2019 Cannes: Adèle Haenel Owns the Croisette & Hafsia Herzi’s Debut in Critics’ Week
Critic’s Week will be unveiling eleven feature films for the 2019 edition with 7 comp titles, and opener and a closer and a pair of Special Screenings. Adèle Haenel (her debut was in Céline Sciamma’s Water Lilies) will pretty much be a mainstay on the Croisette like Nicole Kidman was a year back. Haenel will be at the Directors’ Fortnight section with Deerskin and landed a spot in the main comp with Portrait of a Lady on Fire, but she’ll also be at the other end of the Croisette toplining the debut film by Aude Léa Rapin (Les héros ne meurent jamais). Perhaps the most recognizable of the newbie filmmakers we find actress Hafsia Herzi and her feature debut Tu mérites un amour. We’ll soon find out if she has another reason to come to Cannes when the Directors’ Fortnight unveils their selections. Kechiche’s Mektoub My Love: Intermezzo might be an long shot.
The opening film slot belongs to a Sylvie Pialat/Les Films du Worso project in Franco Lolli‘s sophomore feature Litigante. The filmmaker padded his resume with short films “Como Todo el Mundo” (Grand Prize of the Jury, Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival 2008) and “Rodri” (Directors’ Fortnight – 2012) before unveiling Gente de Bien five years back. The closing film belongs to Gu Xiaogang‘s Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains.
The 2016 Sundance Screenwriters Lab participants are having a remarkable year…at the upcoming edition of the Cannes Film Festival. After the Special Screenings selected Share (Pippa Bianco) and Un Certain Regard selected Bull (Annie Silverstein), Alaa Eddine Aljem becomes the third participant bringing a piece of Morocco to the Croisette this year.
A film editor on Jayro Bustamante’s Ixcanul, Cesar Díaz enlists Armando Espitia (he commenced his acting career as Heli in Amat Escalante’s Heli) for Uspantan — a tale about identity and a quest intimately linked to the contemporary history of Guatemala. Also in the Critics’ Week comp we find a project that was at the Cinéfondation back in 2016. Amin Sidi Boumedine‘s Abou Leila was shot in the south of Algeria. Critic’s Week will welcome back an alumni in Sofia Quiros Ubeda who brings her feature in Ceniza Negra. She was at the section for two years back with her short, Selva.
Hlynur Pálmason who blasted onto the international scene with Winter Brothers (TIFF), quickly had a lot of critics buzzing about his second film, A White, White Day (a film that we had on our most anticipated World Cinema list for 2019). Jérémy Clapin who was in the Critic’s Week with his 2008 short, Skhizein, returns to the section with another animated offering in J’ai perdu mon corps. And finally, we were teased a cool image of Jess Eisenberg and Imogen Poots for Lorcan Finnegan‘s sophomore feature, Vivarium.
Here are the short film selections which includes some Cronenberg.
SHORT FILMS IN COMPETITION
DIA DE FESTA (PARTY DAY) Sofia Bost
FAKT (THE TRAP) Nada Riyadh
IKKI ILLA MEINT Andrias Høgenni
JOURNEY THROUGH A BODY Camille Degeye
KOLEKTYVINIAI SODAI (COMMUNITY GARDENS) Vytautas Katkus
LUCÍA EN A LIMBO Valentina Maurel
THE MANILA LOVER Johanna Pyykkö
MARDI DE 8 À 18 (TUESDAY FROM 8 TO 6) Cecilia de Arce
SHE RUNS Qiu Yang
ULTIMUL DRUM SPRE MARE (THE LAST TRIP TO THE SEASIDE) Adi Voicu
SHORT FILMS SPECIAL SCREENING 1
DEMONIC Pia Borg
NAPTHA Moin Hassain
PLEASE SPEAK CONTINUOUSLY AND DESCRIBE YOUR EXPERIENCES AS THEY COME TO YOU Brandon Cronenberg
SHORT FILMS SPECIAL SCREENING 2
INVISIVEL HEROI (INVISIBLE HERO) Cristèle Alves Meira
TENZO Katsuya Tomita
