Cannes Film Festival 2015

The films that this year will be competing for the Palme D'Or are:

Carol

Directed by Todd Haynes

Script/Dialogue: Phyllis Nagy

Actors: Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Sarah Paulson, Kyle Chandler.

Country: United Kingdom, United States

In New York in the early 1950s, Therese Belivet, is working in a Manhattan department store and dreaming of a more fulfilling life when she meets Carol Aird, an alluring woman trapped in a falling marriage. As an inmediate connection sparks between them, the innocence of their first encounter dims and their connection deepens.

When Carol's involvement with Therese comes to light, Carol's husband retaliates by challenging her competence as a mother. And as Carol and Therese take refuge on the road, leaving their respective lives behind, a confrontation emerges that will test each woman's assumptions about herself and commitments to one another.

Chronic

Directed by Michel Franco

Actors: Tim Roth, Robin Bartlett, Michael Cristofer, Sarah Sutherland, Nailea Norvind, Rachel Pickup.

Country: Mexico

David is a nurse who works with terminally ill patients. Efficient and dedicated to his profession, he develops strong and even intimate relationships with each person he cares for. But outside of his work David is ineffectual, awkward, and reserved. It is clear that he needs each patient as much as they need him.

Dheepan

Directed by Jacques Audiard

Script/Dialogue: Noé Debré, Thomas Bidegain, Jacques Audiard

Actors: Jesuthasan Antonythasan, Kalieswari Srinivasan, Claudine Vinasithamby, Vincent Rottiers, Marc Zinga.

Country: France

To escape the civil war in Sri Lanka, a former soldier, a young woman and a little girl pose as a family. They end up setting in a housing project outside Paris. -they barely know one another, but try to build a life together.

Il Racconto ei Racconti (Tale of Tales)

Directed by Matteo Garrone

Script/Dialogue: Edoardo Albinati, Ugo Chiti, Matteo Garrone, Massimo Gaudioso.

Actors: Salma Hayek, Vincent Cassel, Toby Jones, Shirley Henderson, Hayley Carmichael, Bebe Cave, Stacy Martin, Christian Lees, Jonah Lees, Guillaume Delaunay, Alba Rorhwacher, Massimo Ceccherini, John C. Reilly.

Country: Italy

Once upon a time there were three neighboring kingdoms each with a magnificent castle, from which ruled kings and queens, princes and princesses. One king was a fornicating libertine, another captivated by a strange animal, while one of the queens was obsessed by her wish for a child. Sorcerers and fairies, fearsome monsters, ogres and old washerwomen, acrobats and courtesans are the protagonists of this loose interpretation of the celebrated tales of Giambattista Basile.

La Loi Du Marche (The Measure of a Man)

Directed by Stéphane Brizé

Script/Dialogue: Stéphane Brizé, Olivier Gorce

Actors: Vincent Lindon.

Country: France

At the age of 51 and after 20 months on unemployment, -thierry starts a new job that soon brings him face to face with a moral dilemma; How much is he willing to accept to keep his job?

Louder Than Bombs

Directed by Joachim Trier

Script/Dialogue: Eskil Vogt, Joachim Trier

Actors: Gabriel Byrne, Isabelle Huppert, Jesse Eisenberg, Amy Ryan, Devin Druid, David Strathairn, Rachel Brosnahan, Ruby Jerins, Megan Ketch.

Country: Norway, France, Denmark

An upcoming exhibition celebrating photographer Isabelle Reed three years after her untimely death, brings her eldest son Jonah back to the family house – forcing him to spend more time with his father Gene and withdrawn younger brother Conrad than he has in years. With the three of them under the same roof, Gene trie desperately to connect wih his two sons, but they struggle to reconcile their feelings about the woman they remember so differently.

Macbeth

Directed by Justin Kurzel

Actors: Marion Cotillard, Michael Fassbender, Jack Reynor, Paddy Considine, David Thewlis, Sean Harris, Elizabeth Debicki.

Country: United Kingdom

Macbeth is the story of a fearless warrior and inspiring leader brought low by ambition and desire. A thrilling interpretation of the dramatic realities of the times and a reimagining of what wartime must have been like for one of Shakespeare's most famous and compelling characters, a story of all-consuming passion and ambition set in war torn 11th century Scotland.

Marguerite & Julien

Directed by Valérie Donzelli

Script/Dialogue: Jérémie Elkaïm, Valérie Donzelli

Actors:Anaïs Demoustier, Jérémie Elkaïm, Fréderic Pierrot, Aurélia Petit, Raoul Fernandez, Catherine Mouchet, Bastien Bouillon, Sami Frey, Géraldine Chaplin.

Country: France

Julien and Marguerite de Ravalet, son and daughter of the Lord of Tourlaville, have loved each other tenderly since childhood. But as they grow up, their affection veers toward voracious passion. . Scandalized by their affair, society hounds them until, unable to resist their feeling, they flee.

A contemporary fairytale about desire, passion, hope, love and death. A timeless story, beyond all morality.

Mia Madre (My Mother)

Directed by Nanni Moretti

Script/Dialogue: Nanni Moretti, Francesco Piccolo, Valia Santella

Actors: Margherita Buy, John Turturro, Giulia Lazzarini, Nanni Moretti, Beatrice Mancini.

Country: Italy

Margherita is a director shooting a film with the famous American actor, Barry Huggins, who is quite a headache on set. Away from the shoot, Margherita tries to hold her life together, despite her mother's illness and her daugther's adolescence.

Mon Roi

Directed by: Maïwenn

Script/Dialogue: Etienne Comar, Maïwenn

Actors: Vincent Cassel, Emmanuelle Bercot, Louis Garrel, Isild LeBesco.

Country: France

Tony is admitted to a rehabilitation center after a serious ski accident. Dependent on the medical staff and pain relievers, she takes time to look back on a turbulent relationship that she experiences with Georgio. Why did they love each other? Who is this man that she loved so deeply? How did she allow herself to submit to this suffocating and destructive passion? For Tony, a difficult process of healing is in front of her, physical work which may finally set her free...

Nie Yinniang

Directed by Hou Hsiao-Hsien

Script/Dialogue: Hou HsiaoHsien, Chu Tien-Wien

Actors: Shu Qi, Chang Chen, Zhou Yun, Tsumabuki Satoshi, Juan Ching-tian, Hsieh Hsin-ying, Sheu Fang-yi

Country: Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, France

9th century China. 10-yea-old general's daughter Nie Yinniang is abducted by a nun who initiates her into the martial arts, transforming her into an exceptional assassin charged with eliminating cruel and corrupt local governors. One day, having failed in a task, she is sent back by her mistress to the land of her birth, with orders to kill the man to whom she was promised – a cousin who now leads the largest military region in North China. After 13 years of exile, the young woman must confront her parents, her memories and her long-repressed feelings.

A slave to the orders of her mistress, Nie Yinniang must choose: sacrifice the man she loves or break forever with the sacred way of the righteous assassins.

Saul Fia (Son of Saul)

Directed by László Nemes

Script/Dialogue: László Nemes.

Actors: Géza Röhrig, Levente Molnár, Urs Rechn, Todd Charmont, Marcin Czarnik, Jerzy -walczak, Sándor Zsötér, Uwe Lauer, Christian Pion, Amital Kedar, Kamil Dobrowolski, Juli Jakab.

Country: Hungary

October 1944, Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Saul Ausländer is a Hungarian member of the Sonderkommando, the group of Jewish prisoners isolated from the camp and forced to assist the Nazis in the machinery of large-scale extermination.

While working in one of the crematoriums, Saul discovers the corpse of a boy he takes for his son.

As the Sonderkommando plans a rebellion, Saul decides to carry out an impossible task: save the child0s body from the flames, find a rabbi to recite the mourner's Kaddish and offer the boy a proper burial.

Shan He Gu Ren (Mointains may Depart)

Directed by Jia Zhang-Ke

Script/Dialogue: Jia Zhang-Ke

Actors: Zhao Tao, Zhang Yi, Liang Jingdong, Sylvia Chang, Dong Zijang.

Country: China, Japan, France.

In 1999, Fenyang.

Tao, a school teacher, is in love with Liang, who is a coal miner. But Tao brings an end to their relationship when she is proposed marriage with Jinsheng, who just became an owner of the coal mine. Heartbroken, Liang leaves his hometown in self-exile. In 2014, Liang, who lives in Handang, finds himself in a fatal illness. Liang decides to go back to Fenyang with his wife and a daughter to live his last days at his hometown. Liang meets Tao, who was already divorced with Jinsheng, temporary comes back to Fenyang to his grandpa's funeral. Tao learns that Daole is going to immigrate to Australia with Jinsheng. After the funeral, Tao sees off her son on the train to Shanghai.

Sicario

Directed by Denis Villeneuve

Script/Dialogue: Taylor Sheridan

Actors: Emily Blunt, Benicio Del Toro, Josh Brolin, Jon Bernthal, Victor Garber.

Country: United States

In Mexico, Sicario means hitman.

In the lawless border area stretching between the U.S. And Mexico, an idealistic FBI agent is enlisted by an elite government task force official to aid in the escalating war against drugs.

Lead by an enigmatic consultant with a questionable past, the team sets out on a cladestine journey forcing Kate to question everything that she believes in order to survive.

The Lobster

Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos

Script/Dialogue: Yorgos Lanthimos

Actors: Colin Farrell, Jessica Barden, Rachel Weisz, Olivia Colman, Ashley Jensen, Ariane Labed, Angeliki Papoulia, John C. Reilly, Léa Seydoux, Michael Smiley, Ben Whishaw.

Country: Ireland, United Kingdom, France, Greece.

A love story set in the near future where single people, according to the rules of The City, are arrested and tranferred to The Hotel. There they are obligated to find a matching mate in 45 days. If they fail, they are transformed into an animal of their choosing and released into The Woods. A desperate Man escapes from The Hotel to The Woods where The Loners live and falls in love, although it is against their rules.

The Sea Of Trees

Directed by Gus Van Sant

Script/Dialogue: Christopher Sparling

Actors: Matthew McConaughey, Naomi Watts, Ken Watanabe.

Country: United States

It's love and loss that lead Arthur Brennan, across the world to Japan's Aokigahara, a mysterious dense forest known as The Sea of Trees lpping the foothills of Japan's Mount Fuji – a place where people go to contemplate life and death. Arthur enters the depths of the forest and loses himself beyond the guiding ribbons threaded through the trees by many before him. Having found the perfect place to die, Arthur encounters Takumi Nakamura, a Japanese man who also appears to have lost his way. Unable to leave Takumi behind, Arthur invest all of his remaining enrgy into saving Takumi and returning him to safety. The two men embark a journey of reflection and survival, which affirms -arthur's will to live and reconnects him to his love with his wife.

Umimachi Diary (Our Little Sister)

Directed by Kore-Eda Hirokazu

Script/Dialogue: Kore-Eda Hirokazu

Actors: Ayase Haruka, Nagasawa Masami, Kaho, Hirose Suzu.

Country: Japan

Three sisters – Sachi, Yoshino and Chika – live together in a large house in the city of Kamakura. When their father – absent from the fmily home for the last 15 years – diea, they travel to the countryside for his funeral, and meet their shy teenage half-sister. Bonding quickly with the orphaned Suzu, they invite her to live with them. Suzu eagerly agrees, and a new joyful discovery begins for the four siblings.

Valley Of Love

Directed by Guillaume Nicloux

Script/Dialogue: Guillaume Nicloux

Actors: Isabelle Huppert, Gerard Depardieu

Country: France

Isabelle and Gérard go to a strange appointment in the -death Valley, California. They have not seen each other for years and are here to answer to an invitation from their son Michael, a photographer, which they received after his suicide, six month ago.

Despite the absurdity of the situation, they decide to follow the initiatory program designed by Michael...

Youth

Directed by Paolo Sorrentino

Actors: Michael Caine, Harvey Keitzel, Rachel Weisz, Paul Dano, Jane Fonda.

Country: Italy, France, United Kingdom, Switzerland

Fred and Mick, two old friends approaching their eighties, are enjoying a vacation in a lovely hotel in the foothills of the Alps. Fred, a retired composer and conductor, has no intention of returning to his music career which he dropped a long time ago, while Mick, a director, is still working, hurrying to finish the screenplay of his latest film. Both friends know that hteir days are numbered and decide to face their future together. But unlike them, no one else seems worried about the passing of time...