Cannes 2022 Announces Official Line-Up, Indian Documentary All That Breathes In Special Screening Section

Delhi-based filmmaker Shaunak Sen's documentary All That Breathes will premiere in the Special Screening segment at the Cannes Film Festival 2022, the organisers announced, as they unveiled the official line-up of the movie gala on April 14. The 10-day festival, considered one of the most prestigious gatherings of cinema talent from across the world, will also see Hollywood spectacles such as Top Gun: Maverick and Elvis, the Elvis Presley biopic its 75th edition.

All That Breathes by Delhi-based director Sen will premiere in the Special Screening segment at the festival, the organisers said in an announcement that was live streamed on their official Twitter page.

The 90-minute long documentary follows siblings Mohammad Saud and Nadeem Shehzad, who have devoted their lives to rescue and treat injured birds, especially the Black Kites. Working out of their derelict basement in Wazirabad, the Delhi brothers become the central focus of the film and their story zooms out to document a larger snapshot of the city, where the air is toxic and the ground is on a slowburn of social turmoil.

In January 2022, the film won the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival, a film gala that promotes independent cinema and filmmakers. It is Sen's second directorial after the acclaimed 2016 Cities of Sleep, which was about the homeless scouting for places to sleep in the capital.

There is no Indian film in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes 2022 but neighbouring country Pakistan's Joyland, written and directed by filmmaker Saim Sadiq, features in the segment. The director previously won the Orizzonti Award for Best Short Film for Darling at the 2019 Venice Film Festival.

As previously announced, Paramount-Skydance's Top Gun: Maverick, starring Tom Cruise, and Warner Bros/Roadshow's Elvis, directed by Baz Luhrmann and featuring Austin Butler and Tom Hanks, will be the star attractions on the red carpet of the festival. Tom Cruise, who had attended Festival de Cannes three decades ago for Ron Howard's Far And Away, will also be honoured with a special career tribute at the gala.

These two big-budget spectacles will be screened under the Out of Competition segment along with Three Thousand Years of Longing by George Miller of Mad Max fame, Cedric Jiminez's Novembre, and Masquerade by Nicolas Bedos.

The Cannes 2022 gala will open on May 17 with Z (Comme Z) by Michel Hazanavicius, which will be screened Out of Competition.

Palm D'Or winning Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda will return to the Croissette with Broker, his Korean language debut starring Korean stars Song Kang-ho (Parasite), Bae Doona (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance), Gang Dong-won (Peninsula) and Lee Ji-eun, better known by her stage name IU.

Broker is part of the Competition section along with South Korean master filmmaker Park Chan-wook's Decision to Leave. Park, known for the Vengeance trilogy and The Handmaiden, won the Grand Prix at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival for Oldboy and the Jury Prize for his vampire film Thirst in 2009.

Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind by Ethan Coen and The Natural History of Destruction by Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa are also part of the Special Screening line-up.

South Korean star Lee Jung-jae's directorial debut Hunt will premiere in the Midnight Screening section of the prestigious film gala. Lee, a popular name in his native South Korea, shot to international fame and acclaim following his role of player number 456 Seong gi-hun in Squid Game, a Netflix survival drama series in September 2021.

Fumer Fait Tousser by Quentin Dupieux and Moonage Daydream by Brett Morgen are also part of the Midnight Screening segment.

James Gray's Armageddon Time, Stars At Noon by Claire Denis, Crimes of the Future (David Cronenberg), Les Amandiers (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi), Kelly Reichardt's Showing Up and Boy From Heaven by Tarik Saleh are included in the total 18 film line-up of the Competition category at Cannes 2022.

There are 15 films in the Un Certain Regard listing, which also features Les Pires by director duo Lisa Akoka and Romane Gueret, Kristoffer Borgli's Sick of Myself, Beast helmed by actor Riley Keough and Gina Gammell, Plan 75 (Hayakawa Chie), and Butterfly Vision from Maksim Nakonechnyi, among others.

The 2022 Cannes Premiere section will see the titles such as Nos Frangins by Rachid Bouchareb, Nightfall directed by Marco Bellocchio, Panos H Koutras' Dodo, and the Irma Vep series from director Olivier Assayas. The 75th edition of the Cannes Film Festival will run through May 28.