Cannes 2017: Coppola, Haneke and Ramsay in competition

The lineup for the biggest film festival in the world has been announced today, and it’s tantalising. 

Let’s start with some Skinny favourites. There's the new film from Scottish filmmaker Lynne Ramsay – we’re told by the festival president Pierre Lescure that You Were Never Really Here is still in the process of being completed – and the latest from Sofia Coppola, who returns to Cannes with psychological drama The Beguiled – set during the American Civil War, it stars Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst and Elle Fanning.

There’s also a new film from the brilliant Todd Haynes: Wonderstruck, which is described as “the story of a young boy in the Midwest that's told simultaneously with a tale about a young girl in New York from 50 years earlier as they both seek the same mysterious connection.” We’re also keen to see the latest films from Greek absurdist Yorgos Lanthimos (The Killing of the Sacred Deer) and François Ozon, whose new film, L’amant Double, was described as Hitchcockian by Lescure.

'The new players': Netflix and Amazon at Cannes

During the press conference, festival director Thierry Frémaux described “two new players” who’ve emerged in film production over the last few years, meaning streaming giants Netflix and Amazon, both of whom have films in competition. There’s Bong Joon-ho’s made for Netflix action-adventure movie Okja. “It’s a unique and unheard of situation,” Fremaux said of screening a film that’s heading straight to a streaming platform after Cannes. Netflix recently purchased Noah Baumbach project The Meyerowitz Stories, which also gets a competition spot. Haynes and Ramsay's films, meanwhile, are both Amazon productions.

There was also the surprise inclusion of two TV shows, which are screening outside of competition: David Lynch’s Twin Peaks revival and season two of Jane Campion’s Top of the Lake. Fremaux was quick to assure the assembled press that the festival won’t make a habit of including TV in the programme. “[Cannes] is a festival of films,” he said. These TV shows are screening, he explained, because “David Lynch and Jane Campion are filmmakers and friends of the Cannes film festival.”

Other inclusions are the new film from Cannes favourite Michael Haneke. His last two films, Amour and The White Ribbon, both won the Palme d'Or, and we wouldn’t bet against the Austrian filmmaker being the first person to win three Palme d’Ors with new film Happy End – given Haneke's past form, we're assuming that title is ironic.

Arnaud Desplechin’s Ismael’s Ghosts will open the festival, and there’s also space for White God director Kornél Mundruczó (with Jupiter’s Moon), prolific South Korean auteaur Hong Sang-soo (with The Day After) and the great Russian filmmaker Andrey Zvyagintsev (with Loveless).

The full competition list can be seen below, while the full Cannes lineup is available at festival-cannes.com

Main Cannes Competition

Wonderstruck, Todd Haynes
Le Redoutable, Michel Hazanavicius
Geu-Hu (The Day After), Hong Sang-soo
Hikari (Radiance), Naomi Kawase
The Killing of the Sacred Deer, Yorgos Lanthimos
A Gentle Creature, Sergei Loznitsa
Jupiter’s Moon, Kornél Mundruczó
L’amant Double, François Ozon
You Were Never Really Here, Lynne Ramsay
Good Time, Benny Safdie & Josh Safdie
Loveless, Andrey Zvyagintsev
The Meyerowitz Stories, Noah Baumbach
Ismael’s Ghosts, Arnaud Desplechin (opening film)
In The Fade, Fatih Akin
Okja, Bong Joon-Ho
120 Battements Par Minute, Robin Campillo
The Beguiled, Sofia Coppola
Rodin, Jacques Doillon
Happy End, Michael Haneke