‘All These Creatures’.
No Australian feature films made the cut in the first batch of titles announced today for the Cannes Film Festival’s official competition and Un Certain Regard – but two shorts have been selected.
Charles Williams’ All These Creatures is among eight titles in the short films competition, chosen from 3,943 submissions.
Eryk Lenartowicz’s absurdist comedy Dots will screen in the Cinéfondation section, one of 17 selected from 2,426 films nominated by film schools around the world.
Williams’ film stars 13-year-old Ethiopian/Australian Yared Scott as Tempest, a boy who tries to understand the dark presence growing inside his father and the events that led to an inexplicable tragedy while his backyard is infested with insects. He cast Yared after auditioning more than 400 kids and rewrote the script to include his ethnic background.
A lot of the events depicted are “highly personal and reinterpreted,” Williams tells IF. This is the director’s fifth short since his 2002 debut I Can’t Get Started, followed by The Cow Thief, There Had Better Be Blood and Home.
Also he produced writer-director Yianni Warnock’s Homebodies, which was nominated for an AACTA award for best short in 2016.
He funded the short via sponsorship from the crew and companies including Panavision, Kodak, Park Road, Soundfirm and Final Sound. In Cannes he hopes to attract finance for several features and TV series he has been developing.
Produced by Rebecca Janek, Dots tells the story of a small Australian town where people start dying after the arrival of a mysterious stranger. However the local police officer is too preoccupied with his Mercedes to pay attention to the deaths happening around him.
The film was made while Eryk was completing his Master of Screen Arts at AFTRS. “It is every filmmaker’s dream to have their project screened at the Cannes Film Festival and I am truly grateful to have this privilege at such an early stage of my career,” he said.
Eryk Lanartowicz.”Now I know what it feels like when a dream becomes reality; a beautiful combination of weirdness, adrenaline, hope, fear, excitement and pure joy all at once.”
AFTRS CEO Neil Peplow said: “We’re thrilled that Eryk’s graduate film Dots will have its world premiere at Cannes. To be once again selected for such a prestigious festival highlights the calibre of films and the exceptional talent emerging from the School.”
Among the films selected for official competition are Spike Lee’s Blackkklansman, David Robert Mitchell’s Under The Silver Lake, Jean-Luc Godard’s Le Livre D’Image, Pawel Pawlikowski’s Cold War and Kore-Eda Hirokazu’s Shoplifters.
More titles are expected to be announced and the Directors’ Fortnight and Critics’ Week line-ups will be revealed next week, so Australia may well have a bigger presence.
The 71st Cannes Festival runs from May 8-19.
OPENING NIGHT FILM
Everybody Knows, dir: Asghar Farhadi
COMPETITION
Le Livre D’Image, dir: Jean-Luc Godard
Blackkklansman, dir: Spike Lee
Three Faces, dir: Jafar Panahi
Cold War, dir: Pawel Pawlikowski
Leto, dir: Kirill Serebrennikov
Lazzaro Felice, dir: Alice Rohrwacher
Under The Silver Lake, dir: David Robert Mitchell
Capernaum, dir: Nadine Labaki
At War, dir: Stephane Brizé
Asako I&II, dir: Ryusuke Hamaguchi
Sorry Angel, dir: Christophe Honoré
Dogman, dir: Matteo Garrone
Girls Of The Sun, dir: Eva Husson
Yomeddine, dir: A.B Shawky
Burning, dir: Lee-Chang Dong
Shoplifters, dir: Kore-Eda Hirokazu
Ash Is Purest White, dir: Jia Zhang-Ke
SPECIAL SCREENINGS
Dead Souls, Wang Bing
10 Years In Thailand, dirs: Aditya Assarat, Wisit Sasanatieng, Chulayarnon Sriphol & Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Pope Francis – A Man Of His Word, dir: Wim Wenders
La Traversée, dir: Romain Goupil
To The Four Winds, dir: Michel Toesca
Le Grand Cirque Mystique, dir: Carlos Diegues
The State Against Mandela And The Others, dirs: Nicolas Champeaux & Gilles Porte
MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS
Arctic, dir: Joe Penna
The Spy Gone North, dir: Yoon Jong-Bing
OUT OF COMPETITION
Le Grand Bain, dir: Gilles Lellouche
Solo: A Star Wars Story, dir: Ron Howard
UN CERTAIN REGARD
Long Day’s Journey Into Night, Bi Gan
Little Tickles, dir: Andréa Bescond & Eric Métayer
Sofia, dir: Meyem Benm’Barek
Border, dir: Ali Abbasi
Sextape, dir: Antoine Desrosières
The Gentle Indifference Of The World, dir: Adilkhan Yerzhanov
El Angel, dir: Luis Ortega
In My Room, dir: Ulrich Kohler
The Harvesters, dir: Etienne Kallos
My Favorite Fabric, dir: Gaya Jiji
Friend, dir: Wanuri Kahiu
Euphoria, dir: Valeria Golino
Angel Face, dir: Vanessa Filho
Girl, dir: Lukas Dhont
Manto, dir: Nandita Das