The 77th Festival de Cannes will open its doors in two days. In a small survey, we asked Cannes travelers what they expect from this year’s A-festival in the South of France. Wendy Mitchell, journalist, film festival advisor and moderator, takes a look at this year’s edition.
The 77th Festival de Cannes and its Marché are just around the corner. Do you think it will be a good year? Is there a film you are particularly looking forward to?
Wendy Mitchell: I do think it’s going to be a great edition of Cannes. The industry feels really buzzy right now post-pandemic, post-strikes, I feel optimism in the air. The film selection looks really strong, of course the usual Cannes regular auteurs but also so many new voices I look forward to discovering — one of those to mention is “Santosh” by Sandhya Suri, her first fiction feature. I personally concentrate a lot on both UK cinema and cinema of hte Nordics and there are some real strong points from both those areas. Top of my list are Andrea Arnold’s “Bird” and Magnus von Horn’s “The Girl with the Needle”.
What are your expectations and what’s on your schedule?
Wendy Mitchell: Well, because I wear several hats in the industry, much of my time is spent in meetings or moderating some interesting discussions. But as far as films on my MUST-SEE list go I for sure have to see “Bird” as Andrea Arnold and Barry Keoghan working together makes my head explode. I’m always a fan of Runar Runarsson’s poetic cinema so I need to see “When The Light Breaks”. I saw work in progress footage of “The Girl with the Needle” in Goteborg and it looked jaw-droppingly good so that is another at the top of my list. Ali Abbasi meets Donald Trump? Could be a hot mess or a masterpiece. That’s the beauty of Cannes, we don’t know yet! I should also mention that I’m on the Palm Dog jury and it’s already hotting up to be a strong year there – “Dog on Trial” by Laetitia Dosch and “Black Dog” by Guan Hu surely sound like frontrunners.