By Casey Lee Clark 

The Cannes Film Festival is one of the most well-known and prestigious film festivals in the world, with an emphasis on showcasing the greatest artistic achievements from around the world.  With such a rich history and beautiful setting, Cannes can come across as one big fancy event, with its lavish red carpets and massive press conferences. However, it's impossible to ignore the number of incredible films that come out of the festival every year, some of which would not be on people’s radars otherwise. From massive triumphs by well-known directors to smaller international films, the films that premiere at Cannes are always ones to take notice of and put towards the top of your eventual watchlist for the rest of the coming year. Based on critical buzz and the various awards that were given out, here are ten films that we are excited about from this year’s Cannes Film Festival!​

By Cody Dericks 

​With this past weekend’s announcement of the awards for this year’s Cannes Film Festival, there were, of course, a good amount of people hoping that some of the winners would find similar success at the Oscars (Antonio Banderas, in particular, seemed to receive most of this talk). So I decided to do a quick little investigation into the track record of Cannes’s awards when it comes to predicting the Oscars. Are they a reliable bellwether, or should they be considered their own separate, but still prestigious, awards body?

By Daniel Howat 

Spike Lee’s “BlacKkKlansman” celebrated a very successful run at Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Grand Prix, essentially second place to the Palme d’Or. It would appear that this could be Lee’s most critically acclaimed film in years. He’s always had a complicated relationship with the Academy Awards. Could “BlacKkKlansman” bring him his first Best Director nomination?

By Danilo Castro 

The 71st edition of the Cannes Film Festival begins today, and with it a slew of anticipated titles will premiere on the big screen. Per usual, the titles scheduled to premiere at Cannes have already given us plenty to talk about, both in terms of content and in terms of the pedigree of the actors and filmmakers behind them. 

From long-gestating passion projects and eclectic dramas to sophomore efforts by promising talents, the lineup is wildly impressive in its scope, even with the recent controversy surrounding Cannes and their banning of Netflix films from the competition. “When we do a review of the year,” said festival director Thierry Frémaux, “We say to ourselves, 'We weren't daring enough'... This selection reflects that desire to be a bit more daring, to take more risks."

With that in mind, here are some of the films that we’re anticipating most ahead of today's festival.