Alicia Vikander rumoured for Bourne, first look at Martian and Dheepan wins at Cannes

The Cannes Film Festival sometimes foretells the winners of the next awards season. The prestigious Palme D’or prize has predicted success for The Third Man, Taxi Driver, Apocalypse Now, Pulp Fiction, The Pianist and The Tree of Life but neither of the two previous winners managed to match the same standard as both Blue is the Warmest Colour and Winter Sleep went Oscar-less. The winners of this years festival have been announced and at the 2016 Oscars we should be looking out for Dheepan, Chronic, Son of Saul, The Assassin and Carol. The jury included The Coen Brothers (The Big Lebowski, Burn After Reading), Guillermo Del Toro (Pacific Rim, Pan’s Labyrinth), Sienna Miller (America Sniper, Layer Cake) and Jake Gyllenhaal (Nightcrawler, Brokeback Mountain).

Palme D’or:

Dheepan

Grand Prix:

Son of Saul

Best Director:

Hou Hsiao-hsien – The Assassin

Best Screenplay:

Michel Franco – Chronic

Jury Prize:

The Lobster

Best Actress:

Rooney Mara – Carol
Emmanuelle Bercot – Mon Roi

Best Actor:

Vincent Lindon – The Measure of a Man

Alicia Vikander is one of the biggest rising stars of the moment. The Swedish star has been acclaimed in period drama A Royal Affair and sci-fi thriller Ex Machina and is seen in this summer’s spy action The Man From UNCLE. She’s now in talks for two more upcoming blockbusters. Firstly, she’s in talks for the fifth Bourne film which is directed by Paul Greengrass (Captain Phillips, United 93, Green Zone) and stars Matt Damon (The Departed, Good Will Hunting, Ocean’s Eleven) and Jeremy Renner (The Avengers, The Hurt Locker, The Town). She’s also set to join the cast of video game adaptation Assassin’s Creed with Macbeth director Justin Kurzel and stars Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave, X-Men: First Class, Prometheus) and Marion Cotillard (Inception, Rust and Bone, Two Days One Night).

Some of Ridley Scott’s recent work has failed to hit the mark: The Counsellor flopped while Prometheus and Exodus remain extremely divisive. His upcoming sci-fi epic The Martian is looking significantly more promising from the first still from the film. Ridley Scott (Gladiator, Blade Runner, American Gangster, Alien) directs the cast of Matt Damon (Saving Private Ryan, The Departed), Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave, Children of Men), Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty, Interstellar), Kristen Wiig (Bridesmaids, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty), Sebastian Stan (Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Black Swan), Kate Mara (House of Cards, Transcendence), Jeff Daniels (Looper, The Newsroom) and Sean Bean (The Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones).

The Martian – November 27th

Bourne 5 – July 29th 2016

Jenkins is Wonder Woman director, Gosling in Blade Runner and Cannes lineup revealed: Woody Allen! Pixar! Mad Max?

Warner Bros suffered a major setback on their highly anticipated fantasy reboot of the DC hero Winder Woman. Director Michelle MacLaren, behind some of the best episodes of Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones, pulled out of the film leaving a gap to fill but the replacement has been announced as Patty Jenkins (Monster) is hired. Jenkins was in fact connected to Marvel’s superhero sequel Thor: The Dark World, long before the Edgar Wright/Ant–Man split, and left based on creative differences. Gal Gadot (Fast & Furious) is the Israeli star who’ll bring the new Wonder Woman to the screen.

Gladiator’s Ridley Scott sadly passed on the new Blade Runner sequel but BAFTA nominated director Denis Villeneuve (Enemy, Incendies, Prisoners) is taking his place. Harrison Ford (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Wars, The Fugitive) is confirmed to be reprising his role as the futuristic detective Rick Deckard but some new castings are now poised to be made. The latest report shows that Ryan Gosling (Drive, The Ides of March, Crazy Stupid Love, Blue Valentine, The Place Beyond the Pines) is in talks for a a so far unspecified role but you can’t deny some likeness to the original’s Rutger Hauer.

Festivals like Cannes are now major platforms for indie films to get the platform they need to campaign their way to the Oscars and the following list might show some early awards favourites, considering last year the films included Foxcatcher, Mr Turner, Two Days One Night, Maps to the Stars, Leviathan, The Homesman, How to Train Your Dragon 2 and Force Majeure but also included the massive flop Grace of Monaco. Here’s this years selection, which’ll each be scrutinised by the jury (led by Fargo and No Country For Old Men directors Joel and Ethan Cohen) for the prestigious prize of Palme D’Or.

Film: Dheepan
Director: Jacques Audiard (A Prophet, Rust and Bone)
Starring: Vincent Rottiers, Marc Zinga
Premise: The story of a Sri Lankan Tamil warrior who flees to France and ends up working as a caretaker outside Paris.
Nation: France

Film: Marguerite et Julien
Director: Valerie Donzelli (Declaration of War)
Starring: Anais Demoustier, Frederic Pierrot
Nation: France

Film: The Tale of Tales
Director: Matteo Garrone (Gamorra)
Starring: Salma Hayek (Frida), Vincent Cassel (Black Swan), John C Reilly (The Aviator), Toby Jones (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy)
Nation: Italy

Film: Carol
Director: Todd Haynes (Far From Heaven, I’m Not There)
Starring: Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine), Rooney Mara (The Social Network), Kyle Chandler (Super 8), Sarah Paulson (American Horror Story), Cory Michael Smith (Gotham)
Premise: Set in 1950s New York, a department-store clerk who dreams of a better life falls for an older, married woman.
Nation: United States

Film: Nie yin niang (The Assassin)
Director: Hsiao Hsien Hou (Three Times)
Starring: Qi Shu, Chen Chang, Satoshi Tsumbuki
Nation: Taiwan

Film: Shan He Gu Ren (Mountains May Depart
Director: Zhangke Jia (Still Life, A Touch of Sin)
Starring: Tao Zhao
Nation: China

Film: Out Little Sister
Director: Hirokazu Koreeda (Nobody Knows, Still Walking)
Starring: Haruka Ayase, Masami Nagasawa
Nation: Japan

Film: Macbeth
Director: Justin Kurzel (Snowtown)
Starring: Michael Fassbender (12 Years A Slave), Marion Cotillard (Inception), David Thewlis (The Theory of Everything), Elizabeth Debicki (The Great Gatsby), Sean Harris (Prometheus), Jack Reynor (What Richard Did), Paddy Considine (The World’s End)
Premise: Macbeth, a duke of Scotland, receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that one day he will become King of Scotland. Consumed by ambition and spurred to action by his wife, Macbeth murders his king and takes the throne for himself.
Nation: United Kingdom, France, United States

Film: The Lobster
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos (Dogtooth)
Starring: Colin Farrell (Minority Report), Lea Seydoux (Blue is the Warmest Colour), Rachel Weisz (The Constant Gardener), Ben Whishaw (Cloud Atlas), John C Reilly (The Aviator), Olivia Colman (Tyranasour)
Premise: In a dystopian near future, single people are obliged to find a matching mate in 45 days or are transformed into animals and released into the woods.
Nation: Greece

Film: Mon Roi
Director: Maiwenn (Polisse)
Starring: Vincent Cassel, Louis Garrel
Nation: France

Film: Mia Madre
Director: Nanni Moretti (The Son’s Room)
Starring: Margherita Buy (The Caiman), John Turturro (Barton Fink)
Nation: Italy

Film: La giovinezza (The Early Years)
Director: Paolo Sorrentino (This Must Be the Place)
Starring: Rachel Weisz (The Constant Gardener), Michael Caine (Batman Begins), Jane Fonda (Coming Home), Paul Dano (There Will Be Blood), Harvey Keitel (Reservoir Dogs)
Premise: Fred and Mick, two old friends, are on vacation in an elegant hotel at the foot of the Alps.
Nation: Italy

Film: Louder Than Bombs
Director: Joaquim Trier (Oslo August 31st)
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network), Amy Ryan (Birdman), Rachel Brosnahan (House of Cards), David Strathairn (Good Night and Good Luck)
Nation: Norway, France, Denmark, United States

Film: The Sea of Trees
Director: Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting)
Starring: Matthew MacConaughey (Interstellar), Naomi Watts (King Kong), Ken Watanabe (Letters Form Iwo Jima)
Premise: A suicidal American befriends a Japanese man lost in a forest near Mt. Fuji and the two search for a way out.
Nation: United States

Film: Sicario
Director: Denis Villeneuve (Prisoners, Incendies)
Starring: Emily Blunt (Looper), Josh Brolin (No Country For Old Men), Jon Beranthal (Fury), Benicio Del Toro (Traffic)
Premise: A young female FBI agent joins a secret CIA operation to take down a Mexican cartel boss, a job that ends up pushing her ethical and moral values to the limit.
Nation: United States

Films not competing:

Film: Mad Max: Fury Road
Director: George Miller (The Road Warrior)
Starring: Tom Hardy (The Dark Knight Rises), Charlize Theron (Prometheus), Nicholas Hoult (X-Men: First Class)
Premise: In a post-apocalyptic world, in which people fight to the death, Max teams up with a mysterious woman, Furiousa, to try and survive.
Nation: Australian, United States

Film: Irrational Man
Director: Woody Allen (Annie Hall, Midnight in Paris, Vicky Cristina Barcelona)
Starring: Emma Stone (The Help), Joaquin Phoenix (Her)
Premise: On a small town college campus, a philosophy professor in existential crisis gives his life new purpose when he enters into a relationship with his student.
Nation: United States

Film: The Little Prince
Director: Mark Osborne (Kung Fu Panda)
Starring: Rachel McAdams (Sherlock Holmes), Mackenzie Foy (Interstellar), Paul Giamatti (Saving Mr Banks), James Franco (127 Hours), Marion Cotillard (Inception), Jeff Bridges (True Grit), Benicio Del Toro (Traffic), Albert Brooks (Finding Nemo), Ricky Gervais (The Office)
Premise: A pilot crashes in the desert and meets a little boy from a distant planet.
Nation: France