Film Festivals

2019 Cannes Film Festival: Mati Diop, Jessica Hausner & Céline Sciamma In Competition

Published on April 18, 2019

Expect the unexpected. A mix of new faces and veteran filmmakers will make up the 72nd edition of the Cannes Film Festival with first works of helmers Mati Diop and Ladj Ly cracking the line-up (we can’t account for the last time this has happened) and filmmakers Jessica Hausner, Corneliu Porumboiu, Ira Sachs, Céline Sciamma and Justine Triet making their first trip to the competition as well. As per usual, we expect there to be one or two mods to the competition (possible upgrade from an Un Certain Regard selection) and it could possibly be a down to the wire inclusion of Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood — which according to Thierry Frémaux (who has seen a work in progress) is not yet ready. Here are the nineteen selections with the Dardennes’ looking to three-peat with Young Ahmed.

“Pain and Glory,” Pedro Almodovar
“The Traitor,” Marco Bellocchio
“The Wild Goose Lake,” Diao Yinan
“Parasite,” Bong Joon-ho
“Young Ahmed,” Jean-Pierre Dardenne & Luc Dardenne
“Oh Mercy!,” Arnaud Desplechin
“Atlantique,” Mati Diop

“Matthias and Maxime,” Xavier Dolan
“Little Joe,” Jessica Hausner
“Sorry We Missed You,” Ken Loach
“Les Miserables,” Ladj Ly
“A Hidden Life,” Terrence Malick
“Bacurau,” Kleber Mendonça Filho & Juliano Dornelles
“The Whistlers,” Corneliu Porumboiu
“Frankie,” Ira Sachs
“Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” Céline Sciamma
“It Must Be Heaven,” Elia Suleiman
“Sibyl,” Justine Triet

Opening Night Film
“The Dead Don’t Die,” Jim Jarmusch (also in Competition)

Eric Lavallée

Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist and critic at IONCINEMA.com (founded in 2000). Eric is a regular at Sundance, Cannes and TIFF. He has a BFA in Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013 he served as a Narrative Competition Jury Member at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson's This Teacher (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). In 2022 he served as a New Flesh Comp for Best First Feature at the 2022 Fantasia Intl. Film Festival. Current top films for 2022 include Tár (Todd Field), All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen), Aftersun (Charlotte Wells).