There would be 29 countries that would take part in the 70th Cannes Film Festival on May 17 through 28. However, China is not on the list. Major Hollywood studio films are also not those selected.
Thierry Fremaux, director of the filmfest, named the movies that would be exhibited at the prestigious international movie event. Although China is the world’s second-largest film market, Fremaux explained that no Chinese movie was selected because most of the commercial Chinese movies are “not exactly the kind of thing we should present in Cannes.”
Door is Still Open
However, Fremaux did not close the door to including a movie from China, according to The Hollywood Reporter. He said on Thursday that the festival organizers may add more titles in the future, including a Chinese movie.
“We didn’t see more Chinese films than previously, but there are discussions that we didn’t finalize and we might finalize later,” Fremaux said. It is the second year in a row that no Chinese movie made it to Cannes. He noted that because Chinese cinema is stretched out between auteur movie “the classical way we understand it in Europe and in Cannes,” and the more commercial cinema aimed at the ever-expanding multiplexes in China which are not exactly the movies shown in the French filmfest.
Natural Period of Transition
Jerry Ye, CEO of Huayi Brothers, a film studio in China, said he was not surprised by the exclusion of Chinese movies in the forthcoming filmfest. He noted that Chinese cinema is presently going through a natural period of transition and developing new talents and better stories. However, that process takes time which explains why during the in-between period of turbulence, there are not many great movies from China worthy of a Cannes exhibition.
According to Variety, among the films that would compete in the 70th Cannes Film Festival are “The Beguiled,” an erotic thriller by Sofia Coppola, “The Meyerowitz” by Noel Baumbach and “Wonderstruck” by Todd Haynes which is a follow-up to “Carol.”
Meanwhile, Alejandro Inarritu, the director of “The Revenant,” would premiere two TV shows in the festival as part of a virtual reality project. These are “Twin Peaks” and “Top of the Lake: China Girl.”