For its 70th Anniversary, Cannes Film Festival Embraces Diversity

Vanessa Obioha

A week after it released its highly controversial poster, Cannes Film Festival releases its 2017 movies line-up. The movies apparently are meticulously selected to reflect diversity. From politics to animal cruelty, Cannes 2017 is all about diversity. British actress Vanessa Redgrave tackles immigration crisis in ‘Sea Sorrow’, which marks her directorial debut; Claude Lanzmann takes a short at the present North Korea crisis in his documentary ‘Napalm’. Al Gore continues his quest on climate change in his documentary ‘An Inconvenient Sequel’; Robin Campillo’s revisits the AIDS crisis in ‘120 Battements Par Minute’.

This year, the festival will recognise virtual cinema such as Netflix-funded films  ‘Okja’ and ‘The Meyerowitz Brothers’  as well as  Amazon’s ‘Wonderstruck’.

TV is not left out in the mix. The first two episodes of the David Lynch’s ‘Twin Peaks’ will be screened alongside Jane Campion’s detective drama ‘Top of the Lake’.

 The film festival will also feature 12 female directors out of which three will be competing for the Palme D’Or: Sofia Coppola’s ‘The Beguiled’, an adaptation of the southern gothic film, starring Nicole Kidman, Colin Farell and Kirsten Dunst;  Scotland’s Lynne Ramsay film about a sex-trafficking ring ‘You Were Never Really Here’; and Japanese director Naomi Kawase’s ‘Radiance’, a film about a photographer with a failing eyesight. Kristen Stewart will also make her directorial debut with a short film ‘Come Swim’.

Other top contenders in the competition include Michael Haneke’s ‘Happy End’, and Fatih Akin’s ‘In the Fade’.

Owing to the recent attacks in France lately, Festival President, Pierre Lescure assured that there will be maximum security in the festival.

Cannes Film Festival will take place from May 17-28 with ‘Bad Education’ director, Pedro Almodovar  presiding over this year’s jury.