Festival de Cannes has announced the Official Selection for its 76th edition. One of the most highly publicized events in the world, the Festival de Cannes is widely considered the most impactful and prestigious film festival in the industry. The Official Selection, this year unveiled at a press conference in Paris, showcases hidden gems and mainstream films alike to an international audience of artists, filmmakers, and industry professionals. The 76th Festival de Cannes will take place May 16th–May 27th, 2023 in Cannes, France.
Check out some of the most highly anticipated films from this year’s Official Selection below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrDarfGICRI
Jeanne Du Barry, the sixth directorial feature by Maïwenn and starring Johnny Depp, will open the festival on Tuesday, May 16th at the Grand Théâtre Lumière. Maïwenn herself plays the eponymous main character alongside Johnny Depp, Benjamin Lavernhe, Melvil Poupaud, Pierre Richard, Pascal Greggory and India Hair. The film will be released in French cinemas the same day and recounts the rise and fall of the Louis XV‘s favorite.
Asteroid City, the latest project from idiosyncratic American filmmaker Wes Anderson, brings back some familiar faces to his cinematic universe and introduces some newcomers. With a characteristic all-star cast that includes Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson, Edward Norton, Margot Robbie, and plenty more, the film is Anderson’s first foray into sci-fi. The Cannes screening will mark Asteroid City‘s world premiere before its wide release on June 23rd.
Marking this year’s biggest Cannes blockbuster is Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. Directed by James Mangold, Harrison Ford returns for his fifth film as the legendary hero. 15 years after the presentation in 2008 of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, directed by Steven Spielberg, the final installment of the Lucasfilm saga will be screened on Thursday, May 18th in Cannes and will be released in theaters on June 28th in France and June 30 in the United States. The Festival will also pay a special tribute to Harrison Ford for his career.
May December, the latest from acclaimed director Todd Haynes, (Carol, I’m Not There), is based on the story by Burch and Alex Mechanik about an actress who travels to Maine to study the life of another woman. The film returns Haynes to the kind of relationship-centric drama that he has been widely celebrated for in the past and stars The film will star Natalie Portman, Julianne Moore, Charles Melton, and Piper Cruda.
Martin Scorsese will present the world premiere of Killers of the Flower Moon, marking the director’s return to the Official Selection for the first time since the presentation of After Hours in 1986. Based on David Grann’s best-selling book and written for the screen by Eric Roth and Martin Scorsese, the film is set in 1920s Oklahoma and depicts the serial murder of members of the oil-wealthy Osage Nation, a string of brutal crimes that came to be known as the Reign of Terror. Killers of the Flower Moon stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, and Lily Gladstone.
Pedro Almodóvar’s Strange Way of Life will have its world premiere at Cannes, with the Spanish director and the film’s two leads, Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal, in attendance. A Western shot in the south of Spain, the short film is Almodóvar’s second English-language film after The Human Voice in 2020. Strange Way of Life follows two cowboys who rekindle an old friendship after 25 years apart. The screening will be followed by a conversation with Almodóvar and the filmmaking team.
The full Official Selection can be viewed on the Festival de Cannes’ website.
