Cannes Film Festival 2022: movies we're excited to see

Elvis, dir. Baz Luhrmann (Out of Competition)

Baz Luhrmann always loves a party, and what's a better theme than the King of rock 'n' roll? That’s right: the director of Romeo + Juliet (1996), Moulin Rouge! (2001) and The Great Gatsby (2013) is tackling a biopic of Elvis Presley, with Austin Butler stepping into the latter’s blue suede shoes.

The film spans 20 years of Elvis’s life, capturing his rise to fame – as America was evolving – and the complicated relationship with his manager Colonel Tom Parker (Tom Hanks). It also stars The Staircase's Olivia DeJonge as Elvis’s wife Priscilla and The Power of the Dog’s Kodi Smit-McPhee as the singer Jimmie Rodgers.

Top Gun: Maverick, dir. Joseph Kosinski (Out of Competition)

Is there a more 80s movie than Top Gun? The cheesiness, attractive men, and aerodynamic action – bombastically soundtracked by Kenny Loggins – seems symbolic, now, of Hollywood at the time.

More than 30 years since his initial appearance, the classic Tom Cruise hero is back for some more plane-related magic in Top Gun: Maverick. Avoiding advancement and retirement, Maverick instructs the latest Top Gun pilots for a dangerous mission. However, one of the pilots, Rooster (Miles Teller), is the son of the ill-fated Goose from the first movie – making Maverick confront the demons of his past. The film recently had a six-minute standing ovation at Cannes.

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Photo: Paramount/EPK

Crimes of the Future, dir. David Cronenberg (In Competition)

David Cronenberg is no stranger to controversy, his dark and surreal imagination often disturbing and offending the mainstream – especially at Cannes. Now, the auteur is back to conjure up a black cloud over the south of France with Crimes of the Future, returning to his body-horror roots.

Starring Viggo Mortensen, Léa Seydoux and Kristen Stewart, the film is set in a bleak dystopia where the human body adapts to a new synthetic environment. Saul (Mortenson) is an artist who, with his partner Caprice (Seydoux), displays his organs for an avant-garde performance. Cronenberg has predicted walk-outs.

Photo: Neon

Three Thousand Years of Longing, dir. George Miller (Out of Competition)

Idris Elba playing a genie – what more do you want? In George Miller’s first film since his blistering, Oscar-winning action reboot Mad Max: Fury Road, Elba plays a Djinn accidentally summoned by Istanbul scholar Alithea (Tilda Swinton). The Djinn offers her three wishes in exchange for his freedom – telling her his long, long story in the process.

Photo: MGM/EPK

Stars At Noon, dir. Claire Denis (In Competition)

Claire Denis returns to Cannes with her second English-language film The Stars At Noon. Based on the novel by Denis Johnson, this Nicaraguan thriller follows the love story between English businessman Daniel (Conversations With Friends’ Joe Alwyn) and American journalist Trish (Maid’s Margaret Qualley). They’re caught in the middle of the Sandinista-led revolution in 1984, entrapped in networks of lies and conspiracies while trying to leave the country.

Photo: BBC, Joe Alwyn in Conversations With Friends

Decision to Leave, dir. Park Chan-wook (In Competition)

Park Chan-wook is one of South Korea’s most popular movie exports – wowing Cannes in 2004 with Oldboy. His last movie was 2016's The Handmaiden, prior to making his TV adaptation of The Little Drummer Girl starring Florence Pugh. Now, he’s returned to the movies in a more muted fashion with his new detective drama Decision to Leave. The story follows a woman suspected of her husband’s murder and the well-meaning detective who's conducting the investigation.

Photo: MUBI

Triangle of Sadness, dir. Ruben Östlund (In Competition)

Swedish filmmaker Ruben Östlund won the Palme D’Or in 2017 for his strange and brilliant blazing of the art world in The Square. He returns to Cannes for another round of social satire in his new film Triangle of Sadness starring Woody Harrelson. It follows a pair of influencers on a luxury cruise, living the high life with a gaggle of billionaires. But when the ship heads for disaster, all of them are stranded on a desert island and modern-day hierarchies begin to dissolve as they struggle for survival.

Photo: Sky, Woody Harrelson in After the Sunset

Showing Up, dir. Kelly Reichardt (In Competition)

Well-respected in the indie film scene, writer-director Kelly Reichardt weaved a gradual, fascinating tale of friendship formed by cake in First Cow. For her next film Showing Up, nominated for the Palme D’Or, she reunites with Michelle Williams for the fourth time to tell a story moulded by clay. Williams plays Lizzie, a sculptor under pressure to unveil a new show while navigating the everyday dramas of her friends and family. But those grievances gradually become the inspiration for her art.

Photo: Sky, Michelle Williams in Certain Women

Armageddon Time, dir. James Gray (In Competition)

Anthony Hopkins, Anne Hathaway, Jeremy Strong, and Jessica Chastain star in this new autobiographical 80s drama from Ad Astra director James Gray. All those big names support the young Banks Repeta as Paul Graff, Gray’s 11-year-old alter-ego, who navigates New York as a Jewish boy with parents trying to fulfil their American Dream. But after moving to private school and witnessing various inequalities, Paul learns some awful truths about the world.

Photo: Focus Features/EPK

Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind, dir. Ethan Coen (Special Screening)

The Coen Brothers have drifted apart in recent years, pursuing their own solo projects. Joel Coen adapted Shakespeare with The Tragedy of Macbeth last year, and now Ethan Coen ventures into the documentary genre with his new film Jerry Lewis: Trouble in Mind. The 70-minute doc traces the history of the 50s rock n roll star – delving into his complicated history. No doubt this will include the, um, marriage to his 13-year-old cousin Myra Gale Brown that destroyed his rock career…

Photo: Sky, Jerry Lewis on Music Icons