Sadly I won't be headed to the Rivera this year — most likely I will cover Cannes next year — but from the selection, 2019 looks like an off year for the festival anyway. Critics who attend Cannes every year like to hypothesize that Cannes flip-flops annually between good and bad years.
I will, however, be filing notes on this year's festival from my NYC location. However thin this year's offerings, there are some filmmakers whose efforts are promising. Jim Jarmusch, Elia Suleiman, Arnaud Desplechin, Bong Joon-Ho, Céline Sciamma, Jessica Hausner, Karim Aïnouz, Kantemir Balagov, Ken Loach, Marco Bellocchio, Ira Sachs, Annie Silverstein, Corneliu Porumboiu, Nicolas Bedos, Asif Kapadia, Claude Lelouch, Werner Herzog, Lee Won-Tae, Bruno Dumont, Midi Z, Christophe Honoré, Mounia Meddour, Danielle Lessovitz, Mati Diop, Justine Triet, Pippa Bianco, and Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne have movies I'd go out of my way to see at the festival.
I typically see about 28 films during the festival, so the above list would be doable regardless of how daunting it might seem.
My skip-it list would include films from Terrence Malick, Xavier Dolan, Pedro Almodóvar, and Nicolas Winding Refn (because 10 television episodes do not a "film" make).
My guilty-pleasure pick would be Dexter Fletcher’s Elton John biopic "Rocketman," even though another rock star biopic seems redundant. I'm just curious to see what The Strypes bandmates broke up the best touring rock band to do with their talents.
Cannes Official Selection
Competition Films
The Dead Don’t Die (dir: Jim Jarmusch) – opening film
Atlantique (dir: Mati Diop)
Bacarau (dir: Kleber Mendonça Filho & Juliano Dornelles)
Frankie (dir: Ira Sachs)
A Hidden Life (dir: Terrence Malick)
It Must Be Heaven (dir: Elia Suleiman)
Les Misérables (dir: Ladj Ly)
Little Joe (dir: Jessica Hausner)
Matthias and Maxime (dir: Xavier Dolan)
Oh Mercy! (dir: Arnaud Desplechin)
Parasite (dir: Bong Joon-ho)
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (dir: Céline Sciamma)
Sibyl (dir: Justine Triet)
Sorry We Missed You (dir: Ken Loach)
Pain and Glory (dir: Pedro Almodóvar)
The Traitor (dir: Marco Bellocchio)
La Gomera (dir: Corneliu Porumboiu)
The Wild Goose Lake (dir: Diao Yinan)
The Young Ahmed (dir: Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne)
Un Certain Regard
Adam (dir: Maryam Touzani)
Dylda (dir: Kantemir Balagov
)A Brother’s Love (dir: Monia Chokri)
Bull (dir: Annie Silverstein
)The Climb (dir: Michael Covino)
Evge (dir: Nariman Aliev)
Liberté (dir: Albert Serra)
Invisible Life (dir: Karim Aïnouz
)Jeanne (dir: Bruno Dumont
)Room 212 (dir: Christophe Honoré
)Papicha (dir: Mounia Meddour)
Port Authority (dir: Danielle Lessovitz
)Summer of Changsha (dir: Zu Feng)
The Swallows of Kabul (dir: Zabou Breitman & Eléa Gobé Mévellec)
A Sun That Never Sets (dir: Olivier Laxe)
Zhuo Ren Mi Mi (dir: Midi Z
)Out of Competition
The Best Years of a Life (dir: Claude Lelouch
)Diego Maradona (dir: Asif Kapadia
)La Belle Époque (dir: Nicolas Bedos
)Rocketman (dir: Dexter Fletcher)
Too Old to Die Young – North of Hollywood, West of Hell (TV series – dir: Nicolas Winding Refn)
Midnight Screenings
The Gangster, the Cop, the Devil (dir: Lee Won-Tae)
Special Screenings
Family Romance, LLC (dir: Werner Herzog)
For Sama (dir: Waad Al Kateab, Edward Watts)
Que Sea Ley (dir: Juan Solanas)
Share (dir: Pippa Bianco)
To Be Alive and Know It (dir: Alain Cavalier)
Tommaso (dir: Abel Ferrara)
