What might play this year at the Cannes Film Festival?

Much like I said last year around this time, when it comes to film festivals, there is arguably none more prestigious than the Cannes Film Festival. Each year, critics and the like descend on the south of France hoping to discover the classiest in cinema, which in turn can begin to fuel the impending Oscar speculation. 2016 likely will be no exception, as perhaps a few more Academy friendly projects than usual could wind up at Cannes. Sometime either this month or early on next month, the fest will reveal the titles scheduled to play, so I wanted to get a head start and speculate a bit about what the festival could have in its lineup. Tribeca will be on my mind soon enough, as that begins very shortly, but for the moment…Cannes gets my attention for the day today.

Even though nothing is official yet, word has begun to spread about what might be the likeliest to play Cannes this year. So far, it seems likely that Jodie Foster’s Money Monster will be playing at the festival, though that’s one of the few that seem like a safe bet. Rumors also have titles like Woody Allen’s latest untitled movie (though it might be called Café Society), Shane Black’s The Nice Guys, Jeff Nichols’ Loving, Sean Penn’s The Last Face, and Steven Spielberg’s The BFG playing. Those are films that have solid odds to play at Cannes, though they’re not the only ones. Below you’ll see a whole bunch of other flicks that I think might wind up at the festival (with ten specifically cited as well), though obviously this is just guesswork on my end right now.

Here now are 25 other films that could very well play at the Cannes Film Festival, in just a simple alphabetical order:

American Honey
Elle
Eternity
Family Photos
Finding Dory
The Founder
Free Fire
The Handmaiden
It’s Only The End of the World
Julieta
La La Land
The Light Between Oceans
Lion
The Lost City of Z
The Neon Demon
Nocturnal Animals
Paterson
Personal Shopper
Silence
Snowden
Story of Your Life
Sully
The Unknown Girl
Voyage of Time
Weightless

From that list, you have to assume that a good portion of the titles will wind up just being speculation, but a handful of them will certainly be what winds up playing. There’s tons of small scale films and probably even a big movie or two that will surprise with their inclusion, but this seems like a more or less inclusive grouping of Cannes contenders. Specifically from the list, I’d say to also look out for American Honey, Finding Dory, The Handmaiden, It’s Only The End of the World, Julieta, Lion, The Neon Demon, Paterson, Personal Shopper, and The Unknown Girl, but that’s just speculation on my part. The buzz is building for what may or may not play, though nothing is known for sure just yet.

Overall, I think the 2016 Cannes Film Festival could easily shape up to be one of the better ones in some time, though that clearly remains to be seen. A lot of times, the early buzz and write ups focus on which American or English language titles get picked to bow there, but usually it’s the foreign fare that makes or breaks Cannes. Once we know what actually is playing, we could have a better sense of it all, but at least at this current moment, it’s fun to speculate, right? There will be more in the coming days, so sit tight for that…

Stay tuned to see what winds up playing at the Cannes Film Festival this year when the official announcement is made!