Xavier Dolan Returns to Cannes
by Staff
(April 18, 2019 – Toronto, ON) Quebec filmmaker Xavier Dolan is headed back to Cannes with his new film, Matthias and Maxime, which costars Dolan as Maxime, Harris Dickenson and Dolan favourite Anne Dorval. Production started last August in Quebec about the same time rumours began that his previous film and Cannes festival entry, The Death and Life of John F. Donovan may never be released. Dolan had submitted that film to Cannes and it was invited to screen there, but the young director decided not to accept the invitation. He is pictured above at the 2017 Prix Iris in Montreal.
Cannes organizers announced most of their 2019 lineup this morning indicating there may be some further additions in the days 
ahead. Jim Jarmusch’s The Dead Don’t Die will open Cannes on May 14. It’s a zombie comedy starring Adam Driver, Bill Murray, and Chloe Sevigny as police officers who must protect their small town from the undead.
Dolan’s first feature, I Killed My Mother, screened at Cannes in 2009. In 2016 his film Juste la fin du Monde was the winner of the Grand Prix at Cannes. Matthias and Maxime is his eighth feature film. It looks at a group of friends in their 20s. Anne Dorval costarred in both Mommy and I Killed My Mother, playing the role of Dolan’s mother.
Following are the two lists of films released this morning, one for those films screening in Competition and the other for films screening in the prestigious Un Certain Regard:
Competition:
“Pain and Glory,” Pedro Almodovar
“The Traitor,” Marco Bellocchio
“The Wild Goose Lake,” Diao Yinan
“Parasite,” Bong Joon-ho
“Young Ahmed,” Jean-Pierre Dardenne & Luc Dardenne
“Oh Mercy!,” Arnaud Desplechin
“Atlantique,” Mati Diop
“Matthias and Maxime,” Xavier Dolan
“Little Joe,” Jessica Hausner
“Sorry We Missed You,” Ken Loach
“Les Miserables,” Ladj Ly
“A Hidden Life,” Terrence Malick
“Bacurau,” Kleber Mendonça Filho & Juliano Dornelles
“The Whistlers,” Corneliu Porumboiu
“Frankie,” Ira Sachs
“Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” Céline Sciamma
“It Must Be Heaven,” Elia Suleiman
“Sibyl,” Justine Triet
Un Certain Regard:
“Invisible Life,” Karim Aïnouz
“Beanpole,” Kantemir Balagov
“The Swallows of Kabul,” Zabou Breitman & Eléa Gobé Mévellec
“A Brother’s Life,” Monia Chokri
“The Climb,” Michael Covino
“Joan of Arc,” Bruno Dumont
“A Sun That Never Sets,” Olivier Laxe
“Room 212,” Christophe Honoré
“Port Authority,” Danielle Lessovitz
“Papicha,” Mounia Meddour
“Adam,” Maryam Touzani
“Zhuo Ren Mi Mi,” Midi Z
“Liberte,” Albert Serra
“Bull,” Annie Silverstein
“Summer of Changsha,” Zu Feng
“Evge,” Nariman Aliev
The festival’s newest poster (pictured above) pays tribute to the late French filmmaker Agnès Varda who passed away just last month. It captures the director precariously perched up high while filming her 1955 debut La Pointe Courte, which played at Cannes.
Earlier this month Telefilm Canada announced the titles of the films screening at the Cannes’ Short Film Corner, which is part of the film market that runs during the Cannes Film Festival. Telefilm’s curated Canada: Not Short on Talent will screen 15 short films, seven of which are from Quebec and the others from the Yukon, Northwest Territories, British Columbia, Ontario, Newfoundland, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. These films are:
Rémi Fréchette’s A Night of Sweats
Ludovic Dufresne’s août. septembre. (august. september.)
Joy Webster’s Buzzard
Marianne Métivier’s Celle qui porte la pluie (She who wears the rain)
Kerrin Rafuse’s False Light
Naomi Mark and Marty O’Brien’s Grey Mountain
Jerome Yoo’s Idols Never Die
Jay Reid’s Lifelike (UK/Canada)
Charles Wahl’s Little Grey Bubbles
Julie Roy’s Luz, un film de sorcières (Luz, A Witch Story)
Pier-Philippe Chevigny’s Recrue (Rebel)
Santiago Menghini’s Red Wine
Gilles Doiron and Eric Arsenault’s Rule: Le Vigilante By-Law Enforcer Story
Allan Hopkins’s Shin-chi’s Canoe
David Hamelin and Neil Macdonald’s The Changeling
Northernstars.ca joins with others in congratulating these Canadian filmmakers.
