Brits in the running at 69th Cannes Film Festival

The 69th Cannes Film Festival features an enticing line-up as a variety of hotly-anticipated movies from around the world are showcased during the annual carnival of cinema. The list includes interesting British fare from director Andrea Arnold, who seems like one to watch with her film American Honey, whilst Ken Loach gets tough on food-bank Britain with I, Daniel Blake – both movies lensed by cinematographer Robbie Ryan BSC.

The jury for the annual festival will be presided over by president George Miller, the Australian director of the Mad Max franchise. Miller is joined by French director Arnaud Desplechin, actress Kirsten Dunst, Italian actress and director Valeria Golino, and Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen. Rounding out the jury are: Hungarian director Laszlo Nemes, whose movie Son Of Saul (DP Mátyás Erdély HSC) won the Grand Prize at Cannes last year and went on to win an Oscar, plus several cinematographic awards; French actress Vanessa Paradis; Iranian producer Katayoon Shahabi; and leading Canadian actor Donald Sutherland.

The festival opens on May 11 with a screening of Woody Allen’s new movie Café Society (DP Vittorio Storaro AIC ASC), and runs until May 22. It is a big year for Britain, with two Cannes favourites being featured in competition. Andrea Arnold’s American Honey, featuring Shia LaBeouf and Sasha Lane, is about a travelling bunch of exploited teenagers who get an itinerant job in the midwest, selling magazine subscriptions door-to-door. Ken Loach returns – despite having said that he was withdrawing from fiction features – with his longtime screenwriter Paul Laverty, with I, Daniel Blake, an indictment of the poverty trap in the UK today.

The festival’s other masters include The Dardenne brothers, two-time winners of the Palme d’Or, who are back with their La Fille Inconnue (The Unknown Girl), starring Adele Haenel, about a doctor who sets out to find the identity of a young woman who died after refusing surgery. Pedro Almodóvar’s Julieta (DP Jean-Claude Larrieu) is an adaptation of three interrelated short stories by Alice Munro from her 2004 collection Runaway. A middle-aged woman endures anguish when her teenage daughter runs away from home and discovers something about her mother.

One of the most exciting French inclusions this year is Alain Guiraudie, whose explicitly gay thriller, The Stranger By The Lake (DP Claire Mathon), made a big impression in 2013. He is now in competition with Rester Vertical, (Staying Vertical) which is set in the heart of France, but with no other information given, helping to ramp-up the anticipation.

Nicole Garcia’s From The Land Of The Moon (Mal De Pierres, DP Christophe Beaucarne) is another big offering from French cinema – literary adaptation starring Marion Cotillard as a free-spirited woman trapped in a loveless marriage, who is attracted to another man, also starring Louis Garrel.

Also in competition for the Palme d’Or this year are: Olivier Assayas with Personal Shopper (DP Yorick Le Saux); Jim Jarmusch with Paterson (DP Frederick Elmes); Cristian Mungiu with Graduation (Bacalaureat, DP Tudor Vladimir Panduru); Jeff Nichols with Loving (DP Adam Stone); and Sean Penn with The Last Face (DP Barry Ackroyd BSC).

Out of competition the big hitters include Steven Spielberg with his version of Roald Dahl’s The BFG (Janusz Kaminski ASC), plus Jodie Foster with her Hollywood thriller Money Monster (DP Matthew Libatique ASC), starring George Clooney as the host of a financial talkshow who is held hostage live-on-air by a desperate anti-capitalist protester. Shane Black’s tough, knock-about comedy The Nice Guys, starring Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling, should be well-received.

There is also British interest in the Un Certain Regard category with director David Mackenzie’s Hell Or High Water (DP Giles Nuttgens), about a divorced dad and his ex-con brother who resort to a desperate scheme in order to save their family’s farm in West Texas, starring Chris Pine, Ben Foster and Jeff Bridges.

The Cannes Film Festival will host a special tribute to music icon Prince, who died recently aged 57, and who leaves behind a memorable movie legacy. The pioneering musician won an Oscar for his music in Purple Rain (DP Donald E. Thorin) in 1984 and provided soundtracks to a number of productions including the 1989 Tim Burton directed Batman (DP Roger Pratt BSC) and Spike Lee’s Girl 6 (DP Malik Hassan Sayeed), which played in Un Certain Regard in 1996. His 1986 directorial debut, Under The Cherry Moon (DP Michael Ballhaus), shot in and around Nice along the French Riviera.

After the recent terrorist attacks in France, the organisers say they have ramped up security to the highest level in the festival’s history.