David Cronenberg, Claire Denis and more to debut new films at Cannes 2022

The lineup for this year’s Cannes Film Festival has been announced, with new work from David Cronenberg and Claire Denis among the highlights.

Cronenberg, the godfather of body horror, will bring ‘Crimes of the Future’ to the south of France next month (May 17-28). Starring Léa Seydoux, Kristen Stewart and Viggo Mortensen, the film shares its name with the 79-year-old’s 1970 second feature, although the connection between the pair is yet to be elucidated. The first teaser trailer arrived today (April 14) – you can see it below.

Elsewhere, home favourite Denis will debut ‘The Stars at Noon’, her first feature since 2018’s critically acclaimed cosmic horror ‘High Life’. Also among the notable announcements are ‘Broker’ by Hirokazu Kore-eda and ‘Triangle of Sadness’ by Ruben Östlund; both directors are past winners of the festival’s top prize, the Palme d’Or, for ‘Shoplifters’ and ‘The Square’ respectively. Fans of understated societal reflection will be well-catered for, with Kelly Reichardt (‘Certain Women’, ‘First Cow’) and the Dardenne brothers (‘Two Days, One Night’, ‘The Unknown Girl’) both bringing new films to Cannes (‘Showing Up’ and ‘Tori and Lokita’, respectively).

Contrary to feverish online speculation, though, there is no new work from David Lynch on the lineup. Supposedly well-placed sources had told Variety that a feature-length work from the eccentric mastermind behind ‘Twin Peaks’ and ‘Mulholland Drive’ was set for Cannes, apparently featuring Laura Dern, a long-time collaborator. Fans giddily swapped theories on whether the screening would be his first movie since 2006’s ‘Inland Empire’ or a pilot for his rumoured Netflix series.

However, Lynch told Entertainment Weekly on Tuesday (April 12) that he would not be premiering anything at Cannes, and he would appear to be true to his word. The alleged series, called either ‘Wisteria’ or ‘Unrecorded Night’, had previously been reported to have foundered. Lynch received a five-minute standing ovation at the festival in 2017 after he debuted the first two parts of ‘Twin Peaks: The Return’ there.

‘Top Gun: Maverick’ and Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis Presley biopic will play out of competition, as will ‘Mad Max’ director George Miller’s new work, ‘Three Thousand Years of Longing’. Last year, Julia Ducournau’s lurid horror thriller ‘Titane’, a film deeply indebted to the work of Cronenberg, scooped the Palme d’Or. You can see the initial list of films for Cannes below.

‘Holy Spider’ – Ali Abbasi

‘Les Amandiers’ – Valeria Bruni Tedeschi

‘Crimes of the Future’ – David Cronenberg

‘The Stars at Noon’ – Claire Denis

‘Frere et Soeur’ – Arnaud Desplechin

‘Tori and Lokita’ – Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne

‘Close’ – Lukas Dhont

‘Armageddon Time’ – James Gray

‘Broker’ – Hirokazu Kore-eda

‘Nostalgia’ – Mario Martone

‘R.M.N.’ – Cristian Mungiu

‘Triangle of Sadness’ – Ruben Östlund

‘Decisions to Leave’ – Park Chan-Wook

‘Showing Up’ – Kelly Reichardt

‘Leila’s Brothers’ – Saeed Roustavi

‘Boy from Heaven’ – Tarik Saleh

‘Tchaikovsky’s Wife’ – Kirill Serebrennikov

‘Hi-Han (Eo)’ – Jerzy Skolimowski