If watching Salma Hayek gorge on the giant heart of a sea monster—wrenching shreds of flesh from its ventricles and stuffing them down her gullet—sounds like your kind of thing, Matteo Garrone’s The Tale of Tales serves moments like this up on a Renaissance-style platter.

 

Based “loosely” on 17th-century short stories by Giambattista Basile, Garrone appropriately follows up his 2013 Cannes Grand Prix winner Reality with, well, a fantasy: unlike all other Competition films this year, The Tale of Tales comes from the fairy realm, and it’s a collection of narratives that are bizarre, moralistic, and often visceral. The scene above, for example, is a queen’s attempt to become magically pregnant, an immaculate conception that becomes the catalyst for one of the film’s competing sub-stories.

Like every fairy tale, there’s a message to take home once you close the tome’s dusty covers. Floating in this film’s several neighboring kingdoms are stories of ugly people, where the ugly ranges from truly hideous to perhaps rotten (in terms of individuals at their core). An ogre wins a princess’s hand in marriage; a king (Vincent Cassel) falls in love, sight unseen, with one of two repulsive hags; a royal prince has an identical half-brother who lives in rags. You’ve no doubt seen adaptations of these staple fables before; perhaps delivered with a script that doesn’t sometimes dip into hackneyed.

Forget the writing issues—these are fairy tales, not exactly demanding high literature—because the film is more interesting when consumed outside of that. Visually, Garrone continues his streak of crafting films that have a certain ethereal look to them, or at least steeped in the surreal. His color palettes command your eye with impressive contrasts, rich reds, and deep blues, whether it is a period piece (Tale of Tales) or inside a fish market (Reality). But here, with the brilliant assist of David Cronenberg’s go-to cinematographer Peter Suschitzky, Garrone somehow manages to stage a few tableaus that look straight from the work of Caravaggio. This isn’t hyperbole. One moment in particular reminded me most of this: we glide across the aftermath of a night of bacchanalia, a fountain besot with sumptuous vice and wine-drunk nubiles, and the scene is from the halls of the Baroque masters. Accompanied by a catchy, lilting score by Alexandre Desplat, yeah: some of this works really well.

The film is worth a sit for that.

It’s this kind of humanist aesthetic—intoxicating costume design and dramatic lighting that highlights pale skin, while staying visually expressive—that really kept me through this exercise in lavishness, because the narratives range from a little goofy (there are some gross-out sight gags) to by-the-numbers fairy tale beat points. There’s also certainly no reason to think twice on the film’s primary moral, because it isn’t anything more meaningful than essentials like The Ugly Duckling or The Prince and the Pauper. Sadly, some lackluster green screen work also took me out of it, which is a shame: many of the film’s weirder scenes involve practical effects and props, and I was disappointed to see a few seams in the digital necessities.

By the end of the two-hour running time, you’re left with a movie that takes it time to really show you some heady stuff, yet ironically I still find Garrone’s earlier work subtly more absurdist, or at least more engaging as a cinematic intersection between the real and unreal. The Tale of Tales will be a memorable Competition film this year because of images like the above—and hey, there’s one scene that totally reminds of The Princess Bride and the Cliffs of Insanity—but beyond that, it’s take-it-or-leave-it when it comes to the film’s individual stories. Woven together, with a basic through-line, it’s simply not living up to its title.

For the last three years I’ve tried to take an educated guess at which of the usual suspects Cannes would be court for their annual Competition. In 2013 and 2014, my festival math worked out. Over the past decade, more or less 75% of the films annually vying for the Palme d’Or were by returning auteurs. To get a read on what the Festival would look like was simply a matter of rounding up a list of active Cannes veterans and seeing if their latest opus was ready for a May premiere.

But this year I was wrong. I wrote we’d have three or four newcomers. But by programming a Competition with nine (!) newcomers, the Festival dramatically switched it up, and I couldn’t be happier. It’s happened before, but take note when a Palme d’Or winner (ahem, Apitchatpong Weerasethakul) is programmed (relegated?) to sidebars like Un Certain Regard, a move which Festival director Thierry Frémaux commented on in an interview: “Je veux bien parler du film d’Apichatpong Weerasethakul avec vous, mais seulement quand vous l’aurez vu.” (Roughly translated: “I’m willing to talk about the movie with you, but only when you’ve seen it.”)

There are several ways to interpret that, but I’d like to think that this year they’re giving Palme potential to filmmakers that aren’t resting on their laurels.

Veterans are fun, but new blood is good. So let’s get acquainted!

Justin Kurzel

Australian-born Kurzel is bringing Macbeth to the Croisette, a Michael Fassbender-Marion Cotillard-led drama based on Shakespeare’s infamous “Scottish Play.” Were I cynical, I’d say Kurzel’s inclusion in the Competition is more or less based on the cast’s red carpet attendance, but it’s possible that this 113-minute adaptation could even be good (The Weinstein Company has North American distribution rights). On his own, Kurzel is mostly known to Australian audiences for his 2011 thriller debut Snowtown, a film that saw some critical success in his home country, with a micro-release by IFC in the U.S. But Cannes has had this filmmaker on their radar since his short Bluetongue premiered in 2005.

Joachim Trier

A critical favorite for his 2011 Un Certain Regard entry Oslo, 31 August, Trier is moving up to the Competition with Louder Than Bombs, a Jesse Eisenberg/Isaballe Huppert drama that’s co-written by Trier’s regular scribe, Eskil Vogt (who recently won a major screenwriting prize in Sundance last year for the excellent Blind). The film is Trier’s English-language debut, but he’ll likely transcend the language barrier through his excellent eye. Little is known about the plot.

Valérie Donzelli

An actress as well as a director, Donzelli has a number of films on her resume, but her film Declaration of War (2011) is the most notable; the film starred herself and actor Jérémie Elkaïm, and was based on events between their personal life together. Elkaïm is back with Anaïs Demoustier (2014’s Bird People) for Donzelli’s Marguerite & Julien, a film originally penned by Oscar-nominated screenwriter Jean Gruault, which was reportedly in the hands of François Truffaut in the 1970s.

Michel Franco

Thank God it’s not James: Mexico’s Michel Franco is back at Cannes with Chronic, a film sure to be one of the Festival’s most-buzzed Competition entries. Known for high-quality work, Franco graduated from the Director’s Fortnight (2009, Daniel & Ana) and moved on to Un Certain Regard with the devastating After Lucia in 2012, winning the sidebar’s most prestigious award. Chronic stars Tim Roth (who really should be in everything), and has an IMDb summary that reads: “A home care nurse works with terminally ill patients.”

Stéphane Brizé

Most readers won’t be familiar with Brizé—I’m not—but his work screened in the Director’s Fortnight in 1999 (Le Bleu de Villes). In terms of the mandatory French representation in the Competition, Brizé holds a coveted spot, which may speak to the strength of A Simple Man (or The Measure of a Man), which stars French actor Vincent Lindon. This seems to be a breezier entry, or perhaps something that may be lost in translation (echoes of Alain Cavalier’s Pater in 2011).

Laszlo Nemes

Ah, a true wild card! Nemes is known for short films recorded on actual celluloid, but Son of Saul is his debut feature, a project starring unknown Hungarian actors. The film’s IMDb summary has me supremely intrigued: “In the horror of 1944 Auschwitz, a prisoner forced to burn the corpses of his own people finds moral survival upon trying to salvage from the flames the body of a boy he takes for his son.” Filmmakers rarely enter the Competition with a first feature, so I’m paying full attention here.

Guillaume Nicloux

The man is a multi-hyphenate, acting and writing novels in addition to directing. His most recent film, The Kidnapping of Michel Houellebecq, may be the entry point for anyone at Tribeca last year, where Nicloux picked up the Best Screenplay award. Valley of Love, his Cannes entry, features Gérard Depardieu and Isabelle Huppert on a sort of spirit-quest in Death Valley. It opens in France in June this year, so it may not be a Palme d’Or, but it sounds intriguing just the same.

Denis Villeneuve

As MCN’s resident Canadian, allow me to represent for a second: Denis Villeneuve, at some point, will be the True North’s first Palme d’Or winner. It may not be this year—technically, 2015’s Sicario is an American production—but of late, Villeneuve has easily topped Canada’s list of name-brand directors, one or two of which seem to be losing steam rather than gaining it. Villeneuve is working at a rate that surely can’t be feasible (when does anyone release such disparate quality titles like Enemy and Prisoners both in the same year?) but hats off to this remarkable Québécois auteur. Sicario is hot, hot, hot: Roger Deakins behind the camera, Emily Blunt in the lead, and Benicio del Toro, Josh Brolin, and Jon Bernthal supporting her in this drug lord thriller. There is a reason he was granted the shot to direct the undirectable: a sequel to Blade Runner.

Yorgos Lanthimos

I’m surprised by how many people have seen Dogtooth. Maybe it was the Oscar run in 2010; maybe it’s because of just how uniquely weird it is. Word gets out, I guess. I don’t know. But like Michel Franco, Lanthimos is an Un Certain Regard winner, and The Lobster—his English-language debut—is definitely a heavy-hitter this year. It’s a sci-fi-rom-dram (?) where being romantically alone is “a matter of life and death,” which sounds appropriately crazy. With Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, and a handful of other names, there could be a potential third Palme d’Or for Greece in the wings. Otherwise, I’m just excited for something new and quirky.

Follow Jake Howell on Twitter: @Jake_Howell

In less than two months, festival circuiteers return to the sunny Festival de Cannes, an event that should see some serious heavy-hitters returning to the Croisette. And that’s just what the Palme d’Or Competition will likely be programmed primarily with this year: alumni.

You can expect the Palme slate to be about three-fourths Cannes veterans. That’s been the track record in recent years: in 2014, in a Competition with 18 films, Cannes added only five new names to its clubhouse: Xavier Dolan, Damián Szifrón, Bennett Miller, Alice Rohrwacher and Abderrahmane Sissako.

The math: Cannes 2014 was 73% veterans, the same percentage as 2012. 2013’s Palme slate was 75% Competition alumni.

This year won’t be any different.

So take your pick. I’ve reviewed the alumni of the past 12 (or so) Palme d’Or Competitions and sought out projects that will be ready in time for Cannes this year. I’ve also written some notes for some likely inclusions after The Likely Suspects, which should give a solid idea of what to expect in ten short weeks (or next month, when the Festival announces its 2015 line-up).

Cannes 2015 – The Likely Suspects

Audiard, Jacques – Dheepan (2015, post-prod)

Bellocchio, Marco – L’Ultimo Vampiro (2015, with Alba Rohrwacher)

Babenco, Hector – My Hindu Friend (2015, post-prod, with Willem Dafoe)

Del Toro, Guillermo – Crimson Peak (2015)

Desplechin, Arnaud – Trois souvenirs de ma jeunesse (2015, with Mathieu Amalric)

Egoyan, Atom – Remember (2015, post-prod, with Christopher Plummer)

Garcia, Nicole – starring in Belle Familles (Jean-Paul Rappeneau, 2015)

Garrel, Philippe – L’Ombre des Femmes (2015)

Garrone, Matteo – The Tale of Tales (2015, post-prod, with Salma Hayek, John C. Reilly, Vincent Cassel, Alba Rohrwacher)

Giannoli, Xavier – Marguerite (2015, post-prod)

Hillcoat, John – Triple Nine (2015, completed, September 11^th release)

Hsiao-Hsien, Hou – Nie Yin Niang (The Assassin) (2015, post-prod)

Kawase, Naomi – Sweet Red Bean Paste (2015, post-prod)

Kaufman, Charlie – Anomalisa (2015, post-prod)

Khoo, Eric – In the Room (post-prod)

Kitano, Takeshi – Ryûzô to 7 nin no kobun tachi (2015)

Koreeda, Hirokazu – Kamakura Diary (2015, post-prod)

Kurosawa, Kiyoshi – Journey to the Shore (2015, post-prod)

Larrieu, Arnaud and Jean-Marie – Vingt et une nuits avec Pattie (2015, with Denis Lavant)

Luchetti, Daniele – Chiamatemi Francesco (2015, post-prod)

Maiwenn – Mon roi (2015, post-prod, with Vincent Cassel and Louis Garrel)

Malick, Terrence – Voyage of Time (2015, post-prod)

Miike, Takashi – Kaze ni tatsu raion (2015, post-prod)

Moretti, Nanni – Mia madre (2015, post-prod)

Nichols, Jeff – Midnight Special (2015, post-prod, Kirsten Dunst and Michael Shannon)

Noe, Gaspar – Love (2015, post-prod)

Salles, Walter – Jia Zhang-ke by Walter Salles (2015, documentary, post-prod)

Sang-soo, Im – My Friendly Villains (2015)

Sokourov, Alexander – Le Louvre Under German Occupation (2015, post-prod, Bruno Delbonnel cinematography)

Sorrentino, Paolo – The Early Years (2015, with Rachel Weisz, Michael Caine, Jane Fonda, Paul Dano, Harvey Keitel)

Tarantino, Quentin – The Hateful Eight (2015, filming, with Channing Tatum, Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, and many more)

To, Johnnie – Design for Living (2015, post-prod)

Trapero, Pablo – The Clan (2015, produced by Pedro Almodovar)

Van Sant, Gus – The Sea of Trees (2015, post-prod)

Van Warmerdam, Alex – Schneider vs. Bax (2015, post-prod)

Vinterberg, Thomas – Far from the Madding Crowd (2015, post-prod, Juno Temple, Carey Mulligan, slated for May 1^st release)

Weingartner, Hans – Soaring Underground (2015)

Weerasethakul, Apichatpong – Love in Khon Kaen (2015)

Some notes:

–Because my research only concerns alumni, there’s some fun to be had in guessing the four or five slots Cannes leaves open to induct newcomers into its Competition. It’s a crapshoot, but: perhaps one goes to Charlie Kaufman’s Anomalisa co-director Duke Johnson; other possible names include Denis Villeneuve (Sicario), Yorgos Lanthimos (The Lobster), George Miller (Mad Max: Fury Road), Martha Pinson (Tomorrow) or Louis Garrel (Les Deux Ami).

–Jean-Paul Rappeneau (2015’s Belles Familles) hasn’t played in Competition since 1990 (Cyrano de Bergerac), so he didn’t make my 2003-2014 alumni list—but he’s a sure bet for a Palme d’Or bow. Sean Penn’s latest directorial effort, The Last Face, also has a solid shot (he last played the Competition in 2001).

–Similarly, Todd Haynes’ Carol is an expected Competition film.

–Brad Bird’s Tomorrowland has “Special Screening” written all over it.

–With The Captive’s poor reception at Cannes 2014, I would be surprised if Egoyan decides to enter Remember this year.

–If George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road doesn’t play in Competition (Miller has been on the Jury twice), a slot like the Festival opener or an Out-of-Competition debut seems inevitable.

–In terms of Asian cinema, 2015 is a solid year for Cannes to choose its alumni from this year; that said, they will likely only select three or four. Most likely? From Japan: Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Journey to the Shore and Naomi Kawase’s Sweet Red Bean Paste; from Taiwan, Hao Hsiao-hsien’s The Assassin; from Thailand, Palme d’Or winner Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Love in Khon Kaen.

–Could Toby Tobias (Blood Orange) be Cannes-bound? Likely, but will his film make the Competition? With Iggy Pop in the cast, I’d expect an Un Certain Regard debut.

–Will Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight make it to the south of France this year? This superfan is naively optimistic. But there’s hope: given his love of Cannes and his unconventional press conference at last year’s Festival, Tarantino isn’t one to miss this event. And hey: if it’s not done, expect Harvey Weinstein to at least screen clips of QT’s latest dust-up in Cannes, albeit around the corner from the main event.

–Recent word from some French press is that the 2015 line-up will see a strong showing from Italy; certainly, the alumni are there for Cannes to pluck once again. Two-time Grand Prix-winner Matteo Garrone (The Tale of Tales), Oscar-winner Paolo Sorrentino (The Early Years) and former Jury President Nanni Moretti (Mia Madre) are can’t-lose bets.

–Certain documentaries listed above (like the Sokourov) are probable Out-of-Competition screenings to fill out the rest of the Festival.

–On a personal note: I’d love to see Alex Van Warmerdam return after his 2013 dark-horse hit Borgman. Fingers crossed!

Competition Veterans (2003-2014) with Listed or Upcoming Projects

Adamson, Andrew – producing Truckers (2015)

Almodovar, Pedro – producing Pablo Trapero’s The Clan (2015)

Assayas, Olivier – Summer Hours (script in development)

Audiard, Jacques – Dheepan (2015, post-prod)

Bellocchio, Marco – L’Ultimo Vampiro (2015, with Alba Rohrwacher)

Babenco, Hector – My Hindu Friend (2015, post-prod, with Willem Dafoe)

Campion, Jane – The Flamethrowers (in development)

Coen, Joel and Ethan – Jury Presidents – Hail, Caesar! (2015)

Coppola, Sofia – Fairyland (2015?)

Del Toro, Guillermo – Crimson Peak (2015)

Desplechin, Arnaud – Trois souvenirs de ma jeunesse (2015, with Mathieu Amalric)

Dolan, Xavier (NEW) – The Death and Life of John F. Donovan (2016)

Egoyan, Atom – Remember (2015, post-prod, with Christopher Plummer)

Garcia, Nicole – starring in Belle Familles (Jean-Paul Rappeneau, 2015)

Garrel, Philippe – L’Ombre des Femmes (2015)

Garrone, Matteo – The Tale of Tales (2015, post-prod, with Salma Hayek, John C. Reilly, Vincent Cassel, Alba Rohrwacher)

Giannoli, Xavier – Marguerite (2015, post-prod)

Gray, James – The Lost City of Z (2016, pre-prod)

Haneke, Michael – Flashmob (2015, details scant)

Hillcoat, John – Triple Nine (2015, completed, September 11^th release)

Hopkins, Stephen – Race, 2016

Hsiao-Hsien, Hou – Nie Yin Niang (2015, post-prod)

Inarritu, Alejandro Gonzalez – The Revenant (2015, filming, Leonardo diCaprio)

Jarmusch, Jim – Untitled Stooges Documentary (2015, post-prod, with Iggy Pop)

Kawase, Naomi – Sweet Red Bean Paste (2015, post-prod)

Kaufman, Charlie – Anomalisa (2015, post-prod)

Kar-wai, Wong – producer and co-writer of The Ferryman (2015)

Khoo, Eric – In the Room (post-prod)

Kiarostami, Abbas – Horizontal Process (no date, script)

Kitano, Takeshi – Ryûzô to 7 nin no kobun tachi (2015)

Kechiche, Abdellatif – La blessure (2015)

Koreeda, Hirokazu – Kamakura Diary (2015, post-prod)

Kurosawa, Kiyoshi – Journey to the Shore (2015, post-prod)

Larrieu, Arnaud and Jean-Marie – Vingt et une nuits avec Pattie (2015, with Denis Lavant)

Liman, Doug – Reckoning with Torture (2015, post-prod)

Linklater, Richard – That’s What I’m Talking About (2015, post-prod)

Luchetti, Daniele – Chiamatemi Francesco (2015, post-prod)

Maiwenn – Mon roi (2015, post-prod, with Vincent Cassel and Louis Garrel)

Malick, Terrence – Voyage of Time (2015, post-prod)

Martel, Lucrecia – Zama (2015, script)

Miike, Takashi – Kaze ni tatsu raion (2015, post-prod)

Moretti, Nanni – Mia madre (2015, post-prod)

Nichols, Jeff – Midnight Special (2015, post-prod, Kirsten Dunst and Michael Shannon)

Noe, Gaspar – Love (2015, post-prod)

Salles, Walter – Jia Zhang-ke by Walter Salles (2015, documentary, post-prod)

Sang-soo, Im – My Friendly Villains (2015)

Satrapi, Marjane – Tales from the Hanging Head (no year)

Soderbergh, Steven – involved with Magic Mike XXL (2015)

Sokourov, Alexander – Le Louvre Under German Occupation (2015, post-prod, Bruno Delbonnel cinematography)

Sorrentino, Paolo – The Early Years (2015, with Rachel Weisz, Michael Caine, Jane Fonda, Paul Dano, Harvey Keitel)

Tarantino, Quentin – The Hateful Eight (2015, filming, with Channing Tatum, Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, and many more)

Techine, Andre – Quand on a 17 ans (2016, pre-prod)

To, Johnnie – Design for Living (2015, post-prod)

Trapero, Pablo – The Clan (2015, produced by Pedro Almodovar)

Van Sant, Gus – The Sea of Trees (2015, post-prod)

Van Warmerdam, Alex – Schneider vs. Bax (2015, post-prod)

Vinterberg, Thomas – Far from the Madding Crowd (2015, post-prod, Juno Temple, Carey Mulligan, slated for May 1^st release)

Weingartner, Hans – Soaring Underground (2015)

Weerasethakul, Apichatpong – Love in Khon Kaen (2015)

 

Alumni of the Palme d’Or Competition: 2003-2014

Adamson, Andrew – producing Truckers (2015)

Akin, Fatih – n/a

Almodovar, Pedro – producing Pablo Trapero’s The Clan (2015)

Amalric, Mathieu – n/a

Anderson, Wes – n/a

Arcand, Denys – n/a

Arnold, Andrea – n/a

Asbury, Kelly – n/a

Assayas, Olivier – Summer Hours (script in development)

Audiard, Jacques – Dheepan (2015, post-prod)

Avati, Pupi – n/a

Beauvois, Xavier – n/a

Bellocchio, Marco – L’Ultimo Vampiro (2015, with Alba Rohrwacher)

Belvaux, Lucas – n/a

Blier, Bertrand – n/a

Babenco, Hector – My Hindu Friend (2015, post-prod, with Willem Dafoe)

Bonello, Bertrand – n/a

Bouchareb, Rachid – n/a

Breillat, Catherine – n/a

Caetano, Israel Adrian 2 – n/a

Campion, Jane – The Flamethrowers (in development)

Cantet, Laurent – n/a

Carax, Leos – n/a

Cavalier, Alain – n/a

Chang-dong, Lee – n/a

Chan-wook, Park – multiple projects in script development

Cedar, Joseph – n/a

Ceylan, Nuri Bilge – n/a

Coen, Joel and Ethan – Jury Presidents – Hail, Caesar! (2015)

Coixet, Isabel – n/a

Coppola, Sofia – Fairyland (2015?)

Costa, Pedro – n/a

Cronenberg, David – n/a

Dardenne, Jean-Pierre and Luc – n/a

Daniels, Lee – n/a

Del Toro, Guillermo – Crimson Peak (2015)

Desplechin, Arnaud – Trois souvenirs de ma jeunesse (2015, with Mathieu Amalric)

Dominik, Andrew – n/a

Dolan, Xavier (NEW) – The Death and Life of John F. Donovan (2016)

Dumont, Bruno – n/a

Eastwood, Clint – n/a

Escalante, Amat – n/a

Egoyan, Atom – Remember (2015, post-prod, with Christopher Plummer)

Fincher, David – n/a

Folman, Ari – n/a

Gallo, Vincent – n/a

Garcia, Nicole – starring in Belle Familles (Jean-Paul Rappeneau, 2015)

Garrel, Philippe – L’Ombre des Femmes (2015)

Garrone, Matteo – The Tale of Tales (2015, post-prod, with Salma Hayek, John C. Reilly, Vincent Cassel, Alba Rohrwacher)

Gatlif, Tony – n/a

Giannoli, Xavier – Marguerite (2015, post-prod)

Gitai, Amos – n/a

Giordana, Marco Tullio – n/a

Godard, Jean-Luc (NEW) – n/a

Gray, James – The Lost City of Z (2016, pre-prod)

Greenaway, Peter – n/a

Haneke, Michael – Flashmob (2015, details scant)

Haroun, Mahamat-Saleh – n/a

Hazanavicius, Michel – n/a

Hillcoat, John – Triple Nine (2015, completed, September 11^th release)

Honore, Christophe – n/a

Hopkins, Stephen – Race, 2016

Hsiao-Hsien, Hou – Nie Yin Niang (2015, post-prod)

Inarritu, Alejandro Gonzalez – The Revenant (2015, filming, Leonardo diCaprio)

Jarmusch, Jim – Untitled Stooges Documentary (2015, post-prod, with Iggy Pop)

Jaoui, Agnes – n/a

Jones, Tommy Lee – n/a

Kawase, Naomi – Sweet Red Bean Paste (2015, post-prod)

Kaufman, Charlie – Anomalisa (2015, post-prod)

Kaurismaki, Aki – n/a

Kar-wai, Wong – producer and co-writer of The Ferryman (2015)

Khoo, Eric – In the Room (post-prod)

Kiarostami, Abbas – Horizontal Process (no date, script)

Ki-Duk, Kim – n/a

Kitano, Takeshi – Ryûzô to 7 nin no kobun tachi (2015)

Kechiche, Abdellatif – La blessure (2015)

Kelly, Richard – n/a

Koreeda, Hirokazu – Kamakura Diary (2015, post-prod)

Kurosawa, Kiyoshi – Journey to the Shore (2015, post-prod)

Kusturica, Emir – n/a

Larrieu, Arnaud and Jean-Marie – Vingt et une nuits avec Pattie (2015, with Denis Lavant)

Lee, Ang – n/a

Leigh, Julia – n/a

Leigh, Mike – n/a

Liman, Doug – Reckoning with Torture (2015, post-prod)

Linklater, Richard – That’s What I’m Talking About (2015, post-prod)

Loach, Ken – n/a

Loznitsa, Sergei – n/a

Luchetti, Daniele – Chiamatemi Francesco (2015, post-prod)

Maiwenn – Mon roi (2015, post-prod, with Vincent Cassel and Louis Garrel)

Makhmalbaf, Samira – n/a

Malick, Terrence – Voyage of Time (2015, post-prod)

Masahiro, Kobayashi – n/a

Mamoru, Oshii – n/a

Martel, Lucrecia – Zama (2015, script)

Meirelles, Fernando – n/a

Mendoza, Brillante – n/a

Mihaileanu, Radu – n/a

Miike, Takashi – Kaze ni tatsu raion (2015, post-prod)

Mikhalkov, Nikita – n/a

Ming-Liang, Tsai – n/a

Miller, Bennett (NEW)

Miller, Claude – RIP, 1942-2012

Miller, Frank – n/a

Moll, Dominik – n/a

Moore, Michael – n/a

Moretti, Nanni – Mia madre (2015, post-prod)

Mundruczo, Kornel – n/a

Mungiu, Cristian – n/a

Nadjari, Raphael – n/a

Nasrallah, Yousry – n/a

Nichols, Jeff – Midnight Special (2015, post-prod, Kirsten Dunst and Michael Shannon)

Noe, Gaspar – Love (2015, post-prod)

Nossiter, Jonathan – n/a

Ozon, Francois – n/a

Paronnaud, Vincent – n/a

Polanski, Roman – n/a

Ramsay, Lynne – n/a

Resnais, Alain – RIP, 1922-2014

Reygadas, Carlos – n/a

Rodriguez, Robert – n/a

Rohrwacher, Alice (NEW) – n/a

Ruiz, Raul – RIP, 1941-2011

Saleem, Hiner – n/a

Salles, Walter – Jia Zhang-ke by Walter Salles (2015, documentary, post-prod)

Sang-soo, Hong – n/a

Sang-soo, Im – My Friendly Villains (2015)

Satrapi, Marjane – Tales from the Hanging Head (no year)

Seidl, Ulrich – n/a

Schleinzer, Markus – n/a

Schnabel, Julian – n/a

Sissako, Abderrahmane (NEW) – n/a

Soderbergh, Steven – involved with Magic Mike XXL (2015)

Sokourov, Alexander – Le Louvre Under German Occupation (2015, post-prod, Bruno Delbonnel cinematography)

Sorrentino, Paolo – The Early Years (2015, with Rachel Weisz, Michael Caine, Jane Fonda, Paul Dano, Harvey Keitel)

Suleiman, Elia – n/a

Szifron, Damian (NEW) – n/a

Tarantino, Quentin – The Hateful Eight (2015, filming, with Channing Tatum, Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, and many more)

Tarr, Bela – n/a

Tavernier, Bertrand – n/a

Techine, Andre – Quand on a 17 ans (2016, pre-prod)

Tedeschi, Valeria Bruni – n/a

Thomas, Daniela – n/a

To, Johnnie – Design for Living (2015, post-prod)

Trapero, Pablo – The Clan (2015, produced by Pedro Almodovar)

Van Sant, Gus – The Sea of Trees (2015, post-prod)

Van Warmerdam, Alex – Schneider vs. Bax (2015, post-prod)

Vernon, Conrad – n/a

Vinterberg, Thomas – Far from the Madding Crowd (2015, post-prod, Juno Temple, Carey Mulligan, slated for May 1^st release)

von Trier, Lars – n/a

Weingartner, Hans – Soaring Underground (2015)

Weerasethakul, Apichatpong – Love in Khon Kaen (2015)

Wenders, Wim – n/a

Winding Refn, Nicolas – n/a

Xiaoshuai, Wang – n/a

Ye, Lou – n/a

Zhangke, Jia – n/a

Zviaguintsev, Andrei – n/a

At a festival that prides in programming new faces – and with so many movies demanding to be discovered – it’s hard to know what will rise to the Sundance surface. Well, sort of: with the festival awards behind us, we do know the big US Dramatic winner Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, a ticket too hot for me to find a seat for, will find lots of success in the coming months. Outside of that, though, here are eight films you should see (in addition to my rave reviews of The Witch, Slow West, and The Wolfpack) as they embark on their post-Park City trajectory:

3 1/2 Minutes

It’s not the first documentary to critically examine Florida’s problematic “Stand Your Ground” law (and sadly, it won’t be the last), but Marc Silver’s very fine 3 1/2 Minutes is a calm and collected case study of The State vs. Michael Dunn, the man who shot and killed teenager Jordan Davis out of “self-defence.” From Trayvon Martin to Michael Brown to Jordan Davis, the film speaks not just to the lamentable trials that devolve into the defendant’s word against a dead man’s, but also to the larger cancer of racism and racial profiling. Silver shows us Dunn claiming before a jury he isn’t a racist, and for contrast we hear audio tapes of Dunn talking about how Davis and his articulate friends were “thugs.” Sad, sober, and patient, the film walks us through just how easily owning a gun, harbouring racist thoughts, and debatable self-defence laws can equate into the death of an unarmed teen.

The Diary of a Teenage Girl

Newcomer Marielle Heller’s film is a delicate and invigorating adaptation of the Phoebe Gloeckner graphic novel of the same name, a story about a young girl’s sexual awakening in the hazy, drug-fuelled days of 1970s San Francisco. It is also the heralding of Bel Powley, the fantastic lead actress who champions the titular role across from Alexander Skarsgård and Kristen Wiig. Photographed with a luminous bloom evocative of the time and peppered with creatively humorous animations (both on top of live-action and entire sequences), The Diary of a Teenage Girl excels with its terrific performances, mature portrayal of its central themes, and a noticeably strong directorial voice from Heller.

Tangerine

Tangerine is the kind of movie you simply have to see at an event like Sundance, but what’s nice is that even outside of this festival, it’s still a news story. Shot entirely on iPhones tricked out with custom anamorphic lenses, Sean Baker’s florid, vibrant Los Angeles is the perfect setting for this picaresque trans* narrative that is as old as Shakespeare yet newer than Urban Dictionary. With the color contrast pushed out to the limit and an overall orange hue most commonly associated with the Kelvin filter on Instagram, this is a movie about flux: gender norms are shifting, sex work is changing, and a city associated with industry-standard moviemaking is here photographed through a transitioning medium that is contextually perfect.

Station to Station

Doug Aitken’s love train is something to behold – and to be supremely jealous of, when it comes to adventure odysseys you wish you were involved with. Rolling cameras on a locomotive charging east-to-west for 24 days, Station to Station is comprised of 61 one-minute short films that exude the very best of the independent spirit. Art and music and humanity come together here for a film that is utterly rock-and-roll, with talent known and unknown sharing the same artistic plane (train). Aitken wisely spreads the real estate and evenly distributes the screen time, guaranteeing us something new and stimulating every minute. The result? A new media concert-film you’ve never seen before.

Stockholm, Pennsylvania

I have a lot of respect for this movie and to its writer/director Nikole Beckwith, a filmmaker that promises to continue taking risks further into her career. A story about a young woman (Saoirse Ronan) readjusting to life after finally being liberated from her lifelong kidnapper, Stockholm, Pennsylvania feels like two films; when the premise of the second half comes into view, many people will reject it outright. But it’s this kind of attempt to try something new that I find really exciting about both Sundance and Beckwith’s daring script, and the film’s closing shot – a dramatically dark twist that is a nightmare to consider – has stuck with me since leaving the festival, which is always indicative of something striking a chord. Whether it works for you as a narrative – there’s an undertone that feels akin to the domestic grossness of Gone Girl – is secondary at a certain point; what’s more, Ronan’s exquisite performance is worthy of your attention, regardless of the critical reviews misguidedly dumping on this film.

Most Likely To Succeed

There are a lot of stressful documentaries coming out from Sundance underlining the grave errors the Western World has committed to, and while Greg Whiteley’s Most Likely To Succeed depicts the outdated practices of the public school system in a 3.0 world, it’s ultimately a positive message. The film opens with how even Jeopardy! legend Ken Jennings’ job of game-show whiz can been replaced by a computer, which is a tongue-in-cheek way of broaching the truth: that schools are still teaching kids rote memorization and regurgitation, two skills that will prepare them for jobs Wikipedia and robots are far better at. Who will we hire if this continues? Highlighting in particular High Tech High, a San Diego high school that has been experimenting with Socratic forum and a focus towards hands-on technological praxis, Whiteley captures an inspiring solution: when teachers give youth more agency in their education, it leads to the kind of innovation and character-building confidence skills that are essential for success in a post-internet job market. A thoughtful consideration, and with lots of heart.

Racing Extinction

In this follow-up to his enraging Sundance-winning documentary The Cove, Louie Psihoyos’ equally damning Racing Extinction hits with a terrifying introduction: there have been five mass extinction events throughout the history of our planet, and between outrageous industrial carbon footprints, over-hunted endangered species, and our simply unsustainable diets, we are on a fatal course towards a sixth. Like The Cove, this film is a rabble-rouser, and Psihoyos uses his lens and the fluid power of cinema to try and change attitudes and policies alike. Sneaking hidden cameras into illegal food markets and projecting eye-opening images onto buildings are just two ways Psihoyos plays with documentary to convey his messages; the film in its entirety is an A+ (and transparent) look at the crises facing life on Earth, and what we can do to prevent them.

Take Me To The River

Matt Sobel’s nuanced and sublimely photographed debut, Take Me To The River is a finely crafted and ambiguous film that rejects conventional definition. Ryder (Logan Miller)’s experience at this backcountry Nebraska-set family reunion is a bizarre and unsettling one; when he is blindly accused of sexually abusing his cousin Molly (Ursula Parker), her father’s unexpected reaction opens our imagination to a world of unsettling possibilities and dark truths. To note: break-out performer Logan Miller’s complex facial expressions speak to his acting as he navigates supremely tense family dynamics; Ursula Parker, already perfection on “Louie,” is going to be something special in ten years. Writer-director Sobel is a talent to watch, and we would be so lucky if every film was as visually engaging and thematically challenging as this one.

It was unreasonable to expect the opening night U. S. Dramatic film would play as well as 2014’s electric Whiplash for a curtain-raiser to Sundance. Still, the festival has begun, and there are already titles buzzing with “must-see” status (having been turned away from The Witch this morning, which is receiving rave twitter reviews, I am already playing catch-up).

Still, there are some thematic similarities between that film and this year’s regrettable opener, The Bronze, a film that is centered around wanting to be the very best at something – or at least remembered appropriately for it.

Written by Melissa and Winston Rauch and directed by Bryan Buckley, The Bronze is a clichéd and predictable sports-competition film that you’ve seen a million times: from Bring It On to Air Bud, this film follows beat-for-beat the narrative of training for an important competition, and it’s up to the denouement to see if our protagonists come out on top.

But what’s different here from most sports films is the script and writing tone, which is an obnoxious filth-fest and a poor Diablo Cody imitation (think Young Adult, but while snorting an accelerant). Co-writer Melissa Rauch plays Hope Ann Greggory, a has-been bronze-medal gymnast clinging to her former glory in a small town still willing to celebrate her ten years later. Hope steals, she swears, she offends, she goes on detailed and painfully specific rants about … taints. She punches her protective and concerned father (Gary Cole) in the face. She needs a job, and she’s predictably offered one in the form of the redemption trope: train an up-and-coming younger, cuter gymnast to compete in a world-class event, and will Hope be able to restrain her explosive, caustic personality in the process? Will she find true love in her awkward co-trainer (“Silicon Valley”‘s Thomas Middleditch)?

I’ve never been a huge fan of Diablo Cody, so those who are may enjoy this knock-off piece of priss. But Cody’s work is at least nuanced, and narratively The Bronze is just all very obvious. And while playing to a successful formula will net a film decent points with a broad audience, if the jokes aren’t funny – or they simply come across as irritating, like so many of these cloying, in-your-face one-liners – then this movie sorely botches the dismount as a festival opener.

There’s a range of buzzed-about nonfiction films at TIFF this year, but after asking the documentary programmers about their personal favorites in the selection, I was directed towards Sunshine Superman, Marah Strauch’s documentary debut that follows the life and times of gregarious BASE jumper Carl Boenish (“rhymes with Danish”). Before his untimely death in 1984, Boenish was a founding father of jumping from things he probably shouldn’t be—including Troll Wall in Norway, the craggy mountain that would eventually kill him—yet this tragedy only bolsters the film as an engaging love-letter to living life to the extreme.

BASE jumping—or building, antenna, span and Earth jumping—wasn’t a thing before Carl Boenish appeared, but because of him it’s now the liberating (read: insane) act of parachute-controlled freefall that was never really regulated or understood by the authorities as anything other than a liability. That includes park rangers who keep watch on El Capitan, the massive cliff in Yosemite Valley that Boenish and his fellow freefallers in the 1970s routinely scaled and flung themselves from, despite the fact that it was illegal. Detaining them wasn’t exactly going to stop them (let’s face it: if they’re jumping off cliffs, they’re not exactly too worried about a slap on the wrist), so Boenish organized a charge to make compromises with government officials with a cheerful attitude and his goofy, never-ending smile. In short, he caught more flies with honey, and it made him a natural figurehead for the activity.

Because Boenish was an avid cinematographer himself, Strauch has a wealth of spools from Boenish’s personal archive, which often includes the freefalling perspective of Boenish’s helmet-mounted camera. Much of it is exhilarating: taking to the skies and filming from great heights alleviates any potential talking head syndromes other documentaries suffer from, and the title of the film feels wholly appropriate. There are also flashes of Gimme Shelter here; Strauch includes footage of Boenish reviewing his own film, commenting on and laughing about what he’s documented, and it adds to the film’s vibrancy and joie de vivre.

There are contemporary interviews from the people involved with Boenish, including his sunny wife Jean, who alongside Carl quickly became a spokesperson for BASE jumping as a way to express the capabilities of mankind’s curiosity and freedom. That theme—the idea that life is something to make the most of and death isn’t something to be afraid of—is touched upon to compelling effect here, as the film ultimately culminates in the 1984 accident that claimed Carl Boenish’s life. Strauch catches up with Jean decades later to reflect on her late husband, and her sentiments aren’t that she regrets Carl jumped from something he knew was a poor idea. Rather, Jean extolls the virtues of Carl’s ambitions, and closes the film with a speech that reiterates the saying that no one leaves this mortal coil alive.