Top 100 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2018: #33. Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Favourite

The Favourite

Fox Searchlight Pictures already owns the distribution rights for Yorgos Lanthimos’ next feature, The Favourite, which is described as a bawdy tale of royal intrigue in the court of Queen Anne in 18th century England. Like Lanthimos past two English language features, The Favourite is a co-production with UK and Ireland. Currently, Lanthimos is enjoying a divisive response to his latest, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, which just recently picked up Best Screenplay at Cannes. Notably absent from this production is his usual scribe Efthymis Filippou, who has scripted the past four titles of the Greek Weird Wave alum, which began with breakthrough 2009 film Dogtooth (which took home the top prize out of Un Certain Regard), 2011’s ALPS (which won Best Screenplay at Venice) and 2015’s The Lobster (which took home the Jury Prize). But Lanthimos will reunite with Lobster cast members Olivia Colman (who will be the central figure of Queen Anne) and Rachel Weisz (who took over for original cast member Kate Winslet).

Release Date/Prediction: Lanthimos broke into the Cannes main comp with The Lobster and took home awards for this and The Killing of a Sacred Deer. Considering the title is in post-production and its high-profile cast, we’d expect this to be courting another comp slot at Cannes in 2018.