Cannes Film Festival 2023: bets are open before the announcement of the selection on Thursday

Europe 1 with AFP 11:07 am, April 10, 2023

Margot Robbie, Tom Hanks and Scarlett Johansson at Wes Anderson? A series with Lily-Rose Depp and music star The Weeknd? Woody Allen's controversial comeback? Bets are open ahead of Thursday's announcement of the selection for the 76th Cannes Film Festival.

Monuments of cinema will be present

One month before the start of the race for the Palme d'Or, General Delegate Thierry Frémaux will unveil the names of the elected officials from 11:00 am, in a cinema on the Champs-Elysées. The 76th edition (May 16 to 27) has already secured the presence of cinema monuments, starting with Martin Scorsese, with his film-river Killers of the Flower Moon, and his favorite actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert de Niro.

Harrison Ford will climb the stairs

And, after Tom Cruise last year for Top Gun, another blockbuster veteran, Harrison Ford, will climb the steps, whip in hand, for the 5th installment of the saga, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.

The Return of Johnny Depp

Cannes will also see a great return that will not fail to spill ink, that of Johnny Depp, after the legal soap opera that opposed him to his former wife Amber Heard, against a background of accusations of domestic violence and mutual accusations of defamation, paid at millions of dollars.

The former "pirate of the Caribbean" was chosen by French actress and director Maïwenn to play Louis XV in Jeanne du Barry, screened at the opening of the festival.

Wes Anderson, a regular on the Croisette, is approached. After The French Dispatch, he once again brought together a procession of stars, from Tilda Swinton to Adrien Brody and Tom Hanks, for Asteroid City.

Pedro Almodovar will probably also be there, with Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal, the actor of the series The last of us. The Spaniard has offered himself these two stars for a short film that he envisions as a "queer western".

The place of female directors will be scrutinized

The suspense remains when the rest of the selection, between big names of the 7th art, such as Hirokazu Kore-eda, Aki Kaurismäki or Ken Loach, rising stars, from Justine Triet to Alice Rohrwacher, and films that have been fueling the buzz for months, such as the candy pink Barbie with Margot Robbie, and Ryan Gosling as Ken.

The place of female directors in the official selection and competition, always very much in the minority, will be scrutinized, as will that of diversity. And the question of the fate of artists targeted by accusations of sexual violence continues to hover.

Could Woody Allen be selected for his 50th film?

Thierry Frémaux seemed to dismiss, in an interview with Variety, a presence of Roman Polanski's latest film, shot in Switzerland, and which would not be ready anyway.

Could Woody Allen be selected for his 50th film, the first shot in French? The 87-year-old filmmaker saw almost the entire industry turn its back on him when his adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow, accused him of sexually assaulting her as a child. Woody Allen denies these accusations for which neither of the two investigations launched has been successful.

In terms of feature films, Cannes distinguishes itself from other major festivals by accepting in competition only films released in cinemas in France, before being put online. Netflix still refuses to comply with the rule, shunning Cannes for the Venice Film Festival. But a return to grace of dark theaters could begin: Apple TV + is now partnering with majors to release on the big screen its most iconic films, such as the next Scorsese or Ridley Scott's Napoleon.