5 hot titles from Cannes, where red-carpet selfies are considered 'grotesque'

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Image: Photo by Joel Ryan/Invision/AP/Associated Press

CANNES, France — Grab your sunglasses and fancy shoes, but leave that selfie stick behind. It's time for the 68th Annual Festival de Cannes, the most spectacular, sensational and, yes, snootiest event in the international cinema calendar.

In an effort to keep this invitation-only event above the fray, festival big Thierry Frémaux has made it clear that red carpet social media snaps are a faux pas. They don't just slow down proceedings, they are “ridiculous and grotesque.” It's that level of 'tude, and the danger of those notorious boos, that gets filmmakers into a froth about debuting here.

While Cannes films don't necessarily make a killing at the box office, their impact is felt in other ways. The work inspires other filmmakers, influences fashion and gets tongues wagging. But for true movie lovers, these 11 days in the South of France are nirvana. If you include the International Critics' Week, Directors' Fortnight and Cannes Classics sidebars, close to 100 features will unspool.

Some of which are on the beach, under the stars! Here are some titles we've got eyes on this year:

French Canadian director Denis Villeneuve is one of the more unpredictable auteurs currently working. He can do straight Hollywood with Prisoners, he can do respectable arthouse with Incendies and he can do a weirdo midnight flick with Enemy. He's on-deck for the potentially sacrilegious sequel to Blade Runner but before that comes this highly anticipated CIA vs drug lord pic set in a Mexican border town with Emily Blunt, Benicio Del Toro and Josh Brolin.

Cinephiles have been screaming about Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos since his oddball family drama Dogtooth was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Oscar in 2009. This follow-up, with John C. Reilly and Rachel Weisz, is an absurdist rom-com in which characters must mate or else they are transformed into crustaceans. We're guessing this is going to make sense in context.

Few filmmakers are as versatile as Gus Van Sant. How is it that the same man that made Gerry also made Finding Forrester? Though we suspect this new one will be more of a straightforward bit of awards bait like Milk. In The Sea of Trees Matthew McConaughey stars as a man traveling to Japan to commit ritual suicide. Could be dark, but it also means that we may see McConaughey sipping wine on a beach this week. All right all right.

Bound to be gorgeous if nothing else, Todd Haynes tackles this provocative Patricia Highsmith novel concerning a lesbian love affair in 1950s New York. Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara are co-workers at a high end department store, and considering Haynes' previous work, we may have to suggest that fashion enthusiasts bring smelling salts into the Palais during this screening.

Have you heard of this British writer? Bill something? “The Scottish Play” is brought to film once more. Can Australian director Justin Kurzel (Snowtown) stand alongside Roman Polanski and Orson Welles? Well, this remains to be seen. With Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard in the leads, he's off to a good start. We're greatly anticipating hearing the “knocking that would wake Duncan” in the Palais' thumping sound system.

These five films are all in competition for the prestigious Palme D'Or, but, as we say, there's a lot else going on in additional sections. 

Mad Max: Fury Road will make its official bow in an non-competing slot, and will douse the swells in grime and gasoline. Pixar's update of the old sitcom Herman's Head, Inside Out, will screen as well. 

Woody Allen, still welcome in France, brings his new one Irrational Man starring Joaquin Phoenix and Emma Stone. And Natalie Portman will present her first feature as director, an adaptation of Israeli author Amos Oz's memoirs A Tale of Love and Darkness. (She also stars as the young writer's complex mother.) 

Lastly, there's enfant terrible Gaspar Noë, director of Enter the Void and his extremely sexually explicit new movie Love. That one's showing at midnight, so hopefully it'll be dark enough no one will see you leaving the theater.