Cannes 2023: Selections announced today – Indian director Anurag Kashyap – ‘Kennedy’ gets midnight screening slot

It will be the 76th edition of the Cannes Film Festival from May 16-27; Indian jury presence for sidebar programme…

INDIA’s most successful film director Anurag Kashyap – in terms of the numbers films he has screened at the Cannes Film Festival – returns for the latest edition.

Not too much is known about the prolific Anurag Kashyap’s latest film, ‘Kennedy’ to hit Cannes.

At the moment, we know the film features actors Rahul Bhatt (who appeared in another Cannes film, ‘Ugly’ in 2013) and former adult film star Canadian-born Indian origin, Sunny Leone.

The film also reportedly features music by Alokananda, daughter of the late great Bengali filmmaker, Buddhadeb Dasgupta.

She originally wrote the French sounding music for a chase scene in one of her father’s films but it didn’t work and has now been re-purposed for Kashyap’s ‘Kennedy’.

Kayshap told www.asianculturevulture.com in Cannes 2016 that he had had 10 films he has either produced or directed, screened at the Cannes Film Festival. (See this interview – https://youtu.be/v6vBCfGHs50)

Among his previous films at Cannes include ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’ (I&II); ‘Udaan’, ‘The Lunchbox’; ‘Bombay Talkies’; ‘Ugly’; ‘Masaan’; ‘Raman Raghav’.

Some films will be added in the coming days to this selection but the main programme was announced by Cannes Film Festival director Thierry Frémaux, alongside new Cannes Film Festival President Iris Knobloch this morning (10am BST) in Paris.

Other notable Cannes selections include:
🎥 A film from Mongolia – Zoljargal Purevdash’s ‘If Only I Could Hibernate’
🎥 Steve McQueen (’12 Years a Slave’) documentary film, ‘Occupied City’ about the Second World II period when the Dutch capital was under Nazi occupation. McQueen’s wife is Dutch and the family divides their time between Amsterdam and London. McQueen’s art film, ‘Grenfell’ and art work are on display at Serpentine Gallery South now.
🎥 Ken Loach, a regular at Cannes, will screen his new film ‘The Old Oak’. It is set in Wales and charts familiar territory intimated Cannes Film Festival director Thierry Frémaux in his customary Cannes Film Festival full(ish) unveiling this morning from Paris.
🎥 Another British director Jonathan Glazer will present his ‘The Zone of Interest’, based on the novel of the same name by celebrated novelist, Martin Amis. The story is set in the Second World II Auschwitz concentration camp (in Poland) and deals with an affair between two people who are involved in running the concentration camp.

Other Asian filmmakers include (in Competition)

🎥 Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Turkey) ‘About Dry Grasses’
🎥 Kore-eda Hirokazu (Japan) ‘Monster’
🎥 Tran Anh Hung (French- Vietnamese) ‘The Passion of Dodin Bouffant’
🎥 Wang Bing (Chinese) ‘Jeunesse’

The festival will officially open on May 16 with the film, ‘Jeanne du Barry’ directed by Maïwenn and starring Johnny Depp. French director screenwriter and producer Maïwenn will appear alongside Depp in the title role – as an intelligent, cultured and astute working class woman works he way into the court of King Louis XV (Depp) and becomes his favourite. The film will release across theatres on the same day in France.

The other films already announced to be screening at the festival and outside the Competition include Martin Scorsese’s ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’; Harrison Ford reprising his role in the ‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’ in which ‘Fleabag’ creator and actor Phoebe Waller-Bridge has a role as Jones’ goddaughter.

Last year’s Palme d’Or winner Ruben Östlund, the director of ‘Triangle of Sadness’ returns as chair of the Competition Jury.

The Midnight Screening slot granted to ‘Kennedy’ is prestigious, while not carrying the overt seriousness of a film in selection or competition. Few Indian films even in recent times have made it into the most prestigious part of the festival, which is the main Competition section.

Several Indian films have made it into the Un Certain Regard category – which is one down from the Competition – in recent times.

These films have more casual red carpet world premieres and are screened in the Debussy Theatre and not The Grand Lumiere where the main Competition features unspool and have full-on red carpet gala screenings.

Many debut or second film directors make it into the Un Certain Regard section and there are many from the around the world screening in this year’s, 76th Cannes Film Festival.

There are two other official sidebar categories – Directors’ Fortnight – Quinzaine Des Realisateurs – and international Critics Week – Semaine de la Critique.

It was announced yesterday (April 12) that Indian film journalist and curator Meenakshi Shedde is among the jury members for Semaine. A film programming consultant for the Berlin Film Festival, she has also curated Indian films for the BFI in recent times. This jury is chaired by French journalist, editor and screenwriter Audrey Diwan. The other jury members are well-known Sundance Film Festival programmer, Kim Yutani; Portuguese director of photography, Rui Pocas; German actor, choreographer and dancer Franz Rogowski.

Films in the Competition section

CLUB ZERO by Jessica HAUSNER
THE ZONE OF INTEREST by Jonathan GLAZER
FALLEN LEAVES by Aki KAURISMAKI
LES FILLES D’OLFA by Kaouther BEN HANIA
(FOUR DAUGHTERS)
ASTEROID CITY by Wes ANDERSON
ANATOMIE D’UNE CHUTE by Justine TRIET
MONSTER by KORE-EDA Hirokazu
IL SOL DELL’ AVVENIRE by Nanni MORETTI
L’ÉTÉ DERNIER by Catherine BREILLAT
KURU OTLAR USTUNE by Nuri Bilge CEYLAN
(ABOUT DRY GRASSES)
LA CHIMERA by Alice ROHRWACHER
LA PASSION DE DODIN BOUFFANT by TRAN Anh Hun
RAPITO by Marco BELLOCCHIO
MAY DECEMBER by Todd HAYNES
JEUNESSE by WANG Bing
THE OLD OAK by Ken LOACH
BANEL E ADAMA by Ramata-Toulaye SY | 1st film
PERFECT DAYS by Wim WENDERS
FIREBRAND by Karim AÏNOUZ

Films in the Un Certain Regard Section

LE RÈGNE ANIMAL by Thomas CAILLEY – Opening Film
LOS DELINCUENTES by Rodrigo MORENO
(THE DELINQUENTS)
HOW TO HAVE SEX by Molly MANNING WALKER – 1st film
GOODBYE JULIA by Mohamed KORDOFANI – 1st film
KADIB ABYAD by Asmae EL MOUDIR
(THE MOTHER OF ALL LIES)
SIMPLE COMME SYLVAIN by Monia CHOKRI
CROWRÃ by João SALAVIZA, Renée NADER MESSORA
(THE BURITI FLOWER)
LOS COLONOS by Felipe GÁLVEZ – 1st film
(THE SETTLERS)
OMEN by Baloji TSHIANI – 1st film
THE BREAKING ICE by Anthony CHEN
ROSALIE by Stéphanie DI GIUSTO
THE NEW BOY by Warwick THORNTON
IF ONLY I COULD HIBERNATE by Zoljargal PUREVDASH – 1st film
HOPELESS by KIM Chang-hoon – 1st film
TERRESTRIAL VERSES by Ali ASGARI, Alireza KHATAMI
RIEN À PERDRE by Delphine DELOGET – 1st film
LES MEUTES by Kamal LAZRAQ – 1st film

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