[imagesource: Neon]

This year’s Cannes Film Festival has a few big names and sizeable studio efforts on show, like Elvis and Top Gun: Maverick.

But as usual, there are also some hidden gems worth excavating.

The Cannes lineup is particularly rich this year, due in part to a few festival regulars and also a number of rising stars.

We’ll be getting into a few of the more anticipated films, many of which don’t even have an official trailer.

Brand spanking new and indie, just how we like it.

Let’s dive in, with five films as listed by The Guardian:

Crimes of the Future

Cannes regular David Cronenberg returns with his own long-gestating script, about a future world in which people have to adapt to transhumanism. Evolution accelerates, bodies sprout new organs and human identities are in a state of flux.

Sounds plausible:

The Natural History of Destruction

Ukrainian filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa returns to Cannes for a special screening of his new documentary, based on the book by WG Sebald about the horror of aerial bombardment during the second world war – a subject with a special resonance today.

The festival website has more about this film.

Broker

Japanese auteur Hirokazu Kore-eda has made his first Korean language film, with Korean star Song Kang-ho, an intense emotional drama, based on a real case, about the “baby boxes” in which people can leave unwanted newborns.

That’s particularly apt given what’s happening across the pond in the US:

One Fine Morning

Transgressive passion is the foundation of this movie from Mia Hansen-Løve, with Léa Seydoux as Sandra, a single mum with a young daughter, trying to find care for her elderly father, and embarking on an intense affair with an old friend.

You can find out more at IMDb.

Men

A frisson of League-of-Gentlemen unease in a creepy English country village where all the men (played by Rory Kinnear) have a weird resemblance to each other: Jessie Buckley stars in this scary movie from Alex Garland.

British and creepy is a potent combination:

The 2022 Cannes Film Festival starts today (May 17) and runs through to May 28.

[source:guardian]