Two productions solely produced by France, three majority-French co-productions, and five minority-French co-productions: a total of ten films representing France feature among the twenty productions selected in the 2016 Official Competition for the Cannes International Film Festival. Without forgetting 7 films in Un Certain Regard section, and 5 films in Special Screenings.
1,869 feature films were considered for this selection, which was finalized at 2 a.m. on the eve of the official press conference. With 28 countries represented in the final selection, French productions, as is often the case, secured a substantial share of the lineup. This is not only because this is a French festival, it is also due to the fact that French cinema continues to represent a highly dynamic pool of expertise and talent in the movie industry, with 220 films produced annually, covering all film genres and, more than is the case in other countries, offering a special place to auteur directors.
France is also an active player in film production on the global stage through the large number of international co-productions in which it participates. Eight of these films, majority and minority co-produced by France, are included in the Cannes Official Competition.
French Films in the Official Competition:
100% French Productions
Majority-French Co-Productions
- Slack Bay by Bruno Dumont (Germany)
- Elle by Paul Verhoeven (Germany)
- Personal Shopper by Olivier Assayas (Germany, UK, Belgium)
Minority-French Co-Productions
- The Unknown Girl by Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne (Belgium)
- Sieranevada by Cristi Puiu (Romania, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia)
- I, Daniel Blake by Ken Loach (UK, Belgium)
- It's Only the End of the World by Xavier Dolan (Canada)
- Bacalaureat by Cristian Mungiu (Romania, Belgium)
Short Films
- Après Suzanne by Félix Moati
- La Laine sur le dos by Lotfi Achour (co-production, Tunisia)
French films in Un Certain Regard:
- The Stopover by Delphine & Muriel Coulin (majority co-production, Greece)
- The Dancer by Stéphanie Di Giusto (majority co-production, Belgium, Czech Republic)
- The Red Turtle by Michael Dudok De Wit (majority co-production, Belgium)
- Dogs by Bogdan Mirica (majority co-production, Bulgaria, Romania)
- Clash by Mohamed Diab (minority co-production, Egypt)
- Harmonium by Koji Fukada (minority co-production, Japan)
- Pericles by Stefano Mordini (minority co-production, Belgium, Italy)
French films in Special Screenings:
- Le Cancre by Paul Vecchiali
- Hissein Habré, a Chadian Tragedy by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun
- Exile by Rithy Panh
- The Death of Louis XIV by Albert Serra (majority co-production, Spain)
- L'Ultima spiaggia by Thanos Anastopoulos & Davide Del Degan (minority co-production, Greece, Italy)
The complete selection can be found on the attached press release, issued by the Cannes Film Festival.
