The annual Cannes Film Festival is under way, with some of the world’s biggest directors and performers unveiling their work to an international audience for the first time. We’ve rounded up some of the most high-profile full-length features being screened this year. Warning: there’s a lot of Nicole Kidman, who appears in no fewer than four projects.
The Beguiled – directed by Sofia Coppola
Who: Nicole Kidman, Elle Fanning, Kirsten Dunst
What: The second screen adaptation of Thomas P. Cullinan’s novel after Clint Eastwood’s take in 1971, the film takes place during the American Civil War and sees an injured Union soldier (Colin Farrell) taking refuge at a girls’ boarding school.
Les Fantômes d'Ismaël – directed by Arnaud Desplechin
Who: Marion Cotillard, Charlotte Gainsbourg
What: Typically navel-gazing French flick about a filmmaker (Louis Garrel) whose life is upended when his ex-wife, who vanished 20 years ago, returns.
Okja – directed by Bong Joon Ho
Who: Tilda Swinton, Lily Collins
What: A modern fantasy story about a hippo-like creature who is captured by a ruthless corporation and who must then be rescued by its friend Mija, a young human girl.
Redoubtable – directed by Michel Hazanavicius
Who: Stacy Martin, Berenice Bejo
What: Based on the books written by Jean-Luc Godard’s second wife, Redoubtable depicts a particularly turbulent period in the director’s life during the late 60s.
Wonderstruck – directed by Todd Haynes
Who: Julianne Moore, Michelle Williams
What: Brian Selznick’s Y.A. novel gets the cinematic treatment. Wonderstruck is a double narrative about two hearing-impaired children growing up in different eras.
The Killing of a Sacred Deer – directed by Yorgos Lathimos
Who: Nicole Kidman
What: A psychological horror film starring Kidman stars as the wife of a surgeon (Colin Farrell, also her co-star in The Beguiled) whose ward begins exhibiting unusual and sinister behaviour.
How to Talk to Girls at Parties – directed by John Cameron Mitchell
Who: Elle Fanning, Nicole Kidman
What: Based on a Neil Gaiman short story set in the ‘70s, the film follows two teenaged boys at a party as they pursue three girls — exchange students — who are not what they seem at first glance.
