Cannes 2018 Palme d’Or Contenders: Here’s a Look at the Likely Winner (UPDATED)

Author: Eric Kohn / Source: IndieWire

What will Cate Blanchett’s jury pick? Here’s a look at all the Palme d’Or competitors that have screened so far and what sort of chances they stand to win the top prize.

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Each year, the Cannes Film Festival is scrutinized in piecemeal, with every day of its 10-day program bringing new entries to an exclusive competition screened for thousands of people.

While stars walk the red carpet and critics provide daily analysis, one perspective continues to take shape behind the scenes: The Cannes jury — a group of high profile filmmakers, actors, and other members of the industry — will hand out the Palme d’Or to one movie at the end of the festival, and as usual, any attempt to predict the outcome of their consensus is an exercise in futility.

Still, it’s fun to try, especially with this year’s judges. Headed by Cate Blanchett, the jury also includes actors Kristen Stewart and Lea Seydoux, as well as filmmakers Ava DuVernay, Denis Villeneuve, and Russia’s Andrey Zvyagintsev. Anyone familiar with their work can see a range of sensibilities on display, and while that alone may not indicate a potential Palme winner, it provides a starting point for some educated guesses.

The Palme winner is almost guaranteed to be a movie that gets people talking throughout the festival, leaving an emotional or intellectual impact that keeps it in the conversation until the very end. But the competition keeps unfurling across two weeks, so the possibilities expand each day.

In 2017, the prize went to Ruben Ostlund’s “The Square,” a sprawling, Kafkaesque satire of the art world that went on to score an Oscar nomination for best foreign language film. Ostlund had already made waves at Cannes with his Un Certain Regard entry “Force Majeure,” and the Palme solidified his stature as a major filmmaker; this year, there are several younger directors — including Eva Husson, Alice Rohrwacher, and A.B. Shawkey — for whom a Palme could mean instant global stature. However, there are also established auteurs like Lee Chang-dong, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, and Pawel Pawlikowski, so the jury isn’t obligated to anoint a newcomer.

The jury adheres…

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