Live from Cannes 2017: Introducing Our Cannes Critics’ Panel

With no over three hour Romanian or Turkish film offerings, the 70th edition of Cannes with its nineteen Comp items is a rather lean and mean mix. While Arnaud Desplechin’s Ismael’s Ghosts opens the fest, it’s the advance late night pair of screenings of Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Loveless (Sony Pictures Classics pick up late last week) which officially kicks off the Palme d’Or race.

This is year number seven for our Cannes Critics’ Panel, and while we remain a strong front we landed some new voices/faces. Our notable newcomers include Bilge Ebiri from The Village Voice, Marc Cassivi from La Presse, The Film Stage’s Giovanni Marchini Camina.

It’s fitting that Pedro Almodóvar, who is the lead juror was our inaugural “winner” back in 2011, with La piel que habito. In 2012, Michael Haneke’s Amour (Palme d’Or) beat out Holy Motors by just a smidgen. In 2013, Blue is the Warmest Color was also a unanimous pick and still counts as the highest score ever on our charts. 2014 it was the Dardennes’ Deux Jours, Une Nuit outscoring Palme d’Or winner Winter Sleep while in 2015 it was Todd Haynes’ Carol that beat out Mia Madre, Son of Saul and Palme d’Or winner Dheepan. Last year, Toni Erdmann might have went home empty, but it was the most liked film in the comp according to our folks and in time will be referenced more than the Palme winner in I, Daniel Blake. Here is our group of sixteen:

1. Nicholas Bell – IONCINEMA.com
2. Giovanni Marchini Camina – The Film Stage
3. Dave Calhoun – Time Out London
4. Per Juul Carlsen – Danish National Radio 1
5. Marc Cassivi – La Presse
6. Bilge Ebiri – The Village Voice
7. Jean-Philippe Guerand – Le Film Français
8. Carlos F. Heredero – Caimán Cuadernos de Cine
9. Jessica Kiang – ThePlaylist.net / Variety
10. Eric Kohn – Indiewire.com
11. Eric Lavallee – IONCINEMA.com
12. Fabien Lemercier – Cineuropa.org
13. Liu MIN – Sina.com
14. Isabelle Regnier – Le Monde
15. Cédric Succivalli – International Cinephile Society
16. Blake Williams – Filmmaker Magazine

Visit us twice daily critical snapshot (three on Monday the 22nd) of the Official Competition selected films in our star ratings-grid approach. Results will be published as the festival advances and of course, we end the fest with our personal & prediction Palme d’Or predictions. Stay tuned!