The Cannes Film Festival hasn’t even officially started — it opens on May 11 with Woody Allen’s “Café Society,” screening out of competition — and it’s already dominating the perpetually clogged entertainment news cycle. Before a single film has screened, the festival has become the site of a streaming-service battle between Amazon and Netflix, a rush of fear about an increase in security, and a gimmick-film you won’t be able to see again for another 100 years.This is nothing new. If there is one thing that has remained consistent about Cannes throughout its 69-year history, it’s that it provokes arguments like clockwork. From the announcement of the main competition lineup through the awarding of the Palme d’or, there is always heated debate: about what was included, what was left out, and who did and didn’t deserve to win, along with questions about which countries are best represented at the festival and which have been neglected. Now more than ever, there is a debate about the seriousness of the festival. There are also tangential problems: Is Cannes just an excuse for the rich and famous to party and shop? (It sure seems that way.) Should you bring expensive jewelry? (No, you will most likely be robbed.)Despite these problems, Cannes remains a focal point for world cinema. Just as often as it caters to celebrity, it introduces some of the best work of the year from the best filmmakers. There is no way around it. Some years are better than others, and the festival demands more questions than it can answer.Is this the strongest main competition lineup in years?Yes, it certainty seems so. There seems to be a decent balance of main competition regulars — Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne (“The Unknown Girl”), Olivier Assayas (“Personal Shopper”), Jim Jarmusch (“Paterson”), Pedro Almodóvar (“Julieta”), Ken Loach (“I, Daniel Blake”) — and filmmakers who made the deserving leap from sidebars such as Un Certain Regard — Alain Guiraudie (“Staying Vertical”), Cristi Puiu (“Sieranevada”). Others, such as Maren Ade (“Toni Erdmann”) and Kleber Mendonça Filho (“Aquarius”), whose previous films premiered at Berlin and Rotterdam, respectively, are excitingly making their first appearances this year at Cannes.But at the same time there are questionable choices, a more common occurrence in the last decade of the festival. Most notably is Sean Penn, who is in the main competition with his latest directorial effort, “The Last Face.” Penn is a regular at the festival, winning Best Actor for “She’s So Lovely” (1997), appearing in Terence Malick’s Palme d’Or-winning “Tree of Life” (2011), and serving as the president of the main competition jury in 2008. His relationship with the festival, it appears, has more to do with his inclusion than anything else.Who was left out?Rebecca Zlotowski — whose last film, “Grand Central,” was in Un Certain Regard in 2013, and who premiered “Belle Epine” (2010) in the International Critics’ Week section of Cannes before that — was rumored to be making an appearance with her latest film, “Planetarium,” starring Natalie Portman. When the film did not make it to the main competition, many figured it was destined for Un Certain Regard. But it’s not there either. There is talk that the film will be headed to the Venice Film Festival in September.Even more surprising is the omission of Bertrand Bonello. The filmmaker has had six films premiere at Cannes over the years — one in the International Critics’ Week, one if Director’s Fortnight, a short film that premiered out of competition, and three in the main competition — but his latest, “Nocturama,” appears nowhere. Part of this might have to do with the film’s subject, described by Bonello as “young people planting bombs in Paris in the present day.” After the Cannes lineup was released and Bonello was missing, it was announced that “Nocturama” would be screening in the competition of the 64th San Sebastián Film Festival, and I imagine that it will make other festival appearances along the way.Kiyoshi Kurosawa, who won best director in Un Certain Regard in 2015 with “Journey to the Shore” and the Jury Prize in the same section for “Tokyo Sonata” (2008), is also notably absent. Nothing has been announced for his latest, “The Woman in the Silver Plate.” The same goes for João Pedro Rodrigues’s upcoming film, “O Ornitologo.” The filmmaker competed in Un Certain Regard in 2009 with “To Die Like a Man.” Although his latest is nowhere to be found at Cannes, it will definitely appear elsewhere further down the line, most likely at Locarno.Filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese (“Silence”), James Grey (“The Lost City of Z”), and Lucrecia Martel (“Zama”), who were all initially rumored to be included in this year’s festival, are reportedly not far enough along in their post-production to make the festival this year.Are the best films featured in the main competition?Not necessarily. Many people think of Un Certain Regard and Directors’ Fortnight as second tier sidebars, without realizing that many of choices that go into putting together the programs are political (such as the inclusion of Sean Penn in the main competition). Cannes is not a meritocracy — no film festival is. The sidebars and parallel sections of Cannes are often places they put films that, in other years, would have been included in the main competition but could not this year because of space or other reasons. Director’s Fortnight is especially promising this year, with films by Marco Bellocchio (“Sweet Drams”), Paul Schrader (“Dog Eat Dog”), Pablo Larraín (“Neruda”), and Laura Poitras (“Risk”).Looking even deeper, Jim Jarmuch has a second film, a documentary about Iggy Pop and the Stooges called “Gimmie Danger,” included in the Midnight Screenings section, and adventuress filmmakers such as Rithy Panh (“Exile”) and Albert Serra (“Last Days of Louis XIV”) will show new work as special screenings. Other exciting films outside the main competition include Oliver Laxe’s “Mimosas,” screening in the International Critics’ Week, and Nadiv Lapid’s “From the Diary of a Wedding Photographer,” as a special screening in the same section.Is Cannes still important?It depends on what you mean by important. In the scheme of things, no single festival is that important, and a win at Cannes doesn’t mean the same thing it used to. Despite a few recent Palme d’Or winners — Abdellatif Kechiche’s “Blue is the Warmest Color,” Michael Haneke’s “Amour” — that have used their wins to propel them into the dreaded Awards Season, and thus made an impression beyond the festival, the last decade has been plagued by a series of underwhelming wins: Jacques Audiard’s “Dheepan” in 2015, Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s “Winter Sleep” in 2014, Laurent Cantet’s “The Class” in 2008, and Ken Loach’s “The Wind that Shakes the Barley” in 2006 all easily fit that description. But at the same time, the last decade has provided us with Palme d’Or wins for Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives,” maybe the most surprising and deserving win ever, and Cristian Mungiu’s “4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days,” which helped place the New Romanian Cinema on the festival map.Some have complained that in recent years, the winners haven’t made as big on an impact; gone are the days when Quentin Tarantino, Steven Soderbergh, and Jane Campion launched careers out of the festival. But, of course, there is a bit of selective memory in that criticism. The 1990s also include Palme d’Or wins for Bille August’s “The Best Intentions” in 1992 (which competed against the more deserving Arnaud Desplechin’s “La sentinelle,” Terence Davies’ “The Long Day Closes,” David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me,” among others) and Emir Kusturica’s “Underground” in 1995. (Coincidently, Kusturica was said to be making an appearance this year, and then his absence was rumored to be due to his relationship with Vladimir Putin.)The impact, or lack of an impact, of a Cannes-winning film has more to do with the way distribution has changed over the last decade. Something like “Uncle Boonmee” should have had a bigger audience. But the films are out there. If it’s not controversial, as was “Blue Is the Warmest Color,” it won’t get the same attention of the popular press. You might just have to try a little harder to see them.Who’s going to win this year?This is always an impossible task. It depends on the makeup of the jury, which this year is headed by “Mad Max” director George Miller and includes the filmmakers Arnaud Desplechin and László Nemes, and the actors Donald Sutherland, Mads Mikkelsen, and Kirsten Dunst, among others. It’s difficult to say what this all means. I would be thrilled if somebody new like Maren Ade or Alain Guiraudie wins the Palme d’Or, and wouldn’t be disappointed if Jarmusch, a Cannes regular who has never won the award, comes away with a statue. But I have a sneaking suspicion that Xavier Dolan will be awarded in some big way. A wunderkind who Cannes has openly embraced, the trajectory of his appearances at Cannes has been leading to a big win. This might be his year.
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