With some very lengthy shortlists, films being submitted later and later, decisions to follow suit (compounded by the festival’s wish to allow itself the greatest possible clarity when making its selection, and maybe even by the tactic of making life a tad more difficult for the selectors at major festivals coming later in the year) and a stricter code of silence, the task of identifying, in advance, the lucky titles chosen for the different selections of the Cannes Film Festival has become an increasingly divinatory exercise fuelled by a number of investigatory elements collating rumours, tips, trends (before being chosen – or not – the films are seen by certain people, and their potential for Cannes is evaluated in a wider context), and even intuitions. The only things we currently know for certain are that The Second Act [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Quentin Dupieux (see the news) will open the 77th edition (14-25 May) and that Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga by Australia’s George Miller (see the news) will make a splash out of competition.

(L'articolo continua qui sotto - Inf. pubblicitaria)

However, the crystal ball is rapidly getting clearer and clearer now, exactly one week away from the Official Selection press conference in Paris, during which Thierry Frémaux (flanked by president Iris Knobloch) will reveal the results of his ruminations, judicious balancing acts and combinations that will inevitably have a snowball effect, subsequently redefining the content of the parallel sections. And so, let us fling open the window to Cannes and gaze into the 2024 "palantír".

In the official competition, jury chair Greta Gerwig (see the news) should allegedly be able to watch Bird [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Brit Andrea Arnold, Kinds of Kindness [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Greece’s Yorgos Lanthimos, Limonov: The Ballad [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Russia’s Kirill Serebrennikov, Grand Tour [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Marta Donzelli, Gregorio P…
intervista: Miguel Gomes
scheda film] by Portugal’s Miguel Gomes, The Shrouds [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Canada’s David Cronenberg, two Italian films (one of which is Parthenope [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Paolo Sorrentino and the other a total surprise), I'm Still Here [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Brazil’s Walter Salles, Anora by the USA’s Sean Baker, Oh, Canada by his fellow countryman Paul Schrader, Everybody Loves Touda [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Morocco’s Nabil Ayouch, Serpent's Path [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Japan’s Kiyoshi Kurosawa and An Unfinished Film by China’s Lou Ye. If he manages to finish it before the deadline, we could add The Apprentice [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Danish-based, Iranian-born director Ali Abassi, and we also mustn’t overlook the likelihood of Maria [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Chile’s Pablo Larrain being picked. Then, all bets are off for the remaining slots (apart from the French contingent) with, among other outsiders, Georgia’s Dea Kulumbegashvili with April [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Dea Kulumbegashvili
scheda film], Greece’s Athina Rachel Tsangari with the English-language flick Harvest [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Athina Rachel Tsangari
scheda film], and even a wild card in the form of L’effacement by Algeria’s Karim Moussaoui.

As for the French hopefuls (the fates of whom are traditionally sealed on the evening before the revelation of the Official Selection), it’s anybody’s guess, apart from Jacques Audiard, who seems an almost dead cert with Emilia Perez [+leggi anche:
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scheda film]. The most prominent predictions swirling around are Miséricorde [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Alain Guiraudie
scheda film] by Alain Guiraudie and La Chambre de Mariana by Emmanuel Finkiel. The eagerly anticipated Emmanuelle [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Audrey Diwan
scheda film] by Audrey Diwan is apparently in a somewhat uncertain position, going for the competition or nothing at all. The other female directors among the most credible candidates are Delphine and Muriel Coulin with The Quiet Son [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Delphine e Muriel Coulin
scheda film], and Patricia Mazuy with La prisonnière de Bordeaux [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Patricia Mazuy
scheda film]. In addition, Thierry de Peretti might be in the running with À son image [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Thierry de Peretti
scheda film] (which is in the final stages of editing).

For the rest of the Official Selection (Out of Competition, Cannes Première, Un Certain Regard, Special Screenings and Midnight Screenings), a lap of honour for the USA’s Francis Ford Coppola (with this year marking the 50th anniversary of his first Palme d’Or, for The Conversation) with his new opus, Megalopolis, is not totally out of the question (provided that a distributor such as Apple gets on board quickly). The programme could potentially also comprise the documentaries The Belle from Gaza [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Yolande Zauberman
scheda film] by France’s Yolande Zauberman and Meeting with Pol Pot [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Cambodia’s Rithy Panh, When the Light Breaks [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Rúnar Rúnarsson
scheda film] by Iceland’s Runar Runarsson, The Village Next to Paradise [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Somalia’s Mo Harawe, Viet and Nam [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Vietnam’s Truong Minh Quy, Une part manquante [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Guillaume Senez
scheda film] by Belgium’s Guillaume Senez, Submergée by French-Lithuanian director Alanté Kavaité, Things That You Kill by Iran’s Alireza Khatami, Dreams by Norway’s Dag Johan Haugerud (the second instalment in his trilogy that began in the Berlin Panorama with Sex [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Dag Johan Haugerud
scheda film]), Mexico 86 [+leggi anche:
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intervista: César Díaz
scheda film] by Belgian-Guatemalan helmer Cesar Diaz and On Becoming a Guinea Fowl [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Rungano Nyoni, Susan Chardy
scheda film] by British-Zambian filmmaker Rungano Nyoni. Standing out among the possible French features (unless they are headed to Venice) are Three Friends [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Emmanuel Mouret, Spectateurs [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Arnaud Desplechin, Marcello Mio [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Christophe Honoré, When Fall Is Coming [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by François Ozon, and Jim’s Story [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Arnaud e Jean-Marie Larrieu
scheda film] by Arnaud and Jean-Marie Larrieu, and perhaps even Beating Hearts [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Gilles Lellouche or the medium-length film C'est pas moi by Leos Carax. It’s also worth pointing out the tight competition between a handful of young French filmmakers: Noémie Merlant with The Balconettes [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Noémie Merlant
scheda film], Jessica Palud with Maria [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Jessica Palud
scheda film], Charlène Favier with Oxana, Aude Léa Rapin with Planète B [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Aude Léa Rapin
scheda film], Laetitia Dosch with Le procès du chien [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Laetitia Dosch
scheda film] and Les Fantômes [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Jonathan Millet
intervista: Pauline Seigland
scheda film] by Jonathan Millet.

As for the parallel sections, Ma vie ma gueule [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by the late Sophie Fillières could embellish the showcase of the Directors’ Fortnight, much like, among others, Sang craché des lèvres belles by France’s Jean-Charles Hue, Une langue universelle by Canada’s Matthew Rankin, All We Imagine as Light [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by India’s Payal Kapadia, Milano [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Belgium’s Christina Vandekerckhove, the documentary La chambre d’ombres by Colombia’s Camile Restrepo, Morlaix by Spaniard Jaime Rosales, Agora [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Ala Eddine Slim
scheda film] by Tunisia’s Ala Eddine Slim, Stranger Eyes [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Singapore’s Yeo Siew Hua and Eight Postcards from Utopia [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Radu Jude, Christian Feren…
scheda film] by Romania’s Radu Jude and Christian Ferencz-Flatz, and even Horizonte [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Colombia’s César Augusto Acevedo.

Moving on to the Critics’ Week, some of the titles that we could highlight from the extensive shortlists still in consideration today (while we await the definitive choices for the Official Selection) are September Says [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Ariane Labed
scheda film] by French-Greek helmer Ariane Labed, The Mountain Bride [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Maura Delpero
scheda film] by Italy’s Maura Delpero, Little Trouble Girls by Slovenia’s Urška Djukić, Simón de la montaña by Argentina’s Federico Luis Tachella, My Sunshine [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Hiroshi Okuyama
scheda film] by Japan’s Hiroshi Okuyama, and the French movies Eat The Night [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Caroline Poggi e Jonathan …
scheda film] by Jonathan Vinel and Caroline Poggi, Wild Diamond [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Agathe Riedinger
scheda film] by Agathe Riedinger, Le Mohican [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Frédéric Farrucci
scheda film] by Frédéric Farrucci, Le Royaume [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Julien Colonna
scheda film] by Julien Colonna and Vingt Dieux [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Louise Courvoisier
scheda film] by Louise Courvoisier.

Finally, a clutch of animated flicks could also manage to wangle their way onto the Croisette this year (although Cannes has never been very fond of the genre, especially with the Annecy Film Festival coming soon after it in France). In particular, the potential titles include Memoir of a Snail by Australia’s Adam Elliot, Flow [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Gints Zilbalodis
scheda film] by Latvia’s Gints Zilbalodis, Ghost Cat Anzu [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Japan’s Yoko Kuno and Nobuhiro Yamashita, and The Most Precious of Cargoes [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by France’s Michel Hazanavicius.