The lowdown on all the Cannes 2022 titles

The wheel has turned full circle following a 2020 when Cannes Film Festival had to settle for applying the Cannes label to a selection of titles, and a 2021 physical edition that moved to a July slot and unfolded under strict Covid-19 protocols. Cannes 2022 has returned to the original formula: in May, in person, and with an anticipated large physical attendance.

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Also back are the big Hollywood movies. Playing out of Competition are Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis (from Warner Bros), Joseph Kosinski’s Top Gun: Maverick (Paramount) and George Miller’s Three Thousand Years Of Longing (MGM has US rights). The presence of ‘exceptional tribute’ recipient Tom Cruise, in particular, will broaden global media attention on the festival.

Screen International’s daily print editions will — as usual — include our popular Jury Grid page, combining scores from our panel of critics for titles playing in Competition. Last year, the grid was won by Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s eventual awards contender (and best picture Oscar nominee) Drive My Car. Considering the 2021 Cannes Palme d’Or winner — Julia Ducournau’s Titane — failed even to make the international feature film Oscar shortlist of 15 titles, despite being submitted by France, affirmation on the Jury Grid will likely once again prove a stronger indicator of post-festival awards success.

This year’s Competition offers 16 films directed by men, four by women and one by a male-female team, and includes titles from former Palme d’Or winners Hirokazu Kore-eda, Ruben Ostlund, Cristian Mungiu and the Dardenne brothers as well as former grand prize recipients Park Chan-wook and David Cronenberg. As a symbol of Cannes’ collision of auteur credentials and Hollywood glamour, Cronenberg’s Crimes Of The Future — which takes inspiration from the director’s 1970 film of the same name, and should bring Kristen Stewart, Léa Seydoux and Viggo Mortensen to the red carpet — seems notably apt.

Cannes delegate general Thierry Frémaux has included titles from both Ukraine (Sergei Loznitsa’s The Natural History Of Destruction and Maksim Nakonechnyi’s Butterfly Vision) and Russia (Kirill Serebrennikov’s Tchaikovsky’s Wife) in official selection, and makes no apologies for the latter choice. Serebrennikov, a dissident now living in exile in Europe, was previously unable to attend Cannes due to a travel ban, and will this year make his first appearance, accompanying his third film selected for Competition.

This year represents the 75th edition of Cannes, but the festival is dialling down the jubilee moment. “For the 75th anniversary, we don’t want to look back — we want to look at the future of cinema,” Frémaux told Screen. We hope our capsule previews of the 104 films playing in official selection, Directors’ Fortnight and Critics’ Week collectively provide an essential road map to that future.

Click on the links to each section for the profiles.

Competition 

• Armageddon Time
• Boy From Heaven
• Broker
• Brother and Sister
• Close
• Crimes Of The Future
• Decision To Leave
• The Eight Mountains
• EO
• Forever Young
• Holy Spider
• Leila’s Brothers
• Mother and Son
• Nostalgia
• Pacifiction
• RMN
• Showing Up
• Stars At Noon
• Tchaikovsky’s Wife
• Tori and Lokita
• Triangle Of Sadness

Out Of Competition

• Elvis
• Final Cut
• The Innocent 
• Masquerade
• November
• Three Thousand Years Of Longing
• Top Gun: Maverick

Special Screenings

• All That Breathes
• Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble In Mind
• Little Nicholas - Happy As Can Be
• Marcel!
• My Imaginary Country
• The Natural History of Destruction 
• Remains Of The Wind
• Riposte Féministe
• Salam 
• The Vagabonds

Midnight Screenings

• The Hunt
• Moonage Daydream
• Rebel
• Smoking Causes Coughing

Cannes Premiere

• The Beasts
• Diary Of A Fleeting Affair
• Dodo
• Don Juan
• Exterior Night
• Irma Vep
• The Night Of The 12th
• Our Brothers

Un Certain Regard

• All The People I’ll Never Be
• The Blue Caftan
• Burning Days
• Butterfly Vision
• Corsage
• Domingo And The Mist
• Father & Soldier
• Godland
• Harka
• Joyland
• Mediterranean Fever
• Metronom
• More Than Ever
• Plan 75
• Rodeo
• Sick Of Myself
• Silent Twins
• The Stranger
• War Pony
• The Worst Ones

Directors’ Fortnight

• 1976
• El Agua
• Ashkal
• Continetal Drift
• The Damn
• De Humani Corporis Fabrica
• Enys Men
• Falcon Lake
• The Five Devils
• Funny Pages
• God’s Creatures
• The Green Perfume
• Harkis
• A Male 
• Men
• The Mountain
• One Fine Morning
• Pamfir
• Paris Memories
• Scarlet
• The Super 8 Years
• Under The Fig Trees
• Will-O’-The-Wisp

Critics’ Week

• Aftersun
• Alma Viva
• Everybody Loves Jeanne
• Imagine
• Love According to Dalva
• Next Sohee
• The Pack
• Sons of Rames
• Summer Scars
• When You Finish Saving The World
• The Woodcutter Story

Profiles by Nikki Baughan, Charles Gant, Melanie Goodfellow, Tara Judah, Melissa Kasule, Jeremy Kay, Geoffrey Macnab, Lee Marshall, Wendy Mitchell, Jean Noh, Jonathan Romney, Michael Rosser, Mona Tabbara, Silvia Wong.