The official list of movies that have been selected for this year’s Cannes International Film Festival are out and Manto, written and directed by Nandita Das, the only film selected from India will be screened under the Un Certain Regard category of the festival.
The movie is a biographical sketch of the life and times of Indian-Pakistani writer Saadat Hasan Manto. This is Nandita Das’s second film followed by the 2008 release Firaaq, a political-drama movie set on the backdrop of 2002 Gujarat riots.
After the announcement from the selection committee, Nandita Das took to Facebook to express her gratitude.
The movie stars Nawazuddin Siddiqui as the titular character of Saadat Hasan Manto, along with Rasika Duggal as the writer’s wife. The film will also see Rajshri Deshpande as Ismat Chughtai, a contemporary to Manto. Incidentally, it’s after many years that an Indian film has made it into the Cannes International Festival’s competition category.
“And it is possible that Saadat Hasan dies, but MANTO remains alive”.
Glad to inform that ‘MANTO’ is selected for competition at #Cannes2018 in #UnCertainRegard section.
Congratulations @nanditadas and Team #Manto pic.twitter.com/LBKcSVb1vb— Nawazuddin Siddiqui (@Nawazuddin_S) April 12, 2018
The official selection of movies in the competition section includes the opening film Everybody Knows written and directed by Asghar Farhadi to auteur Jean-Luc Godard’s Le Livre d’Image to Hollywood filmmaker Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman.
Jafar Panahi’s Three Faces is included in the competition section of the festival, but the filmmaker is under the supervision of the Iranian government and was banned from making films. Terry Gilliam’s Man Who Killed Don Quixote has also been omitted from the festival. Moreover, Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s chief content officer, told Variety that Netflix won’t be going to Cannes this year, following the new rule that bans films without a theatrical release from entering the main competition.
The film festival starts on Ma 8.
Here’s the list of films selected for this year’s Cannes International Film Festival:
Competition
Everybody Knows (Director: Asghar Farhadi) – opening film
At War (Director: Stéphane Brizé)
Dogman (Director: Matteo Garrone)
Le Livre d’Image (Director: Jean-Luc Godard)
Asako I & II (Director: Ryusuke Hamaguchi)
Sorry Angel (Director: Christophe Honoré)
Girls of the Sun (Director: Eva Husson)
Ash Is Purest White (Director: Jia Zhang-Ke)
Shoplifters (Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda)
Capernaum (Director: Nadine Labaki)
Burning (Director: Lee Chang-Dong)
BlacKkKlansman (Director: Spike Lee)
Under the Silver Lake (Director: David Robert Mitchell)
Three Faces (Director: Jafar Panahi)
Cold War (Director: Pawel Pawlikowski)
Lazzaro Felice (Director: Alice Rohrwacher)
Yomeddine (Director: AB Shawky)
Leto (L’Été) (Director: Kirill Serebrennikov)
Un Certain Regard
Angel Face (Director: Vanessa Filho)
Border (Director: Ali Abbasi)
El Angel (Director: Luis Ortega)
Euphoria (Director: Valeria Golino)
Friend (Director: Wanuri Kahiu)
The Gentle Indifference of the World (Director: Adilkhan Yerzhanov)
Girl (Director: Lukas Dhont)
The Harvesters (Director: Etienne Kallos)
In My Room (Director: Ulrich Köhler)
Little Tickles (Director: Andréa Bescond & Eric Métayer)
My Favorite Fabric (Director: Gaya Jiji)
On Your Knees, Guys (Sextape) (Director: Antoine Desrosières)
Sofia (Director: Meyem Benm’Barek)
Recommended
Out of competition
Solo: A Star Wars Story (Director: Ron Howard)
Le Grand Bain (Director: Gilles Lellouche)
Little Tickles (Director: Andréa Bescond & Eric Métayer)
Long Day’s Journey Into Night (Director: Bi Gan)
Midnight screenings
Arctic (Director: Joe Penna)
The Spy Gone North (Director: Yoon Jong-Bing)
Special screenings
10 Years in Thailand (Director: Aditya Assarat, Wisit Sasanatieng, Chulayarnon Sriphol & Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
The State Against Mandela and the Others (Director: Nicolas Champeaux & Gilles Porte)
O Grande Circo Mistico (Director: Carlo Diegues)
Dead Souls (Director: Wang Bing)
To the Four Winds (Director: Michel Toesca)
La Traversée (Director: Romain Goupil)
Pope Francis: A Man of His Word (Director: Wim Wenders).
Information Courtesy: The Guardian