Cannes Film Festival 2020: Cancelled French Film Festival Releases Official Selection

Official Selection of 56 films includes new works by Wes Anderson, Steve McQueen, Studio Ghibli, and Pixar

The now-cancelled staple of the film festival circuit, the Cannes Film Festival, has released its Official Selection list. The festival’s president Thierry Frémaux first revealed the list of 56 films back on June 3.

The festival was supposed to run from May 12-23, 2020 but was postponed multiple times due to the coronavirus pandemic. Cannes leaders were looking to collaborate with a festival later in the year (particularly with another festival circuit staple, Venice), but beyond a deal with Spain’s San Sebastian Film Festival allowing Cannes titles to compete in said festival’s competition nothing much has panned out.

Regardless, Frémaux has announced a list of films that would have made the cut for the in-person edition of the festival. These films will be allowed to carry Cannes’ “Official Selection” label, and are invited to screen with it at other film festivals around the world.

Quick Stats

A total of 2,067 feature films were submitted for consideration to the 73rd Cannes Film Festival, an increase from last year’s 1,845. 532 of those films were directed by women, which is slightly down from last year’s 575.

15 of the Official Selection’s 56 films are feature debuts. 13 of the 56 are directed by women (two more than last year’s 11).

Official Selection

The Cannes Film Festival divides their films into multiple categories, with the main ones of the Official Selection being: In Competition, Un Certain Regard, Out of Competition, Special Screenings, and Cinéfondation.

This year, they’ve divided their Selection into seven different categories:

• The Faithful (Films by a director who has had their work submitted to/screened at Cannes in the past)
• The Newcomers (Films by a director who are submitting to/playing at Cannes for the first time)
• An Omnibus Film (An anthology film directed by multiple people)
• The First Features (Feature film debuts)
• 3 Documentary Films
• 5 Comedy Films
• 4 Animated Films

THE FAITHFUL

The French Dispatch / U.S.A. (Director: Wes Anderson)

ÉTÉ 85 / France (Director: François Ozon)

Asa ga kuru (“True Mothers”) / Japan) (Director: Naomi Kawase)

Lovers Rock / U.K. (Director: Steve McQueen)

Mangrove / U.K. (Director: Steve McQueen)

Druk (“Another Round”) / Denmark (Director: Thomas Vinterberg)

ADN (“DNA”) / France, Algeria (Director: Maïwenn)

Last Words / U.S.A. (Director: Jonathan Nossiter)

Heaven: To The Land of Happiness / South Korea (Director: IM Sang-Soo)

El olvido que seremos (“Forgotten We’ll Be”) / Spain (Director: Fernando Trueba)

Peninsula / South Korea (Director: YEON Sang-Ho)

In The Dusk (Au crépuscule) / Lithuania (Director: Sharunas BARTAS)

Des hommes (“Home Front”) / Belgium (Director: Lucas BELVAUX)

The Real Thing / Japan (Director: Kôji Fukada)

THE NEWCOMERS

Passion Simple / Lebanon (Director: Danielle Arbid)

A Good Man / France (Director: Marie Castille Mention-Schaar)

Les choses qu’on dit, les choses qu’on fait / France (Director: Emmanuel Mouret)

Souad / Egypt (Director: Aytem Amin)

Limbo / U.K. (Director: Ben Sharrock)

Rouge (“Red Soil”) / France (Director: Farid Bentoumi)

Sweat / Poland (Director: Magnus Von Horn)

Teddy / France (Directors: Ludovic and Zoran Boukherma)

February (“Février”) / Bulgaria (Director: Kamen Kalev)

Ammonite / U.K. (Director: Francis Lee)

Un médecin de nuit / France (Director: Elie Wajeman)

Enfant terrible / Germany (Director: Oskar Roehler)

Nadia, Butterfly / Canada (Director: Pascal Plante)

Here We Are / Israel (Director: Nir Bergman)

AN OMNIBUS FILM

Septet: The Story of Hong Kong / Hong Kong (Directors: Ann Hui, Johnnie TO, Tsui Hark, Ringo Lam, Sammo Hung, Yuen Woo-Ping, and Patrick Tam)

THE FIRST FEATURES

Falling / U.S.A. (Director: Viggo Mortensen)

Pleasure / Sweden (Director: Ninja Thyberg)

Slalom / France (Director: Charlène Favier)

Casa de antiguidades (“Memory House”) / Brazil (Director: Joao Paulo Miranda Maria)

Broken Keys (“Fausse note”) / Lebanon (Director: Jimmy Keyrouz)

Ibrahim / France (Director: Samir Guesmi)

Beginning (“Au commencement”) / Georgia (Director: Dea Kulumbegashvili)

Gagarine / France (Directors: Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh)

16 Printemps / France (Director: Suzanne Lindon)

Vaurien / France (Director: Peter Dourountzis)

Garçon chiffon / France (Director: Nicolas Maury)

Si le vent tombe (“Should the Wind Fall”) / Armenia (Director: Nora Martirosyan)

John and the Hole / Spain (Director: Pascual Sisto)

Striding Into the Wind (“Courir au gré du vent”) / China (Director: WEI Shujun)

The Death of Cinema and My Father Too (“La Mort du cinéma et de mon père aussi) / Israel (Director: Dani Rosenberg)

3 DOCUMENTARY FILMS

En route pour le milliard (“Downstream to Kinshasa) / Democratic Republic of Congo (Director: Dieudo Hamadi)

The Truffle Hunters / U.S.A. (Directors: Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw)

9 jours a raqqa / France (Director: Xavier de Lauzanne)

5 COMEDY FILMS

Antoinette dans les cévennes / France (Director: Caroline Vignal)

Les deux Alfred / France (Director: Bruno Podalydès)

Un triomphe (“The Big Hit”) / France (Director: Emmanuel Courcol)

L’origine du monde / France (Director: Laurent Lafitte) 1^st film

4 ANIMATED FILMS

Aya to majo (“Earwig and the Witch”) / Japan (Director: Gorô Miyazaki)

Flee / Denmark (Director: Jonas Poher Rasmussen)

Josep / France (Director: Aurel) 1st film

Soul / U.S.A. (Director: Pete Docter)

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