Three Days to #Cannes2017

Finally today organizers released the names of the jurors in ALL juries! Will stop this post to update main Cannes post will the names. Done.  Please check the jurors as has been a long time since a jury has so many outstanding directors together (!!!) as the short films jury has. Great!

Cannes in Numbers

Even when is not at the official site, let me share some interesting figures from this edition that hope are accurate. After all consideration selected only some that probably have less chance to be wrong, sigh.

-There are 60 films from 36 countries in the Official Selection.  Films were selected from 1,930 entries which is a bit higher than the 1,869 film considered in 2016.  From this total, 19 films are in competition and 18 in the Un Certain Regard competition.

-From the 19 films in competition, four are made by five American directors: Sofia Coppola, Todd Haynes, Noah Baumbach plus Benny Sadfie and Josh Safdie.  There are also four films made by four  French directors: François Ozon, Jacques Doillon, Robin Campillo and Michel Hazanavicius. Then there are two south-Korean directors (Bong Joon-ho, Hong Sang-soo), one Austrian (Michael Haneke), one Brit (Lynne Ramsay), one German-Turkish (Fatih Akin), one Greek (Yorgos Lanthimos), one Hungarian (Kornel Mundruczo), one Japanese (Naomi Kawase), one Russian (Andrei Zvyagintsev), one Swedish (Ruben Ostlund) and one Ukranian (Sergei Loznitsa).  There are three female directors this year, the same as last year.

As many have been saying, the 2017 competition directors lineup is impressive, perhaps one of the best in recent times.  It's not easy to guess which way the Palme d'Or will go as there are too many great filmmakers competing shoulder to shoulder.  If someone asks me, my wish is for Michael Haneke to become the FIRST director to win three Palme d'Or prizes; his body of work highly deserves all kinds of recognition and no-doubt that his latest will blow my mind while exploding my emotions as all his films have done.

But if Haneke doesn't make it, then things complicate as I simply LOVE the body of work of Andrei Zvyagintsev as well as all films (including documentaries) by Sergei Loznitsa, so will not complain if their must-be-seen for me films get the top award.  Still, no complains if Ruben Ostlund, François Ozon, Lynne Ramsay, Fatih Akim, Naomi Kawase or Todd Haynes get the top palm.  So there are high probabilities that I'll be pleased with winners this year (!).

-The selection includes 11 first-films which is 2 up from the 9 last year and 5 up from two years ago.

On the Light side of the Festival de Cannes

There will be some parties while the fest is running and probably will cover a few on day-to-day coverage but the most celebrity-interesting events no doubt will be on the red carpet that this year will have a shower of A-listers from world cinema and well, yes, from Hollywood (!).

So be prepared to see Marion Cotillard and Charlotte Gainsbourg on opening night along Monica Belluci, Jessica Chastain and Uma Thurman.  Also consider the actors, Mathieu Amalric, Louis Garrel, Will Smith, and Reda Kateb.  But if you're a true cinephile surely your excitement level will rise with the incredible amount of film directors that will walk the red carpet on opening night: Pedro Almodovar, Maren Ade, Chan-wook Park, Paolo Sorrentino, Joachim Lafosse, Christian Mungiu, Barry Jenkins, Eric Khoo and Athina Rache Tsangari!!! Fabulous!

But the next days are crowded with great actresses like Juliette Binoche, Isabelle Huppert, Nicole Kidman, Emma Thompson, Julianne Moore, Michelle Williams, Diane Kruger, Jenifer Jason Leigh, Kristen Dunst, Elle Fanning, Elisabeth Moss, Adèle Haenel, Eva Green, Emmanuelle Seigner, Jeanne Balibar, Elena Anaya, Paulina Garcia, Dolores Fonzi, Emma Suarez, Elizabeth Olsen, Céline Sallette, Aishwarya Rai, the now also director, Kristen Stewart and more.  Will not list the men, but yes Colin Farrell will be there as well as Jake Gyllenhaal, my favorite Louis Garrel and many more.

Yes the light and irrelevant comments will come to the day-to-day festival coverage, so if I miss something here will be right there for sure.

The Films Posters

This edition has quite a few very nice posters but my first initial spontaneous reaction is the surprise finding that many are using the color: rose/pink! Yes, there are quite a few posters with the color which suggests some mellow-ness in the graphics of 2017 Cannes films.

As a matter of fact the poster that has called more my attention up-to-today and gets my top award has the color in the most unexpected way. Take a look at the poster of Out by György Kristóf presented at Un Certain Regard.



But no, it's not the only one with the rose/pink color as take a look at the use of color in perhaps the most "macho" photograph from A Prayer Before Dawn by Jean-Stephane Sauvaire presented at Midnight Screenings.  This is truly a contradiction of mellow and violence, but believe the composition becomes very easy for the eye and gets my second place.



There are another two posters that get no award from me but also use the color in more conventional ways, check them.

And there are still more but will include only two with the color use mainly in the letters.

If you wish to check more posters go to my pinterest site here, there are 95 poster pins waiting for you to be seen and perhaps give your own award. Enjoy!!!