Twenty-two films from some of the world’s most celebrated directors are vying for the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival which opens Tuesday.The Palme d’Or will be handed out this year by a jury that includes Hollywood star Demi Moore and Korean director Park Chan-wook.Only five of the 22 films vying for the prestigious Palme d’Or top prize are directed by women, compared with seven out of 22 last year.Feminist collective 50/50 has accused organisers of “feminism washing” by using icons of female empowerment Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon playing “Thelma and Louise” in the 1991 film for publicity purposes.“There is absolutely no point at which we’re choosing Geena Davis or Susan Sarandon or Ridley Scott’s film for the poster in order to supposedly give ourselves a feminist image,” Cannes boss Thierry Fremaux told reporters on Monday.The 50/50 collective, which advocates for equality in the film industry, signed a charter with the Cannes Film Festival in 2018.“If we are hesitating between two films… and that hesitation is between a film by a male director and a film by a female director, we will choose the film by the female director,” he added.This year women directors account for 34 percent of all directors of feature films picked for the official programme in Cannes, organisers say.
‘Bitter Christmas’ by Pedro Almodovar
The legendary Spanish director — who has never won the Palme d’Or — will be hoping it is seventh time lucky with this story of a director who draws on the lives of those close to her to write her stories.
‘Parallel Tales’ by Asghar Farhadi
The exiled Oscar-winning Iranian filmmaker has assembled a stellar French cast including Catherine Deneuve, Isabelle Huppert and Pierre Niney to tell “several stories that intertwine in a corner of Paris”.
‘Paper Tiger’ by James Gray
American director James Gray was a late entry with his crime drama of two brothers navigating the Russian mafia, starring Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson from the maker of “The Yards” and “Little Odessa”.
‘A Woman’s Life’ by Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet
French actress Lea Drucker plays a stressed-out surgeon in a hospital who encounters a novelist who comes to watch her work and turns her life upside down — one of four French-made films in the line-up this year.
‘The Black Ball’ by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi
A sprawling Spanish historical film exploring gay lives inspired by Federico Garcia Lorca’s last unfinished work, starring Glenn Close and Penelope Cruz, that turns a moment from the country’s civil war in which the poet and playwright died.
‘Coward’ by Lukas Dhont
The highly rated young Belgian director of “Girl” and “Close” is back with a drama set in the trenches of World War I, with visuals “inspired by the colour photographs of the period”.
‘All of a Sudden ‘ by Ryusuke Hamaguchi
After the worldwide success of “Drive My Car”, the Japanese filmmaker returns with a film shot in France, with Virginie Efira as the head of a nursing home who befriends a dying Japanese playwright.
‘The Unknown’ by Arthur Harari
The screenwriter of the 2023 Palme d’Or winner “Anatomy of a Fall” adapts the graphic novel he wrote with his brother about a man who wakes up in the body of a mysterious stranger.
‘Garance’ by Jeanne Herry
Cannes favourite Adele Exarchopoulos plays a gifted but hard-partying actress in this French tale of a woman losing her grip.
‘Sheep in the Box’ by Hirokazu Kore-eda
A couple welcomes a humanoid robot into their home in the latest film by the Japanese master, who won the 2018 Palme d’Or for “Shoplifters”.
‘Hope’ by Na Hong-jin
Real-life couple Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander star in this psychological thriller about people who set out to find a beast and find themselves hunted instead by the South Korean auteur.
‘Nagi Notes ‘ by Koji Fukada
After tackling the pop industry’s exploitation of young Japanese women in his last film, “Love on Trial”, Fukada heads to rural Japan for a feature about an encounter between two lonely souls.
‘Gentle Monster’ by Marie Kreutzer
The Austrian director brings together French actors Lea Seydoux and Catherine Deneuve — who star in two films in competition — in a story about a couple in which one partner suddenly reveals a monstrous side.
‘A Man of his Time’ by Emmanuel Marre
The Belgian director turns his eye on the civil servants who governed occupied Vichy France in this wartime drama with Swann Arlaud of “Anatomy of a Fall” fame.
‘Fjord ‘ by Cristian Mungiu
The Romanian winner of the 2007 Palme d’Or for “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” teams up with Norwegian actor Renate Reinsve, of “Sentimental Value” and “The Worst Person in the World” fame, for this tale of conflict between two families in a remote Norwegian village.
‘The Birthday Party’ by Lea Mysius
The third feature from the rising French director features Italy’s Monica Bellucci alongside French stars Bastien Bouillon and Hafsia Herzi.
‘Moulin’ by Laszlo Nemes
The Hungarian director of the acclaimed “Son of Saul” returns to Cannes with a biopic about the life of French Resistance hero Jean Moulin.
‘Fatherland ‘ by Pawel Pawlikowski
The Polish filmmaker, who won the best foreign language film Oscar for “Ida” in 2015, is back with another black-and-white movie, this time about writer Thomas Mann’s return to Germany in 1949.
‘The Man I Love’ by Ira Sachs
Rami Malek, who won an Oscar for his role as Freddie Mercury in “Bohemian Rhapsody”, plays an artist at the start of the AIDS pandemic in New York in the 1980s.
‘The Beloved’ by Rodrigo Sorogoyen
There is lots of buzz around the Spanish director’s drama starring Javier Bardem, about a director who rekindles his difficult relationship with his actress daughter on a film shoot.
‘Minotaur’ by Andrey Zvyagintsev
The exiled Russian filmmaker follows up his visually stunning “Leviathan” and “Loveless” with a film about the Russian middle classes grappling with army conscription during the Ukraine war.
‘The Dreamed Adventure’ by Valeska Grisebach
The German director of “Western” makes her main competition debut with the story of a woman living in the border region between Greece, Bulgaria and Turkey who agrees to a deal to help a friend.