England. “In such upsetting times, a little personal joy,” he writes. “I am utterly thrilled that Ammonite has been selected for Cannes 2020. To be amongst the other filmmakers is a complete honour. I can’t wait for you all to see it soon. Thank you.”
Another Brit, Steve McQueen, who premiered his debut film, Hunger, at Cannes in 2008, was also included with two episodes of his television series, Small Axe. The selection includes Aya And The Witch, the first CG-animated feature from Studio Ghibli directed by Hayao Miyazaki’s son Goro, and the highly anticipated Peninsula, Korean director Sang-ho Yeon’s sequel to his Cannes midnight sensation Train To Busan. Fremaux calls it “very scary.” The most high profile French film is Francois Ozon’s Summer Of 85, set to release in France in July. One particularly exciting title is Nir Bergman’s Here We Are. The Israeli filmmaker’s 2019 television series Just For Today is superb. He makes his Cannes debut with the film, which follows a father who is reluctant about putting his autistic son in an institution and at the last minute runs away with him instead.
After making 2012’s The Hunt together, Thomas Vinterberg has reteamed with his fellow Dane Mads Mikkelsen for Another Round where, as Fremaux notes, we see Mikkelsen “getting very drunk.” His character and his three colleagues throw themselves into an experiment to maintain a constant alcohol impact in everyday life in order to open their minds to the world. We’ll drink to that!
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