25 films we’d like to see at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival

Awards sea­son is over and spring is in the air – which means it’s time to start look­ing ahead to the Cannes Film Fes­ti­val. It’s still ear­ly days, but the 72^nd edi­tion already promis­es to be a vin­tage one, with heavy­weight auteurs such as Ter­rence Mal­ick and Pedro Almod­ó­var cur­rent­ly putting the fin­ish­ing touch­es on their lat­est efforts and a tal­ent­ed new crop of film­mak­ers knock­ing on the door of the main competition.

But there’s also an air of trep­i­da­tion about this year’s fes­ti­val. Fes­ti­val Pres­i­dent Pierre Les­cure and Gen­er­al Del­e­gate Thier­ry Fré­maux have come under increased scruti­ny in recent years over the glar­ing lack of films by female direc­tors in the main pro­gramme. There’s also the small mat­ter of Net­flix, with last year’s very pub­lic spat seem­ing­ly no clos­er to being resolved.

As such, all eyes will be on the offi­cial line-up announce­ment, which is tra­di­tion­al­ly made around ear­ly April. Before then, here are 25 poten­tial Palme d’Or con­tenders we’d like to see Ale­jan­dro González Iñár­ritu​’s Jury con­vene over when the fes­ti­val kicks off on 14 May.

South Kore­an lumi­nary Bong Joon-ho found him­self at the cen­tre of a storm of con­tro­ver­sy when his wild action-adven­ture, Okja, pre­miered at Cannes in 2017. Ini­tial­ly booed for being a Net­flix film, it end­ed up receiv­ing a four-minute stand­ing ova­tion. Filmed in the director’s native tongue, Par­a­site revolves around an unem­ployed fam­i­ly who take a strange inter­est in the wealth­i­er Park fam­i­ly. Prin­ci­pal pho­tog­ra­phy wrapped back in Sep­tem­ber, so a Cannes appear­ance could well be on the cards. Han­nah Woodhead

James Gray’s last fea­ture, The Lost City of Z, missed all of the major Euro­pean fes­ti­vals in 2016, pre­mier­ing instead at the New York Film Fes­ti­val. With his lat­est, the Brad Pitt-front­ed sci-fi mys­tery Ad Astra, the Amer­i­can writer/​director looks poised to return to Cannes for the first time since 2013, when The Immi­grant received a decid­ed­ly luke­warm recep­tion. A US the­atri­cal release date of 24 May makes this a fair­ly safe bet. Adam Wood­ward

Cannes are always keen to cham­pi­on the best and bright­est of French cin­e­ma, so we have our mon­ey on Céline Sciamma’s new film show­ing up some­where in the pro­gramme. Water Lilies and Girl­hood both played the fes­ti­val, though Tomboy end­ed up at Berlin in between. Por­trait of a Lady on Fire is a peri­od piece about a painter com­mis­sioned for a wed­ding por­trait of a reluc­tant young bride who has just left a con­vent. The pair find them­selves increas­ing­ly attract­ed to one anoth­er as impend­ing nup­tials loom. HW

We’ve been hyp­ing Ter­rence Malick’s World War Two-era dra­ma for well over a year now, and sure­ly – sure­ly – he’s now final­ly ready to unveil it to his patient, ador­ing fan­base. The last Mal­ick film to debut at Cannes was 2011’s The Tree of Life, and it duly picked up the Palme d’Or. If as expect­ed Rade­gund does makes its bow here, it’ll be the film to beat. It tells the sto­ry of a con­sci­en­tious objec­tor who refus­es to fight for the Nazis and, as the final screen out­ing for the recent­ly depart­ed Bruno Ganz, is bound to be an emo­tion­al expe­ri­ence. AW

While Lady Bird had its pre­mière at Tel­luride, we think Gre­ta Ger­wig might be ready to step up to a big­ger stage for her star-stud­ded sec­ond fea­ture. Star­ring (deep breath) Saoirse Ronan, Emma Wat­son, Flo­rence Pugh, Tim­o­th­ée Cha­la­met, Lau­ra Dern, Meryl Streep and Louis Gar­rel, the film is the eighth adap­ta­tion of Louisa May Alcott’s 1868 nov­el of the same name. The film isn’t due in cin­e­mas until Decem­ber, so per­haps a Venice or Toron­to berth is more like­ly. But we can dream. HW

Hav­ing been pre­sent­ed with the Best Direc­tor award at the 2015 Cannes Film Fes­ti­val for his breath­tak­ing wux­ia epic, The Assas­sin, we’re tip­ping Tai­wanese mas­ter Hou Hsiao-Hsien to scoop anoth­er major prize should his next project, about a Taipei riv­er god­dess, be ready in time for this year’s fes­ti­val. He’s been talk­ing this one up for a while, so we’re keep­ing every­thing crossed. AW

It’s been 10 long years since Quentin Taran­ti­no last took a film to Cannes (Inglou­ri­ous Bas­ter­ds was nom­i­nat­ed for the Palme d’Or, los­ing out to Michael Haneke’s The White Rib­bon). Set in Hol­ly­wood cir­ca 1969, his lat­est con­cerns actor Rick Dal­ton and his stunt­man Cliff Booth (played by Leonar­do DiCaprio and Brad Pitt respec­tive­ly). Notably this is QT’s first film since part­ing ways with The Wein­stein Com­pa­ny, so pre­sum­ably he’ll be look­ing to make a big splash – hope­ful­ly on the Côte d’Azur. HW

In case you hadn’t noticed, astro­naut movies are very in right now, but this one from acclaimed French film­mak­er Alice Winocour (Mus­tang, Dis­or­der) looks an entic­ing­ly dif­fer­ent prospect to Claire Denis’ recent High Life and James Gray’s forth­com­ing Ad Astra. An action-sci-fi cen­tred around a space crew prepar­ing for a year-long mis­sion aboard the Inter­na­tion­al Space Sta­tion, Prox­i­ma stars Eva Green, Matt Dil­lon and San­dra Hüller of Toni Erd­mann fame. AW

Giv­en that we’ve already had a cou­ple of trail­ers, and a Span­ish release date is set for 22 March, you can go ahead and chalk up Pain & Glo­ry as a lock for this year’s Cannes. Pedro Almodóvar’s 21^st fea­ture see him reunite with Pené­lope Cruz, Anto­nio Ban­deras and Cecil­ia Roth to tell the auto­bi­o­graph­i­cal sto­ry of a direc­tor reflect­ing on his life choic­es. Cata­lan pop star Ros­alia also fea­tures in her debut film role. AW

Indie dar­ling Josephine Deck­er is mak­ing her biggest film to date with this pseu­do-biopic of Amer­i­can author Shirley Jack­son. She’s teamed up with Elis­a­beth Moss, who’s nabbed the lead role, while Michael Stuhlbarg takes on Jackson’s phi­lan­der­ing hus­band Stan­ley Edgar Hyman. This would be a Cannes debut for Deck­er, who’s usu­al­ly a main­stay of Sun­dance. HW

Billed as a com­e­dy zom­bie hor­ror, The Dead Don’t Die is Jim Jarmusch’s eager­ly-antic­i­pat­ed fol­low-up to 2016’s Palme d’Or nom­i­nat­ed (and Palm Dog win­ning) Pater­son. Adam Dri­ver is once again in the, erm, driver’s seat next to Jar­musch reg­u­lars Bill Mur­ray and Til­da Swin­ton, with Chloë Sevi­gny, Steve Busce­mi, Caleb Landry Jones, Sele­na Gomez and Tom Waits fill­ing out the cast. That’s right, Gomez and Waits: togeth­er at last. AW

Hop­ing to bounce back from his wide­ly-panned Assassin’s Creed, Aus­tralian direc­tor Justin Kurzel is return­ing to more famil­iar ter­ri­to­ry for his next film. George McK­ay plays the noto­ri­ous Antipodean out­law Ned Kel­ly, with Rus­sell Crowe as his men­tor Har­ry Pow­er. Fur­ther star pow­er is added by Nicholas Hoult, Char­lie Hun­nam and Leave No Trace​’s Thomasin McKen­zie. Kurzel’s Snow­town debuted in the Crit­ics’ Week side­bar in 2011 and his inter­pre­ta­tion of Mac­beth played in com­pe­ti­tion in 2013. HW

Sweden’s doyen of droll, Roy Ander­s­son, took 14 years to com­plete his much-laud­ed Liv­ing tril­o­gy, cul­mi­nat­ing with A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflect­ing on Exis­tence win­ning the Gold­en Lion at the Venice Film Fes­ti­val in 2014. His new one, About End­less­ness, is said to be inspired by the Ara­bic folk tale anthol­o­gy ​‘One Thou­sand and One Nights’. Expect absur­dist, melan­choly vignettes com­prised of ashen-faced fig­ures pon­der­ing life’s futil­i­ty. AW

After his Amer­i­can detour, Chilean film­mak­er Pablo Lar­raín has returned to his home­land for his eighth fea­ture, a domes­tic dra­ma focus­ing on a couple’s break­down fol­low­ing an ill-fat­ed adop­tion. Mar­i­ana Di Giro­lamo plays the epony­mous Ema, while Lar­raín fave Gael Gar­cía Bernal also stars. The direc­tor is no stranger to Cannes, but he’s nev­er been hon­oured with a main com­pe­ti­tion slot before. We’ve got an inkling that could be about to change. AW

Japan­ese writer/​director Hirokazu Koree­da has been turn­ing out a film a year since 2013, so it’s safe to assume we’ll get to see his next project soon­er rather than lat­er. Shoplifters won the big one at Cannes in 2018, so anoth­er invi­ta­tion to the fes­ti­val is extreme­ly like­ly – espe­cial­ly giv­en the fact that this is Koreeda’s Eng­lish-lan­guage debut and stars French act­ing roy­al­ty Cather­ine Deneuve and Juli­ette Binoche. HW

Although British direc­tors haven’t real­ly fac­tored into the festival’s think­ing of late, there are few more har­mo­nious mar­riages in cin­e­ma than Ken Loach and Cannes. The stal­wart social­ist filmmaker’s lat­est con­cerns a work­ing-class deliv­ery dri­ver strug­gling to get by in mod­ern-day Eng­land, seem­ing­ly pulling at the same thread as his 2016 Palme d’Or win­ner I, Daniel Blake. We’d be sur­prised if a jury that has Ale­jan­dro González Iñár­ritu as its pres­i­dent bestowed Sor­ry We Missed You the top prize – but you can nev­er count out Ken. AW

Cannes has a soft spot for Austria’s Jes­si­ca Haus­ner: her Love­ly Rita, Hotel and Amour Fou all screened in Un Cer­tain Regard, and in 2016 she served as a juror for the same strand. As such, we’re con­fi­dent she’ll be mak­ing an appear­ance this year with her Eng­lish-lan­guage debut, Lit­tle Joe, in which Emi­ly Beecham and Ben Whishaw play sci­en­tists involved in genet­ic engi­neer­ing. When a mod­i­fied plan­et begins to pro­duce curi­ous changes in those that come into con­tact with it, ques­tions about what’s real and what’s imag­i­nary arise. Colour us intrigued. HW

Though Ahmed is cur­rent­ly list­ed as being in pre-pro­duc­tion, Thier­ry Fré­maux will be keep­ing close tabs on the Dar­d­ennes’ lat­est. Belgium’s favourite film­mak­ing sons have a remark­able track record at Cannes, hav­ing won the Palme d’Or twice (for Roset­ta in 1999 and The Child in 2005). Seek­ing what would be their eighth nom­i­na­tion in as many vis­its to the fes­ti­val, the broth­ers appear to have returned to their ear­li­er win­ning for­mu­la, cast­ing rel­a­tive unknowns and non-pro­fes­sion­al actors in a social­ly-con­scious dra­ma about of a teenag­er who hatch­es a plot to kill his teacher after being seduced by reli­gious extrem­ism. AW

Robert Pat­tin­son and Willem Dafoe are both sea­soned Cannes-goers, but if The Light­house makes the cut this year it would be a debut for direc­tor Robert Eggers. We’re big fans of his eerie debut The Witch (which put Anya Tay­lor-Joy on the map) and it seems he’s upped the mis­ery stakes this time around. Shot on 35mm in black-and-white, is stars Dafoe as a light­house keep­er named Old in ear­ly 20^th cen­tu­ry Maine. No word on who Pat­tin­son plays yet, but this inter­view between the pair about their expe­ri­ence work­ing togeth­er is pret­ty enlight­en­ing. HW

In 2012, French direc­tor Leos Carax swag­gered onto the Croisette with his enve­lope-push­ing opus Hoy Motors. It may not have won any of the festival’s major awards (more fool the com­pe­ti­tion jury), but it did cement its mak­ers rep­u­ta­tion as one of the most dar­ing and enig­mat­ic film­mak­ers work­ing today. Carax’s fol­low-up, Annette, is his first musi­cal, and stars Michelle Williams and Adam Dri­ver. The plot cen­tres around a stand-up com­ic who becomes a sin­gle par­ent when his opera singer wife dies – with the screen­play and music com­ing care of LA art-rock duo Sparks. AW

Ari Aster was the toast of Sun­dance 2018 with his chill­ing direc­to­r­i­al debut, Hered­i­tary, and word on the street is that his fol­low-up is even more agree­ably bonkers. Set in Swe­den, Mid­som­mar fol­lows a young cou­ple (played by Flo­rence Pugh and Jack Reynor) who trav­el to their friend’s rur­al home­town for a fabled sum­mer fes­ti­val, only to be met by a pagan cult. A24 has locked in an August release date, so we wouldn’t be sur­prised to see them take this one to the Croisette. HW

After the self-indul­gent fol­ly of his Eng­lish-lan­guage debut, The Death and Life of John F Dono­van, Québé­cois film­mak­er Xavier Dolan has gone back to basics for his eighth fea­ture. Matthias & Maxime sees Dolan him­self share top billing with long­time act­ing col­lab­o­ra­tor Anne Dor­val, but per­haps the most intrigu­ing names on the pre­dom­i­nant­ly French-speak­ing cast list are Antoine Pilon (not the actor of the same name from Mom­my) and Beach Rats’ Har­ris Dick­in­son. It’s no secret that Dolan is des­per­ate to get his hands on the Palme d’Or – a decade on from announc­ing him­self in the Direc­tors’ Fort­night with his brood­ing debut, I Killed My Moth­er, could this final­ly be his year? AW

We can’t wait to see the Safdies’ next fea­ture, which stars Adam San­dler as Howard Rat­ner, a jew­eller caught in a tight spot fol­low­ing a rob­bery (just look at the on-set pho­tos!). He’s joined by Idi­na Men­zel, Judd Hirsch and LaKei­th Stan­field. The writer/​director sib­lings took Dad­dy Lon­glegs and Good Time to Cannes (as well as their debut short, The Plea­sure of Being Robbed), so we reck­on Uncut Gems is in with a shout of being nom­i­nat­ed for the Palme d’Or, if Net­flix and Cannes resolve their spat in time. In fact, let’s call it now: 2019, year of the San­dlers­sance. HW

With a hand­ful of excep­tion­al shorts and two crack­ing fea­tures under his belt, Brazil­ian film­mak­er Kle­ber Men­donça Fil­ho has estab­lished him­self as one to watch on the world cin­e­ma scene. For his lat­est effort, a mys­te­ri­ous-sound­ing genre piece, Fil­ho has pro­mot­ed his trust­ed pro­duc­tion design­er Juliano Dor­nelles to the role of co-direc­tor. Sônia Bra­ga, who earned wide­spread acclaim for her lead per­for­mance in Filho’s 2016 film Aquar­ius, stars along­side Udo Kier. AW

Back in 2012, Benh Zeitlin won the Caméra d’Or for his debut fea­ture Beasts of the South­ern Wild, which also made Quven­zhané Wal­lis the youngest Best Actress Oscar nom­i­nee ever. His sopho­more effort is inspired by Peter Pan, and went into pro­duc­tion in 2017 on the island of Montser­rat. In a sim­i­lar vein to Beasts, Wendy focus­es on a young girl – only this time she’s been kid­napped and brought to a mys­te­ri­ous island where age­ing and time func­tion dif­fer­ent­ly. HW

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