Everything you need to know about Cannes film festival 2019

A few years ago, I watched Mr. Bean’s Holiday. Mr. Bean, winning a vacation to the south of France, goes on the road trip to reach the end destination: Cannes. He ends up actually going to the Cannes Film Festival, totally by accident. That was the first time I ever heard about the festival and ever since, it’s my dream of being in France while the festival is taking place.

The 2019 film festival already started! It takes place between 14 and 25 May this year. In this blog, I’ll talk about the 2019 edition of world’s biggest and most important film festival. What exactly is the Cannes Film Festival? Which movies are competing? Read all about it in this post!

General information

Ever since 1946, this festival has been taking place annually. The plans for a festival in France were made in 1932, but it took years to truly make it happen. 20 September 1946 was the date of the very first edition. Twenty-one countries presented their movies there. Throughout the years, Cannes film festival grew and grew.

The festival consists of multiple sections. The most important are the movies in Competition. These are competing for the Palme d’Or. Movies that have won this price throughout the years are Pulp Fiction, Apocalypse Now and Taxi Driver. The second highest price that can be won, is the Grand Prix. There’s also a Prix du Jury, Palme d’Or du court métrage (short film), Prix d’interprétation féminine (best actress), Prix d’interprétation masculine (best actor), Prix de la mise en scène (best director) and Prix du scénario (best screenplay). Young talent is also rewarded with prizes.

All these prizes are granted by a jury made from professionals. Every year, a different professional is chosen to be a jury president. Notable people that have had this honor are Sophia Loren, Kirk Douglas, Clint Eastwood, Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, Tim Burton, Robert De Niro, Steven Spielberg and Cate Blanchett last year.

This year’s edition

A lot of movies will have their premieres at this year’s festival. Movies like Tarantino’s newest: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Rocketman about Elton John and The Dead Don’t Die, which was the opening film. Alejandro González Iñárritu, Mexican director known for Birdman and the Revenant, is the jury president this year. Classics that will be shown are The Shining and Moulin Rouge (1952).

The Film Festival has published a list of this year’s edition in numbers. 1845 feature films were submitted to the festival. 4240 short films were submitted and 11 were selected this year. 39 countries are represented. Cannes tries to improve on gender equality, so about 50% of the employees are female. The number of female directors in the selection process was 34% whereas 27,5% of the selected directors are female.

Competing movies

Because this film festival is international, lots of movies from other countries are competing. You won’t be seeing that a lot with the Oscars or the Golden Globes. Here’s a list of all competing movies in Competition for the Palme d’Or.

Atlantics (Atlantique) – Mati Diop (France, Senegal)
Bacurau – Kleber Mendonça Fihlo and Juliano Dornelles (Brazil)
The Dead Don’t Die – Jim Jarmusch (USA)
Frankie – Ira Sachs (USA, France, Portugal, Belgium)
A Hidden Life – Terrence Malick (USA, Germany)
It Must Be Heaven – Elia Suleiman (France, Canada)
Little Joe – Jessica Hausner (Austria, Germany, UK)
Matthia & Maxime (Matthias et Maxime) – Xavier Dolan (Canada)
Les Misérables – Ladj Ly (France)
Mektoub, My Love: Intermezzo – Abdellatif Kechiche (France)
Oh Mercy! (Roubaix, une lumière) – Arnaud Desplechin (France)
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood – Quentin Tarantino (USA)
Pain and Glory (Dolor y gloria) – Pedro Almodóvar (Spain)
Parasite ( 기생충 ) – Bong Joon-ho (South Korea)
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Portrait de la jeune fille en feu) – Céline Sciamma (France)
Sibyl – Justine Triet (France)
Sorry We Missed You – Ken Loach (UK)
The Traitor (Il traditore) – Marco Bellocchio (Italy)
The Whistlers (Gomera) – Corneliu Porumboiu (Romania, France, Germany)
The Wild Goose Lake (南方车站的聚会) – Diao Yinan (China)
The Young Ahmed (Le Jeune Ahmed) – Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne (Belgium)

Who do you think will win the Palme d’Or? Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, The Dead Don’t Die or maybe a foreign movie? I personally think that Once Upon a Time in Hollywood will do great at other award shows, but it won’t win here. I guess it will be praised by the public. What do you think?