Cannes Film Festival Preview

Here is the list of films in competition at the Cannes Film Festival:

Opening night film: Grace of Monaco, dir: Olivier Dahan

Clouds of Sils Maria, dir: Olivier Assayas

Saint Laurent, dir: Bertrand Bonello

Kış Uykusu (Winter Sleep), dir: Nuri Bilge Ceylan

Deux Jours, Une Nuit (Two Days, One Night), dir: Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne

Mommy, dir: Xavier Dolan

The Captive, dir: Atom Egoyan

Adieu au Langage (Goodbye to Language), dir: Jean-Luc Godard

The Search, dir: Michel Hazanavicius

Maps to the Stars, dir: David Cronenberg

The Homesman, dir: Tommy Lee Jones

Futatsume no Mado (Still the Water), dir: Naomi Kawase

Mr Turner, dir: Mike Leigh

Jimmy's Hall, dir: Ken Loach

Foxcatcher, dir: Bennett Miller

Le Meraviglie (The Wonders), dir: Alice Rohrwacher

Timbuktu, dir: Abderrahmane Sissako

Relatos Salvajes (Wild Stories), dir: Damián Szifron

Leviafan, dir: Andrey Zvyagintsev

Lots of big films being shown here for the first time and as ever the competition is expected to be of a very high standard. David Cronenberg returns with Map to the Stars as he looks to shake off the heavy criticism he received for Cosmopolis and A Dangerous Method in recent years with a modern satire of Hollywood itself, almost moving into Lynch territory in his critique of the profession that pays his bills.

Steve Carell whose known for his roles in major comedies moves into new territory with Foxcatcher which is by Bennett Miller, who directed Moneyball. Foxcatcher is the story of Olympic Wrestling Champion Mark Schultz and how paranoid schizophrenic John duPont killed his brother, Olympic Champion Dave Schultz and also stars Channing Tatum. The other film that stood out to me was The Search by Michel Hazanavicius as he looks to build on the success of sublime The Artist.