After a year of skipping screenings, festival president Pierre Lescure and director Thierry Frémaux announced the first list of the Cannes Official Selections 2021 on Thursday. How these films will actually play out is still be to determined. In previous press conferences, Cannes has insisted upon continuing in-person. With the blessing of the city and the French government, the festival pushed back their usual May schedule to early July this year to make accommodations. Should the festival continue in-person in spite of France’s own COVID-19 count, international presence will likely look limited regardless. In any case, this year’s festival is predicted to be a quiet bounce-back from last year’s absence.
Perhaps this explains, then, the more conservative roster (compared to that of 2019, when “Parasite” famously took S. Korea’s first Palme d’or). This year welcomes a plethora of returnees, including independent filmmaker Ryusuke Hamaguchi, slow cinema master Apitchatpong Weerasethakul (starring Tilda Swinton!), and existential favorite Hong Sang-soo. Despite the prominence of older autuers, this year will also see some firsts, as well. Abdullah Mohammad Saad will represent Bangladesh for the first time in a major Cannes segment. Korean-American actor-director Justin Chon will be a first-timer at Cannes as well, after frequenting Sundance for the last few years. Notably, Chinese director Na Jizuo will also roll up to the red carpet with her first feature – an incredible feat for a film in “Un Certain Regard.”
But perhaps it’s easier to understand the full impact of this year’s list by actually looking at it. Here’s the full list of Asian films below:
In Competition:
Drive My Car (Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Japan)
Ha’Berech (Ahed’s Knee) (Nadav Lapid, Israel)
Memoria (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand)
Petrov’s Flu (Krill Serebrennikov, Russia)
A Heros (Asghar Farhadi, Iran)
Un Certain Regard:
Blue Bayou (Justin Chon, USA)
Let There Be Morning (Eran Kolirin, Israel)
Unclenching the Fists (Kira Kovalenko, Russia)
Rehana Maryam Noor (Abdullah Mohammad Saad, Bangladesh)
Gaey Wa’r (Na Jiazuo, China)
Out of Competition
Emergency Declaration (Han Jae-rim, S. Korea)
Cannes Premiere
In Front of Your Face (Hong Sang-soo, S. Korea)
Special Screening
The Year of the Everlasting Storm (Jafar Panahi (Iran), Anthony Chen (Singapore), Malik Vitthal (USA), Laura Poitras (USA), Dominga Sotomayor (Chile), David Lowery (USA), Apichatpog Weerasethakul (Thailand))
