Last year the Contemporary World Cinema had plenty of Cannes Film Festival gems in Aftersun, Falcon Lake, R.M.N. and The Worst Ones. This year’s programme no longer called CWC but could be called Cannes replay but the programmers want us to call it the Centrepiece programme. We have the masterful (Cannes Best Actress-winning) About Dry Grasses by Nuri Bilge Ceylan plus Croisette light touches in the feel-good films of Fallen Leaves, Perfect Days and Monia Chokri ‘s Simple Comme Sylvain. From Venice we find Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir’s City of Wind, Ariane Louis-Seize’s Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person and Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s Evil Does Not Exist. A Berlinale grab we got Ilker Çatak’s The Teachers’ Lounge and in the added Galas, Special Presentations, and Documentaries selection we find the world premiere to Lone Scherfig’s The Movie Teller the book to film project featuring Daniel Brühl, Antonio de la Torre, Berenice Bejo and Sarah Becker in the Atacama Desert during the 1960s. Here is the very last batch of selections with the schedule dropping next week.
CENTREPIECE PROGRAMME 2023 100 Yards Xu Haofeng, Xu Junfeng | China – International Premiere About Dry Grasses Nuri Bilge Ceylan | Turkey/France/Germany/Sweden – North American Premiere
A Happy Day Hisham Zaman | Norway/Denmark – World Premiere A Ravaging Wind Paula Hernández | Argentina/Uruguay – World Premiere A Road to A Village (गाउ आएको बाटो) Nabin Subba | Nepal – World Premiere Banel & Adama (Banel e Adama) Ramata-Toulaye Sy | France/Senegal/Mali – North American Premiere Chuck Chuck Baby Janis Pugh | United Kingdom – International Premiere City of Wind Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir | North American Premiere Close Your Eyes (Cerrar Los Ojos) Víctor Erice | Spain/Argentina – North American Premiere Death of a Whistleblower Ian Gabriel | South Africa – World Premiere Fallen Leaves (Kuolleet lehdet) Aki Kaurismäki | Finland/Germany – Canadian Premiere Fitting InMolly McGlynn | Canada – Canadian Premiere Green Border (Zielona Granica) Agnieszka Holland | Poland/Czech Republic/France/Belgium – North American Premiere Hey, Viktor! Cody Lightning | Canada – Canadian Premiere Holiday Edoardo Gabbriellini | Italy – World Premiere Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person Ariane Louis-Seize | Canada – North American Premiere I Do Not Come To You By Chance Ishaya Bako | Nigeria – World Premiere In Flames Zarrar Kahn | Canada/Pakistan – North American Premiere Inshallah a Boy Amjad Al Rasheed | Jordan/France/Saudi Arabia/Qatar/Egypt – North American Premiere Irena’s Vow Louise Archambault | Canada/Poland – World Premiere Je’vida Katja Gauriloff | Finland – Canadian Premiere Kanaval Henri Pardo | Canada/Luxembourg – World Premiere Limbo Ivan Sen | Australia – North American Premiere Lost Ladies Kiran Rao | India – World Premiere Mountains Monica Sorelle | USA – International Premiere National Anthem Luke Gilford | USA – International Premiere Perfect Days Wim Wenders | Japan – Canadian Premiere Robot Dreams Pablo Berger | Spain/France – North American Premiere Shadow of Fire Shinya Tsukamoto | Japan – North American Premiere Shayda Noora Niasari | Australia – Canadian Premiere Sira Apolline Traoré | Burkina Faso/Senegal/France/Germany – North American Premiere Snow Leopard Pema Tseden | China – North American Premiere Sweet Dreams Ena Sendijarević | Netherlands/ Sweden/ Indonesia/France – North American Premiere The Breaking Ice Anthony Chen | China – North American Premiere The DelinquentsRodrigo Moreno | Argentina/Brazil/Luxembourg/Chile – North American Premiere The Feeling That the Time for Something Has PassedJoanna Arnow | USA – North American Premiere The Monk and the Gun Pawo Choyning Dorji | Bhutan/France/USA/Taiwan – International Premiere Simple Comme Sylvain Monia Chokri | Canada/France – North American Premiere The Reeds Cemil Ağacıkoğlu | Turkey/Bulgaria – World Premiere
The Settlers
Felipe Gálvez Haberle | North American Premiere The Teachers’ Lounge Ilker Çatak | Germany – North American Premiere They Shot the Piano Player Fernando Trueba, Javier Mariscal | Spain/France – Canadian Premiere Toll (Pedágio) Carolina Markowicz | Brazil/Portugal – World Premiere Upon Open Sky Mariana Arriaga, Santiago Arriaga | Mexico/Spain – North American Premiere We Grown Now Minhal Baig | USA – World Premiere Woodland Elisabeth Scharang | Austria – World Premiere Your Mother’s Son Jun Robles Lana | Philippines – World Premiere
GALAS A Normal FamilyHur Jin-ho | South Korea – World Premiere Finestkind Brian Helgeland | USA – World Premiere Smugglers Ryoo Seung-wan | South Korea – North American Premiere Thank You For Coming Karan Boolani | India – World Premiere
SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS Daddio Christy Hall | United States – International Premiere El Sabor de la Navidad Alejandro Lozano | Mexico – World Premiere Evil Does Not Exist Ryûsuke Hamaguchi | Japan – North American Premiere Quiz Lady Jessica Yu | USA – World Premiere Ru Charles-Olivier Michaud | Canada – World Premiere The Movie Teller Lone Scherfig | Spain/France/Chile – World Premiere The Promised Land Nikolaj Arcel | Denmark/Germany/Sweden – Canadian Premiere
DOCUMENTARY I am Sirat Deepa Mehta and Sirat Taneja | Canada – World Premiere
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).
