You can always tell what films Cannes are confident about by how they place the competition titles on their schedule.
Of course, the schedule hasn’t been released yet — I’m hearing this week — but we are being told the prestigious Monday evening slot (5/23) will be occupied by Park Chan-wook’s “Decision to Leave,” and David Cronenberg’s “Crimes of the Future.”
Wednesday May 18th, the first official day of competition titles screening, Kirill Serebrennikov’s “Tchaikovsky’s Wife” & Van Groeningen/Vandermeersch’s “Eight Mountains” will be unveiled.
Jerry Skolimowski’s “Hi-Han” is on Thursday May 19th at 10pm.
On Friday, May 20th, it’s Tarik Saleh’s “Boy From Heaven” and Arnaud Desplechin’s “Brother and Sister.”
Meanwhile, Cristi Mungiu’s “RMN” is set for a Saturday evening splash on May 21st.
Surprisingly, two of the bigger titles will premiere very late in the fest; on Thursday May 26th, Hirokazu Kore-Eda’s “Broker,” and Lukas Dhont’s “Close” will both screen. Plus, there’s an early screening of Albert Serra’s 162 minute competition title. Tough day for the jury.
The last day of the fest, Friday May 27th, Léonor Serraille‘s “Mother and Son” will be screened, that’s when a majority of the press will have already left the Croisette.