Cannes Adds Films Starring Sean Penn and Viggo Mortensen to 2023 Lineup

Ryan Lattanzio
·2 min read
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The 2023 Cannes Film Festival, taking place May 16 — 27, has added an array of new titles to its already eagerly anticipated Official Selection: Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire’s “Black Flies” starring Sean Penn and in competition; Catherine Corsini’s “Le Retour,” upping the lineup’s record total of seven female directors in competition; Amat Escalante’s Mexican drama “Perdidos en la Noche”; and Lisandro Alonso’s thriller “Eureka,” starring Viggo Mortensen and José María Yazpik.

Alonso and Mortensen previously collaborated on 2014’s “Jauja,” which premiered in the festival’s Un Certain Regard and won its top honor, the FIPRESCI Prize. “Perdidos en la Noche” and “Eureka” will play in the non-competitive Cannes Premiere section.

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Additional titles added on Monday include an Out of Competition screening of Frédéric Tellier’s “L’Abbé Pierre – Une Vie de Combats”; Un Certain Regard titles “Only the River Flows” from Wei Shujun and “Une Nuit” from Alex Lutz; Special Screenings including Mona Achache’s “Little Girl Blue,” Sahra Mani’s “Bread and Roses,” and Anna Novion’s “La Théorème de Marguerite”; and Midnight entries from Robert Rodriguez (“Hypnotic”) and Kim Tae-gon (“Project Silence”).

The late-breaking additions join previously announced buzzy out-of-competition titles, including Maïwenn’s festival opener “Jeanne du Barry,” controversial for its star Johnny Depp and an assault lawsuit in the works against the director; “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny”; Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon,” which festival director Thierry Fremaux hopes will join the competition now that its theatrical release window from Apple makes it eligible; and HBO’s “The Idol” series from Sam Levinson and The Weeknd.

The competition section also boasts plenty of titles of note, including new films from Wes Anderson, Jonathan Glazer, Todd Haynes, Aki Kaurismaki, Jessica Hausner, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Nanni Moretti, Alice Rohrwacher, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Catherine Breillat, Wim Wenders, Wang Bing, and Ken Loach. This year’s competition lineup already included a record number of films from female filmmakers before today’s addition, which further raises the total number of female-directed films to unprecedented levels.

Two-time Palme d’Or winner Ruben Östlund will serve as president of this year’s competition jury, though no other jurors have been announced so far.

Also joining the festival as announced last week will be Quentin Tarantino, who will be on hand to present a secret screening as part of the Directors’ Fortnight sidebar. That film hasn’t been announced yet.

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