The 75th edition of the Cannes Film Festival begins in just over two months from now and we can still feel the effects of the pandemic film output pile up for what will be a highly anticipated diamond jubilee edition not unlike 2021. We begin our 2022 Cannes Film Festival predictions with the non-competitive premiere sections where Thierry Frémaux can invite friends, protect films, dip into genre, showcase some TV series, highlight doc items and make a couple of Hollywood studios happy. By the looks of it, the Cannes Premiere section (introduced in 2021 due to the glut of film items that were delayed due to the pandemic) will not return…so we’re back to three non competitive sections with Out of Competition, Midnight & Special Screenings sections. Here are ten possible film items.
Les Amandiers – 🇫🇷
Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi
Far from the twilight of her directing career, Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi embarked on a very special fifth feature that sounds like the perfect type of film for the non competition sections that Cannes has to offer. A film project filmed back in May in France (it also moved to New York City), Les Amandiers (aka Forever Young) is an homage to Patrice Chéreau and his initiative of helping out the careers of young french actors with the Nanterre-Amandiers Theatre during the time of AIDS crisis. Louis Garrel plays Chéreau, and we also find Micha Lescot, Nadia Tereszkiewicz, Sofiane Bennacer, Léna Garrel and Vassili Schneider among the players. Tedeschi has been on the Croisette on countless occasions, but as a filmmaker she was there with in the Un Certain Regard section with Actresses (2007) and in Competition for A Castle in Italy (2013). Our prediction: Out of Competition.
Sales: Charades
L’année du requin – 🇫🇷
Ludovic Boukherma & Zoran Boukherma
The Boukherma bros. might make their third trip on three tries this summer. After debuting their 2016 Willy in the ACID section, they saw their sophomore feature Teddy be selected for the canceled 2020 Cannes Official Selection programme. Back in June of 2021, they assembled Marina Foïs, Kad Merad, Jean-Pascal Zadi and Christine Gautier for a film that might be a cross between Jaws and the Sharknado films – hence the perfect summer movie (France have dated the film with a July 20th release). Shot in the South-West part of France, L’année du requin sees a shark prowling in the bay of Arcachon, sending the entire Landes coast into high alert. Maja, a Coast Guard about to go on early retirement, jumps on the occasion to have one final mission… Our prediction: Midnight Section.
Sales: WTFilms
Les Cyclades – 🇫🇷
Marc Fitoussi
In 1988, Luc Bessons’ The Big Blue screened out of competition at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival. Flash-forward to 2022 and perhaps we’ll get this homage of sorts to one of the most liked examples of Cinéma du look with Marc Fitoussi retracing some steps of the cult classic. Starring Laure Calamy, Olivia Côte, Kristin Scott Thomas and the backdrop of Greece, Les Cyclades went into production last September in Greece (it would move to Paris in November). Essentially this a feel good about feeling old type film that revisits three characters who once had a shared a passion for Besson’s film as teens and look to follow in the footsteps of Enzo and Jacques Maillol. Fitoussi has been to Cannes in 2010 with Copacabana shoring up at the Critics’ Week. Our prediction: Special Screenings.
Sales: Indie Sales
Elvis – 🇺🇸
Baz Luhrmann
With Melbourne not in the equation, the only film festival path for a heavyweight title like Elvis to premiere at is on the Croisette. Set for a June 24th launch, if Luhrmann were to attend – this would be his fourth invite to Cannes. He was there in 1992 for Strictly Ballroom (presented in the Un Certain Regard) and was featured in Comp with Moulin Rouge in 2001 with The Great Gatsby playing Out of Comp in 2013. The film chronicles Elvis Presley’s rise to rock n’ roll and movie stardom — and as witnessed in the trailer from the earliest age. Austin Butler and Tom Hanks topline the film. Our prediction: Out of Competition.
Warner Bros. Pictures.
Mascarade – 🇫🇷
Nicolas Bedos
If there is indeed room for rom-com then Nicolas Bedos‘ fourth feature outing could break into Cannes technically making this a remarkable three for three. La Belle Époque was a 2020 Cannes Label selection and in 2021 he saw his spy laugher franchise OSS 117: From Africa with Love close the festival. He lensed Mascarade (coined as To Catch a Thief-esque type film) in June of 2021 with the likes of Isabelle Adjani, Pierre Niney, Francois Cluzet, Marine Vacth, Emmanuelle Devos and Laura Morante. Shot next door in Nice, France, this is dated domestically with a November date, but if a long lead is possible they’ll want a Croisette preem. Our prediction: Out of Competition.
Sales: Pathe
Le Tigre et le Président – 🇫🇷
Jean-Marc Peyrefitte
Both a period film, political history lesson and perhaps a criminal element intrigue as well, actor Jean-Marc Peyrefitte‘s feature debut takes us back a full century when the President of the Republic Paul Deschanel and Georges Clémenceau (nicknamed The Tiger) were duking it out. Jacques Gamblin and André Dussollier topline the Le Tigre et le Président (The Vanished President) which began production back last summer and featured background trimmings of Élysée Palace, the Quai d’Orsay, the Palace of Versailles’ Conference Room and a ton of castles. We could be left wondering if we’ve evolved from the type of backstabbing that existed during the time of our forefathers. Our prediction: Special Screenings.
Sales: Tandem / Orange Studio
Top Gun: Maverick – 🇺🇸
Joseph Kosinski
The Croisette will most definitely be premiering some major tentpole picture – and this is a legit runner for a red carpet debut. Originally set for a summer 2019 release, due to the complications of the pandemic, Part II pivoted from a summer 2019 date to nixed 2020 summer and then 2020 Xmas drops to what is now a firm May 27th release date – exactly one day before the festival ends. Joseph Kosinski‘s fourth feature film sees Tom Cruise as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell facing demons and the demands of the job. Other serviceman and women Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Lewis Pullman, Ed Harris and Val Kilmer who was feted at the fest lasr year with the docu, Val. Our prediction: Out of Competition.
Paramount Pictures
La Tour d’Assitan – 🇫🇷
Guillaume Nicloux
Closing in on the remarkable feat of almost twenty feature films, for Guillaume Nicloux‘s seventeenth outing he brings together a youthful cast comprised of Jules Houplain, Angèle Mac, Ahmed Abdel Laoui, and Hatik for a fantasy and horror film that is along the lines of Stephen King’s The Mist, The Lord of the Flies and Iuli Gerbase’s The Pink Cloud (2021). Let’s just say: there’ll be plenty of chaos. Shot in Paris in April of 2021, La Tour d’Assitan (Lockdown Tower) feels like a slight departure for the filmmaker but not completely outside his wheelhouse. In 2015, Nicloux made his competition debut with Valley of Love and in 2018, Les confins du monde premiered in the Directors’ Fortnight. Our prediction: Midnight Section.
Sales: Elle Driver
Vengeance – 🇺🇸
B.J. Novak
Dated as a late summer release (July 29th), actor B.J. Novak‘s directorial debut could be a great late night scare option for the fest. A Blumhouse production – they’ve been embraced on the Croisette when they premiered Whiplash and BlacKkKlansman there in the past, this darkly comic thriller was shot in Albuquerque, New Mexico in March of 2021. Vengeance is a tale about a radio host named Ben Manalowitz (Novak) from New York City who travels down south to investigate the overdose of a woman he’d been sleeping with. This stars Issa Rae, Ashton Kutcher, Boyd Holbrook, Lio Tipton, J. Smith-Cameron, and Dove Cameron. Our prediction: Midnight Section.
Sales: Focus Features Intl.
Z (comme Z) – 🇫🇷
Michel Hazanavicius
In competition three times with 2011’s celebrated The Artist, misfire The Search (2014), and Godard homage Redoubtable (2017), if Michel Hazanavicius lands into Cannes this time out it’ll likely be as a fun late night option. A Sundance 2022 selection that was pulled by the filmmaking team as there was no in-person event this year, Z (comme Z) (aka Final Cut) hasn’t been dated yet domestically in France. Completed in April of 2021, the filmmaker enlists Romain Duris and muse/partner Berenice Bejo for a film about filmmaking but with a catch: the zombies are real. This is adapted Shinichiro Ueda’s One Cut of The Dead. Our prediction: Midnight Section.
Sales: Wild Bunch International.
