Is the Cannes Film Festival leaning heavily towards English this time? | Hollywood

This year’s Cannes Film Festival – which is scheduled to begin on May 14 – is leaning heavily towards English-language works. There are 10 films out of the 19 competition titles announced on Thursday in Paris. They are: The Apprentice, Bird, Emilia Perez, Megalopolis, The Shrouds, The Substance, Kindness of Kindness, Limonov, Anora, and Oh Canada. This is a record number. In 2018, there were only two in English, but in 2023, the number rose sharply to seven. (Also Read: Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light will be the first Indian film to compete at the Cannes Film Festival in 30 years)

At the press conference where the festival’s lineup was revealed, general delegate Thierry Frémaux said that “there is a strong Anglo-Saxon American presence.” But he said sarcastically that this was a “coincidence.” Or him? Over the three decades that I’ve covered the festival (which has long been the preeminent event of its kind in the world, but now I’d hesitate to say so as Venice has gotten stronger and more attractive) I’ve seen a slow but steady rise in English-language fare.

This is only expected. Although there are more Russian, German and French speakers in the world, English is gaining status as a lingua franca. So, perhaps Cannes is heading in this direction, even though the festival may not admit it. I’ve also seen that American and British films attract much larger audiences at Cannes than films from other regions. Many cinema directors in Europe (outside Britain) have also begun producing their films in English in the hope of capturing a larger segment of the market.

Cannes has also realized that major English projects (Megalopolis is one of them this year) can attract significant media attention – a very good thing for the market that runs throughout the 12-day festival. “Festival President Iris Knobloch was eager to announce the record number of attendees, television viewers and Oscar nominations last year,” one report said. Cannes films achieved an impressive 26 nominations.

If Cannes succeeds in continuing to push this trend, it could mean Oscars season will start in May, rather than September in Venice. So far, Venice has been the leader here with several of its titles catching the attention of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (which organizes the Oscars).

At the press conference, Fremaux was asked why there were fewer female directors in the competition this time around than in 2023 (Andrea Arnold, Coralie Farget and relative newcomers Payal Kapadia and Agathe Redinger). Last year, there were seven, although previously there were none or only one or two.

Fremaux emphasized: “The number of four female directors is the average number over the past few years. It is less than last year. As I’ve said in the past, Cannes is at the end of the spectrum, it’s an echo of world cinema, which last year produced a lot of films by women, and this year a little less. We need half a century to understand what is going on, but the trend is that there are more and more female directors around the world. We keep saying that – and we will be publishing a study on this topic soon – that there are far more female directors in competition and in official selections overall in percentage terms than there are female directors around the world. Every time we hesitate between a man’s film and a woman’s film and we have to choose, we will choose the rarer film (the woman’s film). Once again, I repeat, we need to consider this issue throughout the year and not just on the day of the press conference in Cannes to ensure the place of women in cinema.

Incidentally, he said that Indian journalists should be happy this year. Year after year, they were disappointed to find nothing from their country. There are two films in the line-up by Indian directors – All We Imagine As Light (Payal Kapadia) and Santosh (Sandhya Suri). Then there is The Shameless with two Indian actresses – Anasuya Sengupta and Mita Vashisht. Little of this happens in Bengaluru. But the work was directed by Belgian director Konstantin Boyanov.

There was also a strong showing of Chinese directors, which Fremaux said was a “welcome return for a country that has been less present on the international film stage recently.”

Finally, an exception at the Cannes Film Festival for the Saudi title Noura. The film achieved great success at the Red Sea International Film Festival in Jeddah last December. So, Cannes thought it might be an exception to the “premieres only” rule. I don’t really remember a film coming to Cannes after opening elsewhere.

The festival continues until May 25.