Cannes Film Festival President Pierre Lescure and program director Thierry Fremaux announced a list of 56 films that were selected for the main program of 2020 (a show canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic). All of these paintings will be promoted with the Cannes 2020 marking. 

These included the most anticipated films from directors who had previously participated in the festival. First of all, this is the drama about teenagers, "The 85th Summer", shot by Francois Ozone. Another important film is Wes Anderson's French Dispatcher movie, which looks like comics (according to the commission), which is scheduled to premiere in the fall.

The director from Japan, Naomi Kawase, previously three times awarded various prizes of the festival, presents the picture True Mothers ("Real Mothers"). This year’s contest could be attended by her compatriot Koji Fukada with the tape The Real Thing (“First-Class Thing”), as well as two South Korean directors. The commission selected the films “On the Road to the Country of Happiness” by Lim San Su and “Train to Busan 2: Peninsula” by Young San Ho.

The program also included two ribbons of Oscar-winning Steve McQueen - Lover's Rock ("Rock lovers") and Mangrove ("Mangrove tree").

Winner of the 1998 jury prize, director of the film "Kursk" Thomas Winterberg became a member of the program with the film "One more at a time." An interesting cast will delight the ADN (“DNA”) tape by Mayvenn Le Besco: roles in it were played by such stars of French cinema as Fanny Ardant and Louis Garrell. In the tape of the Belgian director Lucas Belvo Des Hommes ("Inner Front") you can see Gerard Depardieu. 

Among the newcomers, the actor Viggo Mortensen unexpectedly turned out to be: his directorial debut “The Fall” entered the program, where the artist also played a central role. 

Separately, Thierry Fremaux announced a list of five comedies - all of them filmed by French directors. These are Antoinette Dans Les Cévènnes (Antoinette of the Sivennes) Caroline Vignal, Les Deux Alfred (Two Alfreds) Bruno Podalide, Un Triomphe (Triumph) by Emmanuelle Curcol, L'origine Du Monde (Creation of the World) Lauren and Le Discours ("Speech") Lauren Tyrar.

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Three works entered the documentary section: En Route Pour Le Milliard (The Way to the Billions) by Dyudo Hamadi, The Truffle Hunters (Truffle Hunters) by Michael Duke and Gregory Kershaw, 9 Jours À Raqqa (“9 Days in Racca” ) Xavier de Lausanne.

The commission also selected four animated films. They became the picture Aya to majo ("The Twist and the Witch") Goro Miyazaki, Flee ("Run") by Danish director Jonas Poer Rasmussen, as well as Josep ("Joseph") - a tape about the civil war in Spain from the director-debutant Orel. Completed the list of Disney cartoon "Soul" about the afterlife, dreams and inspiration, which was shot by Pete Docter. Its cinema premiere is currently expected in November.

In addition, it became known that Pierre Lescure was re-elected as president of the festival. His third term in this position began.

This year, the selection committee received a record number of films - 2067. This is the first time in history that their number has exceeded 2000. According to Fremo, this suggests that cinema is still important and indispensable in modern society.

“Although the cinemas have been closed for three months now - this is the first time since the first commercial film show arranged by the Lumiere brothers on December 28, 1895 - this program of the Cannes Film Festival indicates that the cinema is not going to die. It is still unique and indispensable. We live in a world in which moving pictures are constantly evolving - this applies to both the screening of films and the films themselves. Cinema changes the world for the better thanks to those who create it, who give it life, as well as those who watch and magnify it, ”said Thierry Fremaux.

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Over 40% of applications (909) were received from newcomers. The number of films in the main program more or less corresponds to the annual indicator (in 2019 - 59 films, in 2018 - 56). Among them - 15 debut works, which traditionally fall into the program, since the organizers of the show consider the opening of new talents to be one of the missions of the festival.

“The task of any festival is to mark new talents on the world map. In Cannes, we understand this very well. This year we had a unique opportunity to see how films created for the big screen confidently settled on the small screens. We want to confirm our desire to preserve the traditions of cinema, while not turning away from its future, ”said Fremo.

Earlier, the Cannes Film Festival joined the 50/50 movement and therefore tries to take into account gender equality both in the selection of jury members and in the preparation of the festival program.

In 2020, more than 25% of the total number of applications were sent by female directors. The festival program included 16 films shot by women - more than in previous years (14 - in 2019, 11 - in 2018), and makes up 28.5% of all selected films. Moreover, if we take into account exclusively French-made films, the proportion of films by women directors will be about 38%. There are 21 French films in the program this year.

“The growing number of women directors in the festival program is the result of changes in recent years. This serves as quantitative and qualitative evidence of women's contribution to modern cinema in terms of artistic and universal values, regardless of whether they are directors or technical specialists. The point is not so much in numbers as in joyful prospects: when we publish the statistics of the program of short films or the program (student paintings. - RT ) of Cinéfondation later in June , you will see that among young filmmakers the presence of women directors is even more significant and portends the onset of the era the equal rights that we all strive for, ”said Fremo.

The director of the show emphasized that some of the expected paintings that could be presented at the festival were not included in the final program, as their producers decided to postpone the release and show the tapes at the next year’s shows. Thus, the selection committee of the festival emphasized the tapes that will be released in the coming months.

“To our usual criterion for selecting a film, as vague as obvious (and sometimes not so obvious!), To our usual question“ Is this picture suitable for the Cannes Film Festival? ” sometimes we added another one: “Isn’t this the perfect movie to bring people back to the cinema?” Fremo explained.

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The 73rd Cannes Film Festival was to be held from May 12 to 23. In March, it became known that it was postponed to July, and on April 13, the French authorities announced a ban on major public events until the end of summer. Other major shows were planned for the fall (the Venetian, as well as the Toronto festival), so the organizing committee of the Cannes Film Festival decided to abandon it this year.

According to Thierry Fremaux, the organizers always try to the very last not to cancel the festival.

However, the organizing committee had to take radical measures earlier. For the first time, the Cannes Film Festival was to be held in 1939, but it was canceled due to the Second World War. As a result, the review has been held since 1946.

Another non-standard case occurred in 1968. The festival began work on schedule, but a few days later it was closed due to mass protests in France.