International stars are back in Cannes for the 75th edition of the festival, which runs from May 17-28.

After a cancellation in 2020 and a lackluster 2021 edition due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the organizers hope that 2022 will mark the year of the restart, both for the festival and for the cinema industry – hard hit by health restrictions. 

The official selection is made up of 72 films, 21 of which are in the running for the prestigious Palme d'Or, which will be awarded by a jury chaired this year by French actor Vincent Lindon.  

French actor Vincent Lindon, president of the 75th edition of the Cannes Film Festival.

© Eric Gaillard, Reuters

Regulars and newbies in competition

Among the big names in the official competition are the Canadian director David Cronenberg with "The crimes of the future", the French Arnaud Desplechin and Claire Denis, with "Brother and sister" and "Stars at Noon" or even the South Korean Park Chan-wook with "Decision to leave".

Four filmmakers in the running have already won the Palme d'or: the Belgian brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, the Romanian Christian Mungiu, the Japanese Hirokazu Kore-Eda and the Swedish Ruben Östlund. 

A few newcomers have also managed to make their way into the most popular selection.

This is the case of the Iranian director Saeed Roustayi, who had made an impression with "The law of Tehran" (2019), the Swedish-Egyptian director Tarik Saleh, author of the thriller "Le Caire confidential" (2017) or the French Léonor Serraille, winner of the 2017 Camera d'or with "Jeune femme". 

Ukraine, terrorism and colonization

As so often at the Cannes Film Festival, major current issues have a place in the program.

The documentary "Mariupolis 2", by Lithuanian Mantas Kvedaravičius, highlights the life of civilians in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, bombarded by the Russian army.

Its director was arrested and murdered by the Russian army in April.

His fiancée who accompanied him there, Hanna Bilobrova, managed to finish the film and will be present in Cannes to defend it.  

While calls for a cultural boycott against Russia have multiplied in recent months, Kirill Serebrennikov is the only Russian director to have been selected.

A notorious opponent of the Moscow regime, the filmmaker, who is presenting a film about the wife of composer Piotr Tchaikovsky, left his country in March after the outbreak of war.  

Other themes present during this edition: ecology, with the Indian film "All that breathes" (All that breathes), the attacks of 2015 with "November" and "Return to Paris", as well as two historical feature films on the colonial question. 

"Tirailleurs", produced by Omar Sy and presented at the opening of the Un certain Regard section, deals with the fate of the Senegalese sent to the front during the Second World War.

The film "Les Harkis" by Philippe Faucon recounts the life in France of Algerians who had joined the French army during the war of independence. 

Tom Cruise, James Gray and Ethan Coen on the Croisette

Finally, Hollywood stars are not left out.

If James Gray and Kelly Reichardt are the only two American filmmakers among the lucky winners of the competition, the festival will present a world premiere of "Top Gun Maverick", a sequel to the film which launched Tom Cruise's international career in 1986.

For the occasion, the star, invited only once on the Croisette in 1992, will make her comeback.

An installation for the film "Top Gun: Maverick" in front of the Grand Hotel in Cannes.

© Vianney Le Caer, Invision, AP

The director of "Moulin Rouge!"

and "The Great Gatsby", Baz Luhrmann, will present his biopic on Elvis while Ethan Coen will unveil "Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind", his first solo film.  

Cannes Film Festival 2022 © FMM graphic studio

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