The selection devised by Edouard Waintrop and his team gives French cinema a plum role, opening with a French film, with three others in the line up.
Philippe Garrel, the inveterate radical of May 1968, will open the event, which was created in 1969 precisely so as to offer an alternative to the Official Selection, which had been battered by the upheavals of 1968. For the opening night, the director will even propose, as a lead into L'Ombre des femmes, a short shot in May 1968, Actua 1.
In the selection of French films: Les Cowboys, the debut feature by screenwriter Thomas Bidegain (longtime collaborator of Jacques Audiard), and Arnaud Desplechin's latest feature, excluded from the Official Selection because, as Thierry Frémaux even admitted during the Cannes Film Festival press conference, Arnaud Desplechin had already frequently experienced Official Selection honors.
Last but not least, Philippe Faucon, a discreet filmmaker focusing on the imperceptible movements of minorities (The Disintegration) returns with Fatima.
France also appears in six other co-productions, bringing to ten the number of films in which France is involved this year (taking into account that Arabian Nights by Miguel Gomes is in fact three distinct films).
In the Shadow of Women by Philippe Garrel (opening film)
Cowboys by Thomas Bidegain
My Golden Days by Arnaud Desplechin
Fatima by Philippe Faucon
Arabian Nights - Volume 1, The Restless One by Miguel Gomes (minority co-production)
Le Tout Nouveau Testament by Jaco Van Dormael (minority co-production)
Mustang by Deniz Gamze Ergüven (majority co-production)
Much Loved by Nabil Ayouch (co-production)
Peace to Us in Our Dreams by Sharunas Bartas (co-production)
The Here After by Magnus Von Horn (minority co-production)
