The lineup for the 76th Cannes Film Festival has been revealed and includes a total of 52 films. Representing Japanese cinema, Hirokazu Koreeda’s upcoming film “Monster” has officially been submitted to the competition for the Palme d’Or while Takeshi Kitano’s new film “Kubi”’ will be premiering at the festival. Also, “Perfect Days” directed by German filmmaker Wim Wenders with Koji Yakusho in the cast was selected for the competition. The festival will take place from May 16th to 27th in France.
The last time Koreeda won the Palme d’Or was with “Shoplifters” in 2018. Last year the director returned to Cannes with his first South Korean movie “Broker” which won the award for Best Actor. “Monster” will be his seventh film that is submitted for the competition for Palme d’Or. The score for the film was composed by Ryuichi Sakamoto who recently passed away. After premiere of “Monster” at Cannes, it will be released in Japan on June 2.
“Kubi” was written and directed by Takeshi Kitano and will be his first film in 6 years. A period film, the story depicts the Honno-ji temple incident about the assassination attempt of warlord Oda Nobunaga leading to Hideyoshi Toyotomi’s rise to power. Kitano himself will be playing the role of Oda Nobunaga with Hidetoshi Nishijima, Ryo Kase, Tadanobu Asano joining the cast. The film will be released in Japan in the Fall.