The Cannes film festival has often been likened to world championships among film auteurs from across the planet. In a podcast with good friend and filmmaker Robert Rodriguez, director Quentin Tarantino [who became a worldwide phenomenon when Pulp Fiction (1994) picked up the top prize at Cannes] once described it as similar to the 바카라tournaments where Bobby Fischer would play chess.바카라 Despite its dazzling red carpet, garbled politics compared to the Berlinale or Venice, and some provocative press interactions, the festival has remained arguably prestigious through the decades.
A large part of its significance has to do with filmmakers still valuing recognition over here, especially with many cinematic geniuses vying for a spot in the line-up with their most eccentric, big-swing films. Whatever the end result, it won바카라t be wrong to say that Cannes has platformed some remarkably ambitious work conceived in the filmmaking world.
As the 78th edition of the festival ended last week, here is a list of ten films that spoke to us, which have emerged out of Cannes:
1. A Night of Knowing Nothing (2021)
Payal Kapadia바카라s docu-fiction바카라set against the backdrop of the 2015 Film and Television Institute of India protests바카라plays out with a voice-over conversation between two lovers, bemoaning the state of a nation they no longer recognise. Among the most astutely political films of the Modi era, Kapadia바카라s film also captures the idealism of campuses being browbeaten by a merciless system. Despite winning the L'Oeil d'Or (Best Documentary), the film remains unreleased in India till date.
2. Joyland (2022)
Saim Sadiq바카라s feature debut, about a suburban family in Lahore, is one of the best films to have emerged from the subcontinent in the last decade. Set around a man바카라s growing proximity with a transwoman바카라as he becomes her back-up dancer in a performance theatre바카라Sadiq바카라s film lays bare the oppressive patriarchy typical to South Asia. The film won the Queer Palm at the fest.
3. Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)
Joel and Ethan Coen바카라s paean to the striver shows a down-on-his-luck musician (Oscar Isaac) trying to keep his life in orbit, while balancing art and commerce. Used to seeing films about underdogs who succeed in the final act, what sets this film apart is its sheer indifference to its protagonist. Never has a film been colder and crueller to an artist. The film went on to win the Grand Prix that year.
4. The Zone of Interest (2023)
In the hands of a lesser filmmaker, the gimmick of this film would have been just that바카라a gimmick. But in the hands of Jonathan Glazer, this Grand Prix winner became an urgent, shocking indictment. By invisibilising the Jewish prisoners in the Nazi concentration camps, Glazer바카라s film showed us how easily we can dehumanise a sect, and how cruelty can seep into our most mundane choices.
5. Perfect Days (2023)
Palme d바카라Or winner and a darling of Cannes, Wim Wenders returned with his first feature film in six years, about a middle-aged Japanese man living in Tokyo, who cleans public toilets for a living. Wenders바카라 film, supposed to be a multi-part PSA series around Tokyo바카라s public toilets, became a staggering feature film, showing us the joy of the simple things. Hirayama (Kōji Yakusho)바카라s smile, each time he steps out of his house every morning, is one of the most uplifting things I바카라ve seen in a theatre recently.
6. Happy As Lazzaro (2018)
Alice Rohrwacher's film stands for the mournful beauty of unyielding goodness in a world that no longer recognizes or values it. It바카라s a story about how innocence is not only rare, but radically out of step with the modern world바카라and perhaps always has been. Rohrwacher won the 바카라Best Screenplay바카라 for this film at Cannes.
7. All That Breathes (2022)
Shaunak Sen바카라s film on two brothers in North-East Delhi 바카라mending바카라 kites (the bird) falling from the sky, is probably among the top five most visually stunning films to have come out of India in the last two decades. Following the footsteps of Payal Kapadia바카라s A Night of Knowing Nothing, Sen바카라s film also picked up the L'Oeil d'Or, merely a few weeks after Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh바카라s Writing with Fire (2021) earned an Oscar nomination for 바카라Best Documentary바카라. The well-deserved global recognition that these films have received shines the spotlight brightly on India바카라s prolific non-fiction filmmakers and their craft.
8. The Seed of the Sacred Fig (2024)
Director Mahmoud Rasoulof pulled off a heist by making a film in the midst of the 2022 Iranian revolution바카라triggered by the custodial death of Mahsa Amini바카라filming in secret for almost 70 days in late 2023. During production, Rasoulof learned of his renewed prison sentence, forcing him to flee the country. The footage was smuggled to Hamburg, and the film became Germany바카라s entry for the Oscars, where it was nominated for Best International Film. A stinging film about how autocracy trickles down into a 바카라normal바카라 family, it won a Special Jury prize.
9. Close (2022)
Lukas Dhont's film captures the delicate nuances of childhood innocence and the harsh realities of societal judgment. The film also explores themes of masculinity, identity, and the consequences of suppressing emotional intimacy. Close won the Grand Prix.
10. Cold War (2018)
Pawel Pawlikowski's black-and-white epic follows the lives of a composer Wiktor (Tomasz Kot) and singer Zula (Joanna Kulig) in Poland, as a newly inducted part of the USSR. Spanning a couple of decades, the film follows the pair바카라s tragic love story바카라ending with the eerie lines 바카라Let바카라s go to the other side, the view will be better there.바카라 Years later, the film still sends shivers down the spine. Cold War won Pawlikowski the Best Director.
Happy watching!
