CANNES 2021

2021 Cannes Film Festival Selection - Kogonada, Farhadi, Anderson

by Alex Billington
June 3, 2021
Source: Cannes

Every year, cinephiles wake up early for the announcement from France of the films playing at the Cannes Film Festival. For the 74th Cannes Film Festival taking place this July, they've confirmed an intriguing and compelling set of films made by the finest filmmakers hailing from all over the world. Cannes is ready to return after cancelling last year, despite announcing their 2020 selection anyway, with a focus on safety this year as thousands of movie lovers return to the South of France to watch new films. We'll be there! Wouldn't miss it for anything, except of course a global pandemic. This year's 2021 line-up includes new films by Wes Anderson (The French Dispatch), Sean Baker (Red Rocket), Asghar Farhadi (A Hero), Mia Hansen-Love (Bergman Island), Todd Haynes (Velvet Underground), Justin Kurzel (Nitram), Jacques Audiard (Paris 13th District), and many others. There will likely be a few additions last minute - Thierry Frémaux has also hinted that the big Hollywood blockbuster hasn't been revealed just yet. See the full list of 2021 films below.

Here's the complete selection of 2021 films directly from Cannes, including the director for easy reference.

COMPETITION (24 FILMS):

Ahed's Knee (Ha'berech) - dir. Nadav Lapid
Benedetta - dir. Paul Verhoeven
Bergman Island - dir. Mia Hansen-Løve
Casablanca Beats - dir. Nabil Ayouch
Compartment No. 6 (Hytti Nro 6) - dir. Juho Kuosmanen
Drive My Car - dir. Ryûsuke Hamaguchi
Everything Went Fine (Tout s'est Bien Passé) - dir. Francois Ozon
Flag Day - dir. Sean Penn
France - dir. Bruno Dumont
The French Dispatch - dir. Wes Anderson
A Hero - dir. Asghar Farhadi
La Fracture - dir. Catherine Corsini
Lingui - dir. Mahamat-Saleh Haroun
Memoria - dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Nitram - dir. Justin Kurzel
Paris 13th District (Les Olympiades) - dir. Jacques Audiard
Petrov's Flu - dir. Kirill Serebrennikov
Red Rocket - dir. Sean Baker
The Restless (Les Intranquilles) - dir. Joachim Lafosse
The Story of My Wife (A Feleségem Története) - dir. Ildikó Enyedi
Three Floors (Tre Piani) - dir. Nanni Moretti
Titane - dir. Julia Ducournau
The Worst Person in the World (Julie en 12 Chapitres) - dir. Joachim Trier

OPENING NIGHT FILM:

Annette - dir. Leos Carax

OUT OF COMPETITION (7 FILMS):

Aline, The Voice of Love - dir. Valérie Lemercier
BAC Nord - dir. Cédric Jimenez
Emergency Declaration - dir. Han Jae-Rim
In His Lifetime (De Son Vivant) - dir. Emmanuelle Bercot
Stillwater - dir. Tom McCarthy
The Velvet Underground - dir. Todd Haynes
Where is Anne Frank? - dir. Ari Folman

UN CERTAIN REGARD (19 FILMS):

After Yang - dir. Kogonada
Blue Bayou - dir. Justin Chon
Bonne Mère - dir. Hafsia Herzi
Commitment Hasan - dir. Hasan Semih Kaplanoglu
Freda - dir. Gessica Généus
Gaey Wa'r - dir. Na Jiazuo
Great Freedom (Grosse Freiheit) - dir. Sebastian Meise
House Arrest (Delo) - dir. Alexey German Jr.
The Innocents - dir. Eskil Vogt
La Civil - dir. Teodora Ana Mihai
Lamb - dir. Valdimar Jóhansson
Let There Be Morning - dir. Eran Kolirin
Moneyboys - dir. C.B Yi
My Brothers and Me (Mes frères et moi) - dir. Yohan Manca
Prayers for the Stolen (Noche de Fuego) - dir. Tatiana Huezo
Rehana Maryam Noor - dir. Abdullah Mohammad Saad
Unclenching the Fists - dir. Kira Kovalenko
Un Monde - dir. Laura Wandel
Women Do Cry - dirs. Mina Mileva & Vesela Kazakova

MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS (3 FILMS):

Bloody Oranges (Oranges Sanguines) - dir. Jean-Christophe Meurisse
Suprêmes - dir. Audrey Estrougo
Tralala - dir. Arnaud & Jean-Marie Larrieu

SPECIAL SCREENINGS (9 FILMS):

Are You Lonesome Tonight? - dir. Wen Shipei
Babi Yar. Context - dir. Sergei Loznitsa
Black Notebooks - dir. Shlomi Elkabetz
H6 - dir. Yé Yé
Les Héroïques - dir. Maxime Roy
Mariner of the Mountains (O Marinheiro das Montanhas) - dir. Karim Aïnouz
Mi Iubita, Mon Amour - dir. Noémie Merlant
New Worlds: The Cradle of Civilization - dir. Andrew Muscato
The Year of the Everlasting Storm - dirs. Jafar Panahi, Anthony Chen, Malik Vitthal, Laura Poitras, Dominga Sotomayor, David Lowery, Apichatpong Weerasethakul

CANNES PREMIÈRE (12 FILMS):

Belle - dir. Mamoru Hosoda
Cow - dir. Andrea Arnold
Deception (Tromperie) - dir. Arnaud Desplechin
Evolution - dir. Kornél Mundruczo
Hold Me Tight - dir. Mathieu Almaric
In Front of Your Face - dir. Hong Sang-soo
Jane by Charlotte - dir. Charlotte Gainsbourg
JFK Revisted: Through the Looking Glass - dir. Oliver Stone
Mothering Sunday - dir. Eva Husson
Love Song for Tough Guys - dir. Samuel Benchetrit
Val - dirs. Ting Poo & Leo Scott
Vortex - dir. Gaspar Noé

So that's the line-up for Cannes 2021, with likely a few others to be added in the next few weeks before the fest begins. All of it sounds quite interesting! As usual, there are plenty of films I would've loved to see show up at the festival this summer (like the new Ruben Ostlund feature), but they can't play everything. And the fall festival season (Venice, Telluride, Toronto, NY) is just a few months away anyway, so there's plenty of premieres that might just be waiting a few more months. I'm most excited about the competition selection - even the ones I don't know anything about yet have the potential to be incredible. And most of all, I'm just happy to be returning to Cannes this year, it was tough to miss out on the festival last year. Mostly because it's the big cinema party (Frémaux called it the "Woodstock for cinema every year!") of the summer and the vibe there is like nothing else. As always - I'm looking forward to getting back onto the Croisette in July so that we can start watching films in hopes that we're all blown away by some of these in the line-up. The 2021 Cannes Film Festival runs from July 6th until July 17th in Cannes, France (two months later than usual).

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