Cannes Film Festival nominees announced with record number of female directors on shortlist

Apr 13, 2023

New films from Wes Anderson and Ken Loach will be among those battling it out at the Cannes Film Festival when it kicks off next month, with a record number of female directors making the shortlist.

They are among the 19 films that will be aiming for the Palme d’Or, the event’s top prize, in a “competition that will mix young filmmakers competing for the first time with veterans whose names and works we know”, festival organisers said.

Anderson, who is known for his eccentric art style, will debut Asteroid City at the festival – a film about a junior stargazing convention gone awry starring the likes of Steve Carrell, Scarlet Johansson and Tom Hanks.

British filmmaker Loach, who uses his projects to express social and political commentary, will premiere The Old Oak, which is about Syrian refugees settling in an old mining town in the UK.

Elsewhere, Todd Haynes will show May December, with an Oscar-winning cast including Natalie Portman and Julianna Moore, alongside films from Italy’s Nanni Moretti, Germany’s Wim Wenders and Japan’s Hirokazu Kore-eda.

Six women directors are also on the shortlist, which include France’s Catherine Breillat with L’Ete Dernier and Austrian Jessica Hausner with Club Zero.

Only two female filmmakers have ever won the Palme d’Or – Jane Campion in 1993 for The Piano and Julia Ducournau in 2021 for Titane.

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Outside the main competition, it was revealed earlier this month Johnny Depp’s first film since his dramatic defamation trial with Amber Heard will screen – a French film called Jeanne Du Barry, directed by Maiwenn.

The final instalment from the Indiana Jones franchise, The Dial Of Destiny, will get its world premiere at Cannes, along with a special tribute to the career of Harrison Ford, who plays the titular character.

There will also be a new film from Martin Scorsese, Killers Of The Flower Moon, starring Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio, about the murders of Osage Native Americans in the 1920s.

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Cannes will also host a premiere of a new short film from Pedro Almodovar called Strange Way Of Life starring Pedro Pascal and Ethan Hawke.

Speaking at a news conference in Paris, festival president Iris Knobloch said: “The films are back in theatres and the public is back in theatres.

“The moviemakers, the artists, the professionals are all in agreement. Nothing can replace the cultural event represented by a release in a theatre for a movie.”

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