THE HANDMAIDEN, THE NEON DEMON, AMERICAN HONEY, CAFE SOCIETY And More At Cannes 2016

After a late start, the press conference for the Cannes Film Festival gave cinephiles a treasure-trove of amazing films to be screening at in the main festival next month. There are some familiar faces, such as The Dardenne Brothers, Woody Allen, Pedro Almodóvar, Andrea Arnold, Nicholas Winding Refn and Xavier Dolan, along with some ones new to Cannes, such as Jeff Nichols, and Paul Verhoeven.

Woody Allen's Cafe Society was previously announced as the opening night film; in a break from tradition, there will be no official closing night film; instead, the winner of the Palme d'Or will have a repeat screening.

There are several titles that I personally am excited about, and some that we at ScreenAnarchy have been following. Probably top of our lists is Park Chan-Wook's The Handmaiden, set in occupied Korea, following the story of a con artist and the woman he gets to help him infiltrate a rich family. There's The Neon Demon, the new Nicholas Winding Refn film starring Elle Fanning, and two films by Jim Jarmusch, Paterson (in official competition) and Gimme Danger, a doc about Iggy Pop, in the midnight screenings. The Nice Guys by Shane Black also has good buzz, and will be Black's first film at Cannes since Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. I'm also pretty excited about Goksung, the new film from Na Hong-jin, and Train to Busan from Yeon Sang-ho.

Moving away from the more fantastical spectrum, there's also the new Andrea Arnold film, American Honey (though I question the casting of Shia LeBeouf), Jodie Foster's fourth feature film Money Monster, Xavier Dolan's It's Only the End of the World (with a pretty amazing all-star-French-cast of Marion Cotillard, Léa Seydoux and Vincent Cassel), and Sean Penn's The Last Face. And what would Cannes be without new films from The Dardenne Brothers (The Unknown Girl) and Ken Loach (I, Daniel Blake).

Full list of titles for the official festival below, and hopefully soon we will have the line-up for The Director's Fortnight and Critic's Week soon.

In Competition:

• Toni Erdmann, Maren Ade (Germany)
• Julieta, Pedro Almodóvar (Spain)
• American Honey, Andrea Arnold (UK)
• Personal Shopper, Olivier Assayas (France)
• The Unknown Girl, Jean-Pierre Dardenne & Luc Dardenne (Belgium)
• It’s Only The End Of The World, Xavier Dolan (Canada)
• Slack Bay, Bruno Dumont (France)
• From The Land Of The Moon, Nicole Garcia (France)
• Rester Vertical, Alain Guiraudie (France)
• Paterson, Jim Jarmusch (US)
• Aquarius, Kleber Mendonça Filho (Brazil)
• I, Daniel Blake, Ken Loach (UK)
• Ma’ Rosa, Brillante Mendoza (Philippines)
• Bacalaureat, Cristian Mungiu (Romania)
• Loving, Jeff Nichols (US)
• The Handmaiden, Park Chan-Wook (S Korea)
• The Last Face, Sean Penn (US)
• Sieranevada, Cristi Puiu (Romania)
• Elle, Paul Verhoeven (Netherlands)
• The Neon Demon, Nicolas Winding Refn (Denmark)

Out of Competition:

• Café Society, Woody Allen (opening film) (US)
• Disney’s The BFG, Steven Spielberg (US)
• Goksung, Na Hong-Jin (S Korea)
• Money Monster, Jodie Foster (US)
• The Nice Guys, Shane Black (US)

Un Certain Regard:

• Inversion, Behnam Behzadi (Iran)
• Apprentice, Boo Junfeng (Singapore)
• The Stopover, Delphine Coulin & Muriel Coulin (France)
• The Dancer, Stéphanie Di Giusto (France)
• Clash, Mohamed Diab (Egypt)
• The Red Turtle, Michael Dudok De Wit (Netherlands)
• Harmonium, Fukada Kôji (Japan)
• Personal Affairs, Maha Haj (Israel)
• Beyond The Mountains And Hills, Eran Kolirin (Israel)
• After The Storm, Hirokazu Kore-Eda (Japan)
• The Happiest Day In The Life Of Olli Maki, Juho Kuosmanen (Finland)
• Francisco Sanctis’s Long Night, Francisco Márquez & Andrea Testa (Argentina)
• Dogs, Bogdan Mirica (Romania)
• Pericle Il Nero, Stefano Mordini (Italy)
• The Transfiguration, Michael O’Shea (US)
• Captain Fantastic, Matt Ross (US)
• The Student (Uchenik), Kirill Serebrennikov (Russia)

Midnight Screenings:

• Gimme Danger, Jim Jarmusch (US)
• Train To Busan, Yeon Sang-Ho (S Korea)

Special Screenings:

• The Last Resort, Thanos Anastopoulos (Greece) & Davide Del Degan (Italy)
• Hissein Habré, A Chadian Tragedy, Mahamat-Saleh Haroun (Chad)
• Last Days Of Loui XIV, Albert Serra (Spain)
• Le Cancre, Paul Vecchiali (France)