I know, most critics go to the Festival de Cannes looking forward to the Competition titles and maybe will grant themselves the joy of viewing the Un Certain Regard selection. But I’ll admit I’m more of a sidebar person, and while I will view a few great titles in the main lineups, my craves lay more in the Quinzaine (Directors’ Fortnight) and Semaine de la Critique.

Also, this year the actual screening guide of the titles in Competition seems like reading a menu to a Chinese restaurant in Cantonese. So instead of missing everything due to standing in the wrong line or going to a screening not open to my category of press, I’ll go on down to the Marriott and the Espace Miramar and enjoy the films chosen by some of my esteemed friends — people like the wondrous Paolo Bertolin and other great film lovers and supporters.

Starting with the feature films in the Critics’ Week lineup:

OPENING FILM 

‘Litigante’ by Franco Lolli

CLOSING FILM

‘Dwelling In The Fuchun Mountains’ (Chun Jiang Shui Nuan) by Xiaogang Gu

‘Abou Leila’ by Amin Sidi-Boumédiène

‘Ceniza Negra’ by Sofía Quirós Ubeda

‘Hvítur, Hvítur Dagur’ by Hlynur Pálmason

‘J’ai perdu mon corps’ by Jérémy Clapin

‘Nuestras Madres’ by César Diaz

‘The Unknown Saint’ by Alaa Eddine Aljem

‘Vivarium’ by Lorcan Finnegan

SPECIAL SCREENINGS

‘Heroes Don’t Die’ (Les Héros Ne Meurent Jamais) by Aude Léa Rapin

‘Tu Mérites Un Amour’ by Hafsia Herzi

For their short selection check out the full lineup here:

Critics’ Week full program.

Here are the features in the Directors’ Fortnight sidebar:

OPENING FILM

‘Deerskin’ (Le Daim) (Fr) by Quentin Dupieux

CLOSING FILM

‘Yves’ by Benoît Forgeard

‘Alice And The Mayor’ by Nicolas Parisier

‘And Then We Danced’ by Levan Akin

‘The Halt’ (Ang Hupa) by Lav Diaz

‘Song Without A Name’ (Canción sin nombre) by Melina León

‘Give Me Liberty’ Kirill Mikhanovsky

‘First Love’ (Hatsukoi) by Takashi Miike

‘To Live to Sing’ (Huo zhe chang zhe) by Johnny Ma

‘Dogs Don’t Wear Pants’ (Koirat eivät käytä housuja) by Jukka-Pekka Valkeapää

‘The Lighthouse’ by Robert Eggers

‘Lillian’ by Andreas Horvath

‘Ghost Tropic’ by Bas Devos

‘Oleg’ by Juris Kursietis

‘Blow It To Bits’ by Lech Kowalski

‘The Orphanage’ (Parwareshgah) by Shahrbanoo Sadat

Les Particules’ by Blaise Harrison

‘Perdrix’ (provisional title) by Erwan Le Duc

‘For the Money’ (Por el dinero) by Alejo Moguillansky

‘Sick Sick Sick’ by Alice Furtado

‘Tlamess’ by Ala Eddine Slim

‘An Easy Girl’ (Une Fille Facile) by Rebecca Zlotowski

‘Wounds’ by Babak Anvari

‘Zombi Child’ by Bertrand Bonello

‘The Staggering Girl’ by Luca Guadagnino

‘Red 11’ by Robert Rodriguez

For the short selection, check out the full lineup here:

Quinzaine full program.