Paul Dano's 'Wildlife' to Open Cannes Critics' Week Sidebar

AWARDS BEAT

“Wildlife,” Paul Dano’s adaptation of a Richard Ford novel starring Carey Mulligan and Jake Gyllenhaal, has been chosen to screen in the International Critics’ Week sidebar at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival.

Critics’ Week is run independently of the main festival but takes place concurrently. The selection is devoted to first and second films from new directors — and its directorial debuts, including “Wildlife,” are eligible for Cannes’ Camera d’Or for the festival’s best first film.

“Wildlife” debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in January, where it won positive reviews and was acquired by IFC Films. The only American film screening in Critics’ Week, it will be presented as a special opening-night screening in the sidebar.

Also Read: 'Wildlife' Review: Paul Dano's Directorial Debut Is an Austere Portrait of a Family in Crisis

Guillaume Senez’s “Our Struggles” will also be presented as a special screening, while Alex Katz’s “Guy” will close the section. The seven competition titles in Critics’ Week will include Agnieszka Smoczynska’s “Fugue,” Benedikt Erlingsson’s “Woman at War,” Anja Kofmel’s “Chris the Swiss,” Rohena Gera’s “Sir” and Sofia Szilagyi’s “One Day.”

International Critics’ Week (Semaine de la Critique) is organized by the French Union of Film Critics, which is made up of 244 critics, writers and journalists. The oldest parallel section to the Cannes Film Festival, it began in 1962.

The winners will be chosen by a jury headed by Danish director Joachim Trier and also including American actress Chloe Sevigny, Argentinian actor Nahuel Perez Biscayart, festival programmer Eva Sangiori and French journalist Augustin Trapenard.

Critics’ Week also announced 10 short films in competition and another three in special screenings.

Also Read: Cannes Lineup Reaches From Spike Lee to Jean-Luc Godard

Filmmakers who first screened in Cannes as part of Critics’ Week include Bernardo Bertolucci, Ken Loach, Guillermo del Toro, Jacques Audiard and Alejandro G. Inarritu.

The other main sidebar that runs concurrently with the festival, Directors’ Fortnight, will announce its lineup on Tuesday.

This year’s Cannes Film Festival will run from May 8 through May 19.

The Critics’ Week lineup:

Special screenings:
“Wildlife,” Paul Dano
“Nos Batailles” (“Our Struggles”), Guillaume Senez
“Sheherazade,” Jean-Bernard Marlin

Feature film competition:
“Fuga” (“Fugue”), Agnieszka Smoczynska
“Kona Fer I Strid” (Woman at War”), Benedikt Erlingsson
“Sauvage,” Camille Vidal-Naquet
“Diamantino,” Gabriel Abrantes & Daniel Schmidt
“Chris the Swiss,” Anja Kofmel
“Sir,” Rohena Gera
“Egy Nap” (“One Day”), Sofia Szilagyi

Closing night:
“Guy,” Alex Lutz

Short films competition:
“Amor, Avenidas Novas,” Duarte Coimbra
“Ektoras Malo: I Teleftea Mera Tis Chronias” (“Hector Malot: The Last Day of the Year”), Jacqueline Lentzou
“Pauline asservie” (“Pauline, Enslaved”), Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet
“La Persistente,” Camille Lugan
“Rapaz” (“Raptor”), Felipe Galvez
“Schacher,” Flurin Giger
“Tiikeri” (“The Tiger”), Mikko Myllylahti
“Un Jour de Marriage” (“A Wedding Day”), Elias Belkeddar
“Ya Normalniy” (“Normal”), Michael Borodin
“Mo-Bum-Shi-Min” (“Exemplary Citizen”), Kim Cheol-Hwi

Short films special screenings:
“Third Kind,” Yorgos Zois
“La Chute” (“The Fall”), Boris Labbe
“Ultra Pulpe,” Bertrand Mandico

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