25 films we’d like to see at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival

With the 71^st edi­tion of the world’s most pres­ti­gious film fes­ti­val fast approach­ing, we thought we’d have a go at pre­dict­ing who will be con­tend­ing for the Palme d’Or when the fes­tiv­i­ties get under­way a lit­tle under two months from now. The offi­cial line-up is set to be announced on 12 April, but until then, here’s what we’d like to see at this year’s festival.

Mike Leigh’s retelling of the 1819 Peter­loo Mas­sacre, where British forces attacked a peace­ful pro-democ­ra­cy ral­ly in Man­ches­ter, looks a shoo-in for a Cannes com­pe­ti­tion berth, with pro­duc­tion hav­ing wrapped towards the end of 2017. Tim­o­thy Spall picked up the Best Actor gong for Leigh’s 2014 biopic Mr Turn­er, and we’re tip­ping Max­ine Peake to do the same in the Best Actress cat­e­go­ry this time around. Adam Wood­ward

Hot on the Con­verse-clad heels of his roman­tic mas­ter­piece, Call Me by Your Name, Luca Guadagni­no returns to the fray with his long-moot­ed retool­ing of Dario Argento’s sem­i­nal 1977 gial­lo, Sus­piria. The orig­i­nal is a neon-hued explo­sion of ornate styling and sen­so­ry over­load, mak­ing it dif­fi­cult to see what the pur­pose would be of this new ver­sion. But we’re sure the direc­tor has a few tricks up his sleeve, and if not, at least we’ll get to see the likes of Dako­ta John­son, Chloë Grace Moretz, Mia Goth and Til­da Swin­ton up there as atten­dees of a macabre Euro­pean bal­let school. David Jenk­ins

It’s been sev­en years since Ter­rence Mal­ick last debuted a film in Cannes. The Tree of Life bagged the Palme d’Or in 2011, of course, and giv­en that Mal­ick fave Cate Blanchett is pre­sid­ing over the Jury this year, Rade­gund looks a safe horse to back at this point. Set dur­ing World War Two, the fet­ed Amer­i­can director’s Ger­man-lan­guage epic tells the sto­ry of Aus­tri­an con­sci­en­tious objec­tor Franz Jäger­stät­ter, as played by August Diehl. The film also marks one of Michael Nyqvist’s final screen roles, the Swedish actor hav­ing passed away last June. AW

French auteur Claire Denis has a love-hate rela­tion­ship with Cannes – her films some­times con­sid­ered a lit­tle too eso­teric for the glitzy pres­tige of the main com­pe­ti­tion. Though it’s hard to see how fes­ti­val top dog Thier­ry Fré­maux could hold out on this cere­bral sci-fi yarn star­ring Robert Pat­ti­son, Juli­et Binoche and (that girl again!) Mia Goth. The log-line involves a team of intre­pid explor­ers drift­ing towards a black hole and under­go­ing a series of ​“sex­u­al exper­i­ments”, so one for the com­pe­ti­tion, but maybe not for the mul­ti­plex­es. Either way, antic­i­pa­tion is off the grid. DJ

Yor­gos Lan­thi­mos looks poised to make a swift return to Cannes fol­low­ing the suc­cess of The Lob­ster and The Killing of a Sacred Deer, the lat­ter of which earned Greece’s pre­mier mis­an­thrope the award for Best Screen­play at last year’s fes­ti­val. He’ll be hop­ing that nom­i­na­tive deter­min­ism pre­vails in the case of his new one, The Favourite, which is being billed as an acer­bic his­tor­i­cal dra­ma set in the court of Queen Anne in 18^th cen­tu­ry Eng­land. It stars Olivia Col­man, Rachel Weisz, Emma Stone and Nicholas Hoult. AW

The spu­ri­ous rumour mill has gone into over­drive with regard to the new film by Bri­an De Pal­ma. His pre­vi­ous, 2012’s Pas­sion, flew some­what under the radar despite being tak­en to the bosom of the hard­core De Pal­ma stans. A wicked whis­per sug­gests that Domi­no was des­tined for the Berli­nale, but the reac­tion at an ear­ly test screen­ing was report­ed­ly so pos­i­tive that its course was divert­ed. Niko­laj Coster-Wal­dau, Carice van Houten and Guy Pearce star in a Copen­hagen-set crime thriller which looks like it could be the director’s unique take on the ​“Scan­di noir” genre. DJ

The world may be chang­ing at an alarm­ing rate, but thank­ful­ly Har­mo­ny Korine keeps on truck­ing. In The Beach Bum, the one-time enfant ter­ri­ble​’s first film since 2012’s Spring Break­ers, Matthew McConaugh­ey plays a Mia­mi-based ston­er named Moon­dog who ​“lives life by his own rules”, accord­ing to the offi­cial syn­op­sis. Lit­tle else is known about the film at the time of writ­ing, but we do know that McConaugh­ey will be joined by Isla Fish­er, Jon­ah Hill, Mar­tin Lawrence, Snoop Dogg and fel­low The Paper­boy alum Zac Efron. Hot dang. AW

French direc­tor Mia Hansen-Løve only makes great movies, and so antic­i­pa­tion for her sixth, Maya, is sky high. The sto­ry is said to focus on a depressed war pho­tog­ra­ph­er return­ing to Paris from a stint work­ing in Syr­ia and who even­tu­al­ly finds strange solace in a young Indi­an girl. Hansen-Løve is known for her rich, detailed, philo­soph­i­cal dra­mas which tap direct­ly into some of the more melan­cholic aspects of exis­tence, and here’s hop­ing this new one offers more of the same. DJ

Since being declared per­sona non gra­ta at the 2011 Cannes Film Fes­ti­val fol­low­ing some rather unfor­tu­nate com­ments made dur­ing the press con­fer­ence for his film Melan­cho­lia, Lars von Tri­er has done very lit­tle to restore his rep­u­ta­tion as one of world cinema’s most vital voic­es. Accu­sa­tions lev­elled against the Dan­ish direc­tor in the wake of the Har­vey Wein­stein scan­dal cer­tain­ly haven’t helped his cause, but we’re ful­ly expect­ing his star-stud­ded ser­i­al killer dra­ma to be at this year’s fes­ti­val. AW

One of the world’s best actors work­ing today, Zhao Tao, is a key play­er in this new film by her oth­er half, the famed Chi­nese writer/​director Jia Zhangke. As with Jia’s pre­vi­ous film, Moun­tains May Depart, this one again looks to be an era-span­ning roman­tic melo­dra­ma set against a back­drop of crime and depri­va­tion, and will no doubt con­tain pen­e­trat­ing insights into the cur­rent (sor­ry) state of Chi­na and the neg­a­tive effects of glob­al­i­sa­tion. Accord­ing to a Vari­ety report, the film was set to wrap shoot­ing in the Sum­mer of 2018, so if this doesn’t make it for Cannes, look towards the autumn fes­ti­vals for this one. DJ

A more ground­ed affair from Alfon­so Cuarón, this. Roma sees the vision­ary direc­tor of Grav­i­ty return to his sto­ry­telling roots for a year-in-the-life dra­ma cen­tred around a mid­dle-class fam­i­ly liv­ing in Mex­i­co City cir­ca the 1970s. Remark­ably, this is Cuarón’s first Span­ish-lan­guage effort since 2001’s Y Tu Mamá Tam­bién. New­com­ers Daniela Deme­sa and Mar­co Graf appear along­side estab­lished Mex­i­can TV star Mari­na de Tavi­ra.  AW

The word on Loro, the new fea­ture by Ital­ian direc­tor Pao­lo Sor­renti­no, is that it’s too big for a sin­gle sit­ting and that it may be split into two parts. It sees the Oscar-win­ner return­ing to the broad sub­ject area of his excel­lent 2008 film Il Divo, a col­lage-like biopic of dom­i­neer­ing Ital­ian pre­mière Giulio Andreot­ti, Loro takes as its sub­ject the con­tro­ver­sial fig­ure of Sil­vio Berlus­coni, the media mogul-cum-politi­co with a nice side­line in bun­ga-bun­ga par­ties. As with Il Divo, the cen­tral role will be played by the charis­mat­ic and chameleon­ic actor, Toni Servil­lo. DJ

Joaquin Phoenix and John C Reil­ly play assas­sin sib­lings named Sis­ters in this Ore­gon oater from the mak­er of A Prophet, Rust and Bone and Palme d’Or win­ner Dheep­an. For his first Eng­lish-lan­guage fea­ture, Jacques Audi­ard has assem­bled a mus­cu­lar cast that also includes Jake Gyl­len­haal, Rut­ger Hauer and Riz Ahmed. Based on Cana­di­an author Patrick DeWitt’s 2011 nov­el of the same name, The Sis­ter Broth­ers has all the right ingre­di­ents for some­thing very spe­cial. AW

There are odd occa­sions where supreme­ly whack­adoo films slip through the net and into the main com­pe­ti­tion, and 2012’s Post Tene­bras Lux, by Mex­i­can direc­tor Car­los Rey­gadas, marked such a moment. He returns with the cryp­ti­cal­ly-titled Where Life is Born, set among rur­al bull­fight­ing ranch­es and see­ing the direc­tor him­self assume the role of a cuck­old­ed hus­band whose wife has fall­en in love with anoth­er man. Don’t be fooled by the hum­ble log-line – expect ecsta­t­ic imagery, tran­scen­dent emo­tion and wild­ly per­son­al flights of visu­al fan­cy. DJ

French film­mak­er Olivi­er Assayas has earned high praise in recent years at Cannes for his pair of med­i­ta­tive Eng­lish-lan­guage dra­mas Clouds of Sils Maria and Per­son­al Shop­per, both of which pre­miered in com­pe­ti­tion. Sad­ly there’s no sign of Kris­ten Stew­art in his lat­est, Non Fic­tion, a com­e­dy set in the Parisian pub­lish­ing world. The film does, how­ev­er, fea­ture Cannes roy­al­ty in the still might­i­er form of Juli­ette Binoche. The festival’s most cov­et­ed award has thus far elud­ed Assayas, but with Binoche on board that could be about to change. AW

On occa­sion, the Cannes com­pe­ti­tion can throw a star­tling curve­ball by ele­vat­ing a new name into its glo­ri­ous pan­theon. Son of Saul, by Hun­gar­i­an helmer Lás­zló Nemes, was such a spec­ta­cle, and now that the direc­tor has earned his spurs, it’s like­ly that he’ll have a life­time pass to this extreme­ly exclu­sive club. Sun­set fol­lows a young woman’s jour­ney through pre-World War One Budapest as she search­es for her estranged broth­er, and stars the actress Juli Jakab, who has a small role in Son of Saul. DJ

After deliv­er­ing one of the most impres­sive debut fea­tures in recent mem­o­ry, all eyes are on Aus­tralian writer/​director Jen­nifer Kent to see if The Nightin­gale can hit the same gid­dy high notes as 2014’s The Babadook. A revenge dra­ma set in 1820s Tas­ma­nia, the film fol­lows a young Irish con­vict as she tra­vers­es the vast, des­o­late inte­ri­or of the Aus­tralian Out­back with an Abo­rig­i­nal male track­er in tow. AW

When it came to Sicario, Denis Villeneuve’s spiky drug war saga from 2015, you were either on Team Emi­ly Blunt or Team Beni­cio del Toro. This sequel, direct­ed by Ste­fano Sol­li­ma, casts Blunt aside in favour of catch­ing up with del Toro’s char­ac­ter, as he delves deep­er into the squalid and vio­lent world of the Mex­i­can car­tels. From the first trail­er, this looks to be more stan­dard issue crime thriller, but there’s an ace moment where del Toro emp­ties an entire clip into a man by wag­gling his fin­ger on the trig­ger. DJ

Even at this ear­ly stage, it seems a safe bet that Asghar Farha­di will walk away from this year’s Cannes with some sil­ver­ware – his pre­vi­ous two films, 2013’s The Past and 2016’s The Sales­man, both received awards at the fes­ti­val. That being said, the Iran­ian writer/​director looks to have served up some­thing a bit dif­fer­ent with his eighth fea­ture. Okay, so Every­body Knows is anoth­er rela­tion­ship dra­ma… but it stars Pené­lope Cruz and Javier Bar­dem as a cou­ple whose mar­riage is test­ed by secrets that resur­face while on a trip to Madrid. Colour us intrigued. AW

The prospect of Texas’s favourite son, Richard Lin­klater, team­ing up with Cate Blanchett, is a tasty one indeed, and it’s not long now until Where’d You Go, Bernadette is released to the world – possibly/​hopefully on the French Riv­iera. The film is an adap­ta­tion of Maria Semple’s 2012 com­e­dy nov­el of the same name, and chron­i­cles the life of an ago­ra­pho­bic archi­tect who goes miss­ing ahead of a fam­i­ly trip to Antar­ti­ca. This looks like some­thing a lit­tle dif­fer­ent from Lin­klater, and it will be his first lit­er­ary adap­ta­tion since 2008’s Me and Orson Welles. DJ

There are two key take­aways from the first trail­er for David Robert Mitchell’s Under the Sil­ver Lake: 1) the direc­tor has lev­elled up to the big leagues for his eager­ly antic­i­pat­ed fol­low-up to It Fol­lows; and 2) A sleepy-eyed Andrew Garfield looks like he’s hav­ing an absolute ball as a man who sets him­self the task of scour­ing the LA counter-cul­ture cir­cuit for his miss­ing neigh­bour. This actu­al­ly looks like it could be far too much fun to makes its way into the hal­lowed halls of the Cannes com­pe­ti­tion, but you nev­er know? DJ

Don’t count on Embrace of the Ser­pent direc­tor Ciro Guer­ra grad­u­at­ing from the Direc­tors’ Fort­night strand to the main com­pe­ti­tion just yet. Do expect Birds of Pas­sage to fea­ture in some capac­i­ty though – the Cannes pro­gram­mers tend to slot more exper­i­men­tal fare into the festival’s var­i­ous side­bars. Co-direct­ed by actress Cristi­na Gal­lego, Birds of Pas­sage takes place in 1970s Colom­bia – specif­i­cal­ly in and around the Gua­ji­ra desert – and con­cerns an indige­nous fam­i­ly whose fate and for­tunes are trans­formed by the region’s boom­ing mar­i­jua­na trade. AW

If Cannes has a prob­lem, it’s that the main com­pe­ti­tion con­sis­tent­ly fea­tures the same faces. And because of pro­duc­tion sched­ules, a lot of the same peo­ple return to the fray at rough­ly the same time. And so it is with Turkey’s Nuri Bilge Cey­lan, who returns to defend his crown hav­ing scooped the Palme d’Or in 2014 for his brood­ing, the­atri­cal epic, Win­ter Sleep. The filmmaker’s inter­est in the anx­i­eties of artists is at the fore in his new one, The Wild Pear, said to be about an author who returns to his home­town in order to scrape togeth­er the cash to get his lat­est tome pub­lished. DJ

Pawel Paw­likows­ki dom­i­nat­ed the awards cir­cuit in 2015 with Ida, his rue­ful tale of a Pol­ish nun retrac­ing her fam­i­ly roots. We’re very excit­ed to see his fol­low-up, Cold War, which takes that ear of vague polit­i­cal tumult as its back­drop to tell a sto­ry about mis-matched lovers who appear caught in the cross­fire of his­to­ry. DJ

This one may well have been shift­ed to the ​‘maybe’ pile in light of Ter­ry Gilliam’s recent com­ments denounc­ing the #MeToo move­ment. We won’t be com­plain­ing should his decades-in-the-plan­ning pas­sion project be denied the hon­our of open­ing at a major fes­ti­val – yet there remains a huge amount of inter­est around this Adam Dri­ver-front­ed time trav­el saga. Time well tell whether it has been worth the long wait. AW

For more on this year’s Cannes Film Fes­ti­val head to fes​ti​val​-cannes​.com