The general consensus along the Croisette at this year’s Cannes Film Festival was that it felt like a quieter fest than usual: fewer big-name American titles, as festival director Thierry Frémaux himself admitted in his opening-day press conference, and slightly lower-key star wattage. From a critic’s perspective, however, that doesn’t necessarily make for a bad festival, particularly for those willing to dig into the sidebars away from the Competition — which, following last year’s vintage edition that included “It Was Just an Accident,” “Sirāt,” “Sentimental Value,” “The Mastermind” and “The Secret Agent,” was more uneven this time round.
Still, the highs have been high, as modern masters including Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Pawel Pawlikowski, Andrey Zvyagintsev and Valeska Grisebach returned — the latter three after notably long absences to boot — with mighty confirmation of their talents, while revelations away from the spotlight ran the gamut from a Nepalese trans thriller to a queer animated Alzheimer’s tearjerker to a most unexpected heartwarmer from Jordan Firstman that prompted the festival’s most heated bidding war. All that, and a deliciously kinky genre stew cooked up by Jane Schoenbrun with Gillian Anderson: Even in a so-called quiet year, cinema is still showing up loud and proud. Here are the titles that got our team of Cannes critics most excited.
