2020 Cannes Film Festival
 Special poster of the 73rd Cannes Film Festival featuring date of limited screenings in late October 2020[1] | |
| Location | Cannes, France |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1946 |
| Awards | Palme d'Or |
| Website | festival-cannes |
The 73rd annual Cannes Film Festival was scheduled to take place from 12 to 23 May 2020.[2] On 13 January 2020, Spike Lee was named as the president of the Jury.[3] However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in France, festival management announced on 14 April 2020 that the festival could not be held in its "original form", with alternative means of observing the festival being explored.[4] It was cancelled for the first time since 1968.
Earlier, festival management considered holding the festival in June or July,[5] after not cancelling the event.[6] In mid-March, the festival's main venue, the Grand Auditorium Louis Lumière, was converted into a temporary homeless shelter.[7] In May 2020, it was announced that no physical edition of the festival would take place,[8] but a revised Official Selection of films was confirmed on 3 June 2020.[9][10][11] Before announcing the list of films from the official selection, Thierry Frémaux the director of the Cannes Film Festival, said in an interview that he was talking with Spike Lee and also was hoping to have him as president of the jury on the 2021 edition. He also confirmed that Lee's film Da 5 Bloods was supposed to be the return of Netflix to the red carpet in the Out of Competition category.[12]
In September, organizers announced that a limited outdoor festival, featuring screenings of four official selection films, the short film competition and the Cinéfondation Selection would take place on the Croisette from 27 to 29 October.[13] The Critics' Week program also launched a free online screening of its short film selections in October.[14]
Official sections
[edit]The Official Selection has been divided in sub-categories, as directors or genres, not as competitors.[15][16][17]
The Faithful (or at least selected once before)
[edit]| English title | Original title | Director(s) | Production country |
|---|---|---|---|
| Another Round | Druk | Thomas Vinterberg | Denmark |
| DNA | ADN | Maïwenn | France |
| Forgotten We'll Be | El olvido que seremos | Fernando Trueba | Colombia |
| The French Dispatch | Wes Anderson | United States | |
| Heaven: To the Land of Happiness | 헤븐: 행복의 나라로 | Im Sang-soo | South Korea |
| Home Front | Des hommes | Lucas Belvaux | France, Belgium |
| In the Dusk | Sutemose | Šarūnas Bartas | Lithuania, France, Serbia, Czech Republic, Latvia |
| Last Words | Jonathan Nossiter | France, Italy, United States | |
| Lovers Rock | Steve McQueen | United Kingdom | |
| Mangrove | |||
| Peninsula | 반도 | Yeon Sang-ho | South Korea |
| The Real Thing | 本気のしるし | Kōji Fukada | Japan |
| Summer of 85 | Été 85 | François Ozon | France |
| True Mothers | 朝が来る | Naomi Kawase | Japan |
The Newcomers
[edit]| English title | Original title | Director(s) | Production country |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ammonite | Francis Lee | United Kingdom, Australia | |
| Enfant Terrible | Oskar Roehler | Germany | |
| February | Février | Kamen Kalev | Bulgaria, France |
| A Good Man | Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar | France, Belgium | |
| Here We Are | הנה אנחנו | Nir Bergman | Israel, Italy |
| Limbo | Ben Sharrock | United Kingdom | |
| Love Affair(s) | Les Choses qu'on dit, les choses qu'on fait | Emmanuel Mouret | France |
| Nadia, Butterfly | Pascal Plante | Canada | |
| The Night Doctor | Médecin de nuit | Elie Wajeman | France |
| Red Soil | Rouge | Farid Bentoumi | France, Belgium |
| Simple Passion | Passion simple | Danielle Arbid | |
| Souad | سعاد | Ayten Amin | Egypt |
| Sweat | Magnus von Horn | Sweden, Poland | |
| Teddy | Ludovic and Zoran Boukherma | France | |
Omnibus Film
[edit]| English title | Original title | Director(s) | Production country |
|---|---|---|---|
| Septet: The Story of Hong Kong | 七人樂隊 | Sammo Hung, Ann Hui, Patrick Tam, Yuen Woo-ping, Johnnie To, Ringo Lam, Tsui Hark | Hong Kong |
The First Features
[edit]| English title | Original title | Director(s) | Production country |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beginning | დასაწყისი | Déa Kulumbegashvili | Georgia |
| Broken Keys | Jimmy Keyrouz | Lebanon, United States, France, Cyprus | |
| The Death of Cinema and my Father Too | Dani Rosenberg | Israel | |
| Falling | Viggo Mortensen | United States, United Kingdom, Canada | |
| Gagarine | Fanny Liatard, Jérémy Trouilh | France | |
| Ibrahim | Samir Guesmi | ||
| John and the Hole | Pascual Sisto | United States | |
| Memory House | Casa de Antiguidades | João Paulo Miranda Maria | Brazil, France |
| My Best Part | Garçon chiffon | Nicolas Maury | France |
| Pleasure | Ninja Thyberg | Sweden, Netherlands, France | |
| Should the Wind Drop (Presented with the ACID parallel section) | Si le vent tombe | Nora Martirosyan | France, Belgium, Armenia |
| Slalom | Charlène Favier | France | |
| Spring Blossom | Seize printemps | Suzanne Lindon | |
| Striding Into the Wind | 野馬分鬃 | Wei Shujun | China |
| Vaurien | Peter Dourountzis | France | |
Documentary Films
[edit]| English title | Original title | Director(s) | Production country |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9 Days at Raqqa | 9 Jours à Raqqa | Xavier de Lauzanne | France |
| Downstream to Kinshasa | En route pour le milliard | Dieudo Hamadi | Congo, Belgium, France |
| The Truffle Hunters | Michael Dweck, Gregory Kershaw | United States, Italy, Greece | |
Comedy Films
[edit]| English title | Original title | Director(s) | Production country |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Big Hit | Un triomphe | Emmanuel Courcol | France |
| Dear Mother | L'Origine du monde (First feature film) | Laurent Lafitte | |
| French Tech | Les deux Alfred | Bruno Podalydès | |
| My Donkey, My Lover & I | Antoinette dans les Cévènnes | Caroline Vignal | |
| The Speech | Le Discours | Laurent Tirard |
Animated Films
[edit]| English title | Original title | Director(s) | Production country |
|---|---|---|---|
| Earwig and the Witch | アーヤと魔女 | Gorō Miyazaki | Japan |
| Flee | Jonas Poher Rasmussen | Denmark, France, Sweden, Norway | |
| Josep (First feature film) | Aurel | France | |
| Soul | Pete Docter | United States | |
Short Films Competition
[edit]The films selected for the short film competition were announced on 19 June, a few weeks after the rest of the official selections.[18] Despite the cancellation of the overall festival, the short films were announced with an indication that the competition would still proceed in the fall, with the exact dates and jury members to be named at a later date; in September, it was announced that the short films would be screened as part of the special outdoor screening series on the Croisette in October.[13]
At the end of the Croisette screening series, the Short Film Palme d'Or was awarded to Sameh Alaa for the film I Am Afraid to Forget Your Face.[19]
| English title | Original title | Director(s) | Production country |
|---|---|---|---|
| Benjamin, Benny, Ben | Paul Shkordoff | Canada | |
| Blue Fear | Filles bleue, peur blanche | Marie Jacotey, Lola Halifa-Legrand | France |
| Camille, Contactless | Camille sans contact | Paul Nouhet | |
| David | Zach Woods | United States | |
| I Am Afraid to Forget Your Face | ستاشر | Sameh Alaa | Egypt, France, Belgium, Qatar |
| The Lamb of God | O Cordeiro de Deus | David Pinheiro Vicente | Portugal, France |
| Motorway65 | Evi Kalogiropoulou | Greece | |
| Mountain Cat | Shiluus | Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir | Mongolia, United Kingdom |
| Son of Sodom | Theo Montoya | Colombia, Argentina | |
| Stéphanie | Leonardo Van Dijl | Belgium | |
| Sudden Light | Sophie Littman | United Kingdom | |
The Short Films and Cinéfondation Jury composed of Damien Bonnard, Rachid Bouchareb, Claire Burger, Charles Gillibert, Dea Kulumbegashvili and Céline Sallette, has awarded the 2020 Prizes of the Cinéfondation film school competition on 28 October 2020 on the stage of the Grand Théâtre Lumière as part of “Cannes 2020 Special”. The First Prize was awarded to Ashmita Guha Neogi for the film Catdog, the Second Prize was awarded to Yelyzaveta Pysmak for the film My Fat Arse and I and the Joint Third Prize was awarded to Lucia Chicos for Contraindications and Elsa Rosengren for I Want to Return Return Return.[20]
| English title | Original title | Director(s) | Production country |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agapé | Márk Beleznai | Hungary | |
| Carcass | Carcasse | Timothée Maubrey | France |
| Catdog | Ashmita Guha Neogi | India | |
| Contraindications | Contraindicatii | Lucia Chicos | Romania |
| Corte | Afonso Rapazote, Bernardo Rapazote | Portugal | |
| The Last Ferry From Grass Island | Dou Zeoi Gu Si | Zhang Linhan | Hong Kong, United States |
| When We Leave | En Avant | Mitchelle Tamariz | France |
| I Want To Return Return Return | Elsa Rosengren | Germany | |
| My Fat Arse And I | Ja i moja gruba dupa | Yelyzaveta Pysmak | Poland, Ukraine |
| Bird's Song | Le chant de l'oiseau | Sarah Imsand | Switzerland |
| Cinese Wall | Muralla China | Santiago Barzi | Argentina |
| Neurim | Shaylee Atary | Israel | |
| Nobody Said I Have to Love You | Nihče ni rekel, da te moram imeti rad | Matjaž Jamnik | Slovenia |
| Pile | Toby Auberg | United Kingdom | |
| Twenty | Seonginsik | Kim Min-Ju | South Korea |
| Taipei Suicide Story | KEFF | Taiwan | |
| Tamou | Tzor Edery, Tom Prezman | Israel | |
Cannes Classics
[edit]The full line-up for the Cannes Classics section was announced on 17 July 2020.[21]
| English title | Original title | Director(s) | Production country |
|---|---|---|---|
| Restorations | |||
| In the Mood for Love (2000) | 花樣年華 | Wong Kar-Wai | Hong Kong |
| Friendship's Death (1987) | Peter Wollen | United Kingdom | |
| The Story of a Three-Day Pass (1967) | La Permission | Melvin Van Peebles | France |
| July Rain (1966) | Июльский дождь | Marlen Khutsiev | Soviet Union |
| Quand les femmes ont pris la colère (1977) | Soizick Chappedelaine, René Vautier | France | |
| Get Out Your Handkerchiefs (1978) | Préparez vos mouchoirs | Bertrand Blier | |
| Hester Street (1973) | Joan Micklin Silver | United States | |
| Who’s Singing Over There? (1980) | Ko to tamo peva | Slobodan Šijan | Yugoslavia |
| Black Silk (1961) | แพรดำ | R.D. Pestonji | Thailand |
| New Year Sacrifice (1956) | 祝福 | Hu Sang | China |
| Upthrown Stone (1968) | Feldobott kő | Sándor Sára | Hungary |
| Neige (1981) | Juliet Berto, Jean-Henri Roger | France | |
| The Wasps Are Here (1978) | බඹරු ඇවිත් | Dharmasena Pathiraja | Sri Lanka |
| This is My Country (1984) | Bayan ko: Kapit sa patalim | Lino Brocka | Philippines |
| La Poupée (1962) | Jacques Baratier | France | |
| The Hourglass Sanatorium (1973) | Sanatorium pod klepsydrą | Wojciech Has | Poland |
| America as Seen by a Frenchman (1959) | L'Amérique insolite | François Reichenbach | France |
| The Ninth Circle (1960) | Девети круг | France Štiglic | Yugoslavia |
| Muhammad Ali the Greatest (1974) | William Klein | France | |
| Martin Scorsese’s The Film Foundation celebrate its 30th birthday | |||
| Accattone (1961) | Pier Paolo Pasolini | Italy | |
| The Chess Game of the Wind (1976) | شطرنج باد | Mohammad Reza Aslani | Iran |
| Federico 100 | |||
| La strada (1956) | Federico Fellini | Italy | |
| Variety Lights (1950) | Luci del varietà | Alberto Lattuada, Federico Fellini | |
| Fellini of the Spirits | Anselma dell’Olio | Italy, Belgium | |
| À Bout de souffle and L’Avventura turn 60 | |||
| Breathless (1960) | À bout de souffle | Jean-Luc Godard | France |
| The Adventure (1960) | L'Avventura | Michelangelo Antonioni | Italy |
| Documentaries 2020 | |||
| Wim Wenders, Desperado | Eric Friedler, Andreas Frege | Germany | |
| Alida Valli: In Her Own Words | Mimmo Verdesca | Italy | |
| Charlie Chaplin, The Genius of Liberty | Charlie Chaplin, le génie de la liberté | François Aymé, Yves Jeuland | France |
| Be Water | Bao Nguyen | United States | |
| Belushi | R.J. Cutler | ||
| Antena da raça | Paloma Rocha, Luís Abramo | Brazil | |
Independent sections
[edit]Critics' Week
[edit]The following films have received a special and official label, delivered by the Critics' Week:
| English title | Original title | Director(s) | Production country |
|---|---|---|---|
| Features | |||
| After Love | Aleem Khan | United Kingdom, France | |
| Gold for Dogs | De l'or pour les chiens | Anna Cazenave Cambet | France |
| The Swarm | La Nuée | Just Philippot | |
| Skies of Lebanon | Sous le ciel d'Alice | Chloé Mazlo | |
| Beasts | La Terre des hommes | Naël Marandin | |
| Short Films | |||
| August 22, This Year | Graham Foy | Canada | |
| Dustin | Naïla Guiguet | France | |
| Foreigner | Forastera | Lucía Aleñar Iglesias | Spain |
| Good Thanks, You? | Molly Manning Walker | United Kingdom | |
| Humongous! | とてつもなく大きな | Aya Kazawoe | Japan |
| Maalbeek | Ismaël Joffroy Chandoutis | France | |
| Marlon Brando | Vincent Tilanus | Netherlands | |
| Menarche | Menarca | Lillah Halla | Brazil |
| Towards Evening | Axşama doğru | Teymur Hajiyev | Azerbaijan |
| White Goldfish | Jan Roossens, Raf Roossens | Belgium | |
A full Directors' Fortnight selection could not be announced due to it being incomplete when the festival was cancelled. However, two titles were announced in July 2020 so that they could utilize the Director's Fortnight label.[22]
| English title | Original title | Director(s) | Production country |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kajillionaire | Miranda July | United States | |
| We Are Who We Are | Luca Guadagnino | United States, Italy | |
ACID
[edit]The following films have received a special and official label, delivered by the ACID (Association for the Distribution of Independent Cinema).
| English title | Original title | Director(s) | Production country |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coalesce | Les affluents | Jessé Miceli | Cambodia, France |
| Tightrope Walkers | Funambules | Ilan Klipper | France |
| The Seeds We Sow | Les Graines que l'on sème | Nathan Nicholovitch | |
| Il Mio Corpo | Michele Pennetta | Switzerland, Italy | |
| The Last Hillbilly | Diane Sara Bouzgarrou, Thomas Jenkoe | France, Qatar | |
| Far From You I Grew | Loin de vous j'ai grandi | Marie Dumora | France |
| Should the Wind Drop (Presented with Cannes Film Festival's Official Selection) | Si le vent tombe | Nora Martirosyan | France, Belgium, Armenia |
| Last Days of Spring | La Última Primavera | Isabel Lamberti | Netherlands, Spain |
| Walden | Bojena Horackova | France, Lithuania | |
The ACID Trip #4 program, which should have been dedicated to young Chilean cinema, has been postponed to the next edition, in 2021.
References
[edit]- ^ "Cannes 2020 Is Back! Canceled Festival Is Revived With An October "Special" Event". Archived from the original on 30 January 2021. Retrieved 15 May 2021.
- ^ "Cannes Film Festival Sets Dates for 2020". Variety. 14 June 2019. Archived from the original on 13 June 2020. Retrieved 19 December 2019.
- ^ "Spike Lee Makes History as Cannes Film Festival 2020 Jury President". IndieWire. 14 January 2020. Archived from the original on 8 April 2020. Retrieved 14 January 2020.
- ^ "Cannes film festival says 2020 edition cannot go ahead 'in original form'". The Guardian. 14 April 2020. Archived from the original on 3 June 2020. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
- ^ "Cannes Jury President Spike Lee Responds to Festival Postponement". Variety. 19 March 2020. Archived from the original on 22 June 2020. Retrieved 20 March 2020.
- ^ Stolworthy, Jacob (14 March 2020). "Cannes Film Festival update: Event not cancelled but unlikely to take place, according to insider". The Independent. Archived from the original on 15 March 2020. Retrieved 15 March 2020.
- ^ "Cannes opens its doors to homeless after coronavirus delays film festival". Reuters. 24 March 2020. Archived from the original on 15 June 2020. Retrieved 26 March 2020.
- ^ "Cannes Rules Out Physical Edition For Now, Will Host Screenings at Fall Festivals". Variety. 10 May 2020. Archived from the original on 18 June 2020. Retrieved 10 May 2020.
- ^ "Cannes Will Announce Official Selection in June, but There'll Be No Physical Edition This Year". IndieWire. 10 May 2020. Archived from the original on 4 June 2020. Retrieved 10 May 2020.
- ^ Buchanan, Kyle; Dargis, Manohla; Scott, A. O. (12 May 2020). "What Do We Lose When Cannes Is Canceled?". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 3 June 2020. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
- ^ "73 Cannes Film Festival Official Selection to Be Announced". Ikon London Magazine. 28 May 2020. Archived from the original on 3 June 2020. Retrieved 28 May 2020.
- ^ "Thierry Frémaux talks Cannes 2020 Official Selection plans, saving cinema, and Spike Lee's return (exclusive)". Screen Daily Magazine. Archived from the original on 18 June 2020. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
- ^ a b Manori Ravindran, "Cannes Film Festival Plans Three-Day Special Event in October" Archived 1 October 2020 at the Wayback Machine. Variety, 28 September 2020.
- ^ "Festival Scope presents the 2020 Critics' Week short films online" Archived 24 October 2020 at the Wayback Machine. Cineuropa, 22 October 2020.
- ^ "Cannes Film Festival Reveals 2020 Lineup: Wes Anderson, Steve McQueen, Kate Winslet & Pixar". Deadline. 3 June 2020. Archived from the original on 3 June 2020. Retrieved 4 June 2020.
- ^ "Cannes selects lineup for 2020 edition after 'physical' festival shelved". The Guardian. 3 June 2020. Archived from the original on 3 June 2020. Retrieved 4 June 2020.
- ^ "The films of the Official Selection 2020". Cannes. 3 June 2020. Archived from the original on 4 June 2020. Retrieved 5 June 2020.
- ^ Fabien Lemercier, "The short films vying for the Palme d’Or at Cannes unveiled" Archived 30 September 2020 at the Wayback Machine. Cineuropa, 19 June 2020.
- ^ "Egyptian film wins a Golden Palm at the 2020 Cannes Film Festival" Archived 1 November 2020 at the Wayback Machine. Egypt Independent, October 30, 2020.
- ^ Fabien Lemercier, "The short film Palme d’Or goes to I Am Afraid To Forget Your Face" Archived 14 May 2023 at the Wayback Machine. Cineuropa, 30 October 2020.
- ^ "Cannes Classics 2020". Festival de Cannes. 17 July 2020. Archived from the original on 30 July 2020. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
- ^ "Cannes Directors' Fortnight reveals two titles selected for its cancelled 2020 edition". ScreenDaily. Archived from the original on 31 October 2020. Retrieved 27 October 2020.
External links
[edit]- 2020 controversies
- Film controversies
- Obscenity controversies in film
- Political controversies in film
- Controversies in France
- 2020 in film
- Mass media and entertainment controversies
- 2020 film festivals
- 2020 in French cinema
- Cannes Film Festival
- Festivals cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic
- Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cinema