The lineup for the 2016 Cannes Critics' Week has been announced.
Opening Film
In Bed with Victoria (Justine Triet): Victoria Spick, a criminal lawyer in a total sentimental void, meets at a wedding her friend Vincent and Sam, a former drug dealer she got out business. The next day, Vincent is accused of attempted murder by his girlfriend. The victim's dog is the only witness. Reluctantly, Victoria accepts to defend Vincent, while she hires Sam as an au pair. This is just the beginning of troubled times for Victoria.
Competition
Albüm (Mehmet Can Mertoğlu): A couple in their late 30’s sets out to prepare a fake photo album of a pseudo pregnancy period in order to prove their biological tie to the baby they’re planning adopt.
Diamond Island (Davy Chou): Bora, an 18-year-old, leaves his village to work on the construction sites of Diamond Island, a project for an ultra-modern paradise for for the rich and a symbol of the Cambodia of the future. He befriends his fellow workers and finds his elder brother, the charismatic Solei, who went missing five years earlier. Solei introduces him into an exciting world, that of an urban and wealthy youth, its girls, nights and illusions.
Raw (Julia Ducournau): In Justine’s family everyone is a vet and a vegetarian. At 16, she’s a gifted teen ready to take on her first year in vet school, where her older sister also studies. There, she gets no time to settle: hazing starts right away. Justine is forced to eat raw meat for the first time in her life. Unexpected consequences emerge as her true self begins to emerge.
Mimosas (Oliver Laxe): A caravan escorts an elderly and dying Sheikh through the Moroccan Atlas. His last wish is to be buried with his closed ones. But death does not wait. The caravaneers, fearful of the mountain, refuse to continue transporting the corpse. Said and Ahmed, two rogues traveling with the caravan, say they know the way and promise to take the corpse to its destiny. In another world, Shakib is chosen to travel to the mountains with a mission: to help the improvised caravaneers.
One Week and a Day (Asaph Polonsky): When the week of mourning for his late son ends, Eyal is urged by his wife to return to their routine, but instead he gets high with a young neighbor and sets out to discover that there are still things in his life worth living for.
Tramontane (Vatche Boulghourjian): Rabih, a young blind man, lives in a small village in Lebanon. His life unravels when he applies for a passport and discovers that his identification card is a forgery. Traveling across rural Lebanon in search of a record of his own birth, he meets people on the far fringes of society who tell their own stories, open further questions and give him minor clues about his identity. He encounters a nation incapable of telling his, or its own, history.
A Yellow Bird (K. Rajagopal): Siva, a Singapourian Indian man is released after years in prison for contraband smuggling. Unable to find forgiveness from his mother, he begins a quest to locate his ex-wife and daughter. Just as he finds solace and hope in the company of an illegal Chinese prostitute, he is confronted with an unbearable truth about his family. How far will he go in order to redeem himself from his guilt?
Special Screening
Happy Times Will Come Soon (Alessandro Comodin): Tommaso and Arturo have made their escape, seeking refuge in the forest. Decades later, it seems to be infested with wolves. But in this very same forest, Ariane discovers a strange hole. Could Ariane, then, be the girl mentioned in the local legend told in the valley? The reason why Ariane entered the hole remains a mystery. Everyone put their own spin on the story, but all agree on one thing: Ariane met the wolf.
Apnée (Jean-Christophe Meurisse): Céline, Thomas and Maxence always go by three. Just like the republican motto. They want to get married, to get a house, work, good children and eat oysters every day. Rebellious and ill adapted to the furious economical and administrative reality, they ride their burning quad bikes and travel across an afflicted France, looking for new landmarks, deserts strewn with bipeds and moments of ephemeral bliss.
Short & Medium-Length
Arnie (Rina B. Tsou): Docked at the port of Kaohsiung, Filipino seaman Arnie buys a ring with the help of his mates, to propose to his girlfriend back home. The supposedly happiest moment of his life soon takes a downward spiral when he finds out she is pregnant — but he is not the father of the child.
Ascensão (Pedro Peralta): At dawn, a group of peasants tries to rescue the body of a young man from the inside of a well. Women veil their faces in silence while men endure the situation. In the centre of it all, a mother awaits her son's body. How can life cease to be when in nature there is an enduring renewal?
Campo de víboras (Cristèle Alves Meira): In a small Portuguese village, a tragedy occurred. An old lady is found dead in her garden, surrounded by snakes, while her 40 year-old daughter, Lurdes, fled without telling anyone. The gossips in town about the mysterious destiny of this house are spreading fast…
Delusion Is Redemption to Those in Distress (Fellipe Fernandes): Her building is in danger of collapse. She must move out.
L'Enfance d'un chef (Antoine de Bary): Vincent, a 20-year-old successful actor, is being offered the leading role in the film of the year: a biopic on Charles de Gaulle in his youth. At the same time, his parents move to Orléans, thus pushing him to live alone. The film follows his first steps towards independence.
Limbo (Konstantina Kotzamani): The leopard shall lie down with the goat. The wolves shall live with the lambs. And the young boy will lead them. 12+1 kids and the carcass of a whale washed ashore…
Oh What a Wonderful Feeling (François Jaros): Stars, hide your fires; let not light see my black and deep desires. Nor any truck.
Prenjak (Wregas Bhanuteja): Diah takes Jarwo to the warehouse at lunchbreak. She says that she needs some quick money. She offers Jarwo to buy a match for 10.000 rupiahs. With that match, Jarwo can take a look at Diah's genitals.
Le Soldat vierge (Erwan Le Duc): Two soldiers, Daniel and Jerome, flee a war we don’t see and we know nothing about. Jerome is badly injured, he will die, he says it, he knows it, he is afraid. Then Jerome confesses to Daniel his last will: he does not want to die a virgin, he wants to die loved…
Superbia (Luca Tóth): The native people of the surrealistic land of Superbia, where men and women form separate societies, face the changes sparked by the first equal couple in their history.
Short Films in Special Screenings
50+5 Screening
From the Diary of a Wedding Photographer (Nadav Lapid): Y. a wedding photographer marries one bride, kills another and returns home.
Los pasos del agua (César Augusto Acevedo): Two humble fishermen who live in a forgotten hamlet near to the Cauca river, discovered that a dead body had been tangled in their cast net. Failing to give notice to the authorities, they decided that it would be more humane to bury him, so they start dragging the dead body towards the jungle.
Closing Films
Bonne figure (Sandrine Kiberlain): During a glory night where she gets a prize for her performance as an actress, Françoise walks around radiant in the warm light that the eyes of the others cast. She glows in a dress which fits her like a glove. Back home, the dress zipper resists. The lack of any help at hand suddenly gives her the extent of her loneliness.
En Moi (Laetitia Casta): A movie director goes to the Paris Opera to shoot his new film. Lacking inspiration, he looks for ways out of his solitude and fear of failure. With each step forward, his imagination reveals itself to him, and mysterious characters lead him towards his desire to create and love.
Kitty (Chloë Sevigny): Based on a short story by Paul Bowles, Kitty tells the story of a young girl who finds herself transforming into a kitten as she grows up and slips away from her family.