Top Films from Cannes Film Festival 2020-2024

With Cannes 2025 officially underway, I am taking inspiration from The Disapproving Swede to revisit the past few years to make a Top 10 list of my favourite Cannes films from 2020 – 2024. Of course, this list isn’t a proper reflection of 5 normal years of film selections. There was no physical Cannes Film Festival edition in 2020 so that likely impacted the distribution of many 2020 selections. In turn, the deferred 2020 edition also likely ensured that 2021 and 2022 consisted of many more worthy films. There are also quite a few 2024 films that I need to view so in essence, this list is mostly made of 2021 – 2023 titles. Plus, I have decided to incorporate all the different Cannes sections, including Critics’ Week and Directors’ Fortnight.

Top 10 Films from Cannes 2020 – 2024

1. Pacification (2022, Alberta Serra): Competition

2. La chimera  (2023, Alice Rohrwacher): Competition

3. Drive my Car (2021, Ryusuke Hamaguchi): Competition

4. Return to Seoul (2022, Davy Chou): Un Certain Regard

5. Aftersun (2022, Charlotte Wells): Critics' Week

6. The Taste of Things (2023, Tran Anh Hung): Competition

7. A Night of Knowing Nothing (2021, Payal Kapadia): Directors' Fortnight

8. Close Your Eyes (2023, Víctor Erice): Cannes Premiere

9. Eureka (2023, Lisandro Alonso): Cannes Premiere

10. Grand Tour (2024, Miguel Gomes): Competition

Honourable Mentions (in no order):

Memoria (2021, Apichatpong Weerasethakul): Competition

My Imaginary Country (2022, Patricio Guzmán): Special Screenings

The Delinquents (2023, Rodrigo Moreno): Un Certain Regard

How to Have Sex (2023, Molly Manning Walker): Un Certain Regard

Universal Language (2024, Matthew Rankin): Directors' Fortnight

Top 10 Films by Year & %

2021: 2, 20%

2022: 3, 30%

2023: 4, 40%

2024: 1, 10%

As expected, no 2020 films made the cut and only one from 2024.

Top 10 Films by Cannes Category:

Competition: 5, 50%

Un Certain Regard: 1, 10%

Critics’ Week: 1, 10%

Directors' Fortnight: 1, 10%

Cannes Premiere: 2, 20%

I am surprised to find that half of my Top 10 consists of films in the Official Competition category. In the past, I have been more partial to those in Un Certain Regard and Directors’ Fortnight categories. Although, I do believe that Cannes Premiere category has taken away films that would have been in Critics’ Week or Directors’ Fortnight.

Top 15 Films by Year:

2021: 3, 20%

2022: 4, 27%

2023: 6, 40%

2024: 2, 13%

The overall % increase in Top 15 is closely proportional to those in the Top 10.

Top 15 Films by Cannes Category:

Competition: 6, 40%

Un Certain Regard: 3, 20%

Critics’ Week: 1, 7%

Directors' Fortnight: 2, 13%

Cannes Premiere: 2, 13%

Special Screenings: 1, 7%

The Films of Lee Chang-dong

Notes on all six of Lee Chang-dong’s directed features up to date:

Green Fish (1997)

Peppermint Candy (1999)

Oasis (2002)

Secret Sunshine (2007)

Poetry (2010)

Burning (2018)

Similar to many contemporary directorial spotlights, I started in the middle. The first Lee Chang-dong film I saw was his 4^th, Secret Sunshine, at the Vancouver International Film Festival. I then viewed his next two films in order, Poetry (2010) and Burning (2018). Given that Lee Chang-dong has only directed 6 features, a spotlight of seeing his first three features and revisiting the next 3 felt feasible and much needed.

Cinematic Novels

I labeled Lee Chang-dong’s films as cinematic novels even before I was aware that he had written two novels. Considering his films via the lens of a novel makes a lot more sense now as his films have an emotional depth akin to a novel. In addition, his films are propelled by a strong narrative and the emotional punch arrives via the consequences of the characters’ actions. The characters in his films aren’t clean cut and are emotional, flawed and messy individuals with baggage of their own. In contrast, many other Korean contemporary directors, including Bong Jong-ho and Park Chan-wook, use genre to propel the story forward and thriller/mystery elements to heighten emotional impact. On the other hand, the emotional punch in Lee Chang-dong's films arrives from the harsh reality his characters find themselves in.

Films such as Poetry, Oasis and Secret Sunshine are freed from any genre pretense and presented as harsh realities and result in emotions hitting harder. The final moments of Poetry (including that last frame) is such as example. Burning uses a mystery framework but even then, Lee Chang-dong retools the film in a different manner from a conventional genre treatment. It isn’t a surprise that a retrospective of his films was called “Cinema of Trauma”by MoMA.

Big Four

Lee Chang-dong has won plenty of awards for his films. However, it feels like he isn’t as celebrated compared to Bong Jong-ho, Park Chan-wook or even Hong Sang-soo. The limited output of 6 features has certainly played a part and the story of his films such as Oasis and Secret Sunshine aren’t going to draw crowds in. Secret Sunshine remains the only film that I have seen in a cinema where an audience member had such a visceral reaction to the film that she showed the finger at the screen and walked off in anger. 

Burning has an easier entry point for audience compared to his other features. Burning should have made the final cut for the Academy Award Foreign Film Category but it fell short and a year later, Parasite made history for Korean cinema. In a way, this highlights the difference in perception for Lee Chang-dong. Bong Joon-Ho crossed over the threshold globally at the Academy Awards and Cannes while Park Chan-wook has a cult following due to his Vengeance trilogy and Hong Sang-soo has a collected devotion of fans and gets awards on a regular basis. Lee Chang-dong has won awards right from his first film but his films (with exception of Burning) aren't as frequently cited in conversations related to contemporary Korean Cinema.

This spotlight has changed my perception of his films though. Out of these four Korean directors, Bong Joon Ho, Park chan-wook, Hong Sang-soo, Lee Chang-dong, I would place Lee Chang-dong well ahead of Hong Sang-soo and Park Chan-wook and tied with Bong Joon-ho in terms of cinematic power. When it comes to a powerful story, I would easily place Lee Chang-dong ahead of the other 3 while Bong Jong-ho would come out on top when it comes to a polished end product that combines social commentary with genre.

Ranking Lee Chang-dong’s 6 features (in order of preference)

As it turns out, the ranking is close to the order of their release as well

1. Burning (2018)

2. Poetry (2010)

3. Secret Sunshine (2007)

4. Oasis (2002)

5. Green Fish (1997)

6. Peppermint Candy (1999)

Peppermint Candy unfolds like a novel with each chapter highlighting key moments in the character’s journey. Not all the chapters are powerful enough, which is why this film gets to the bottom of the list. Green Fish made me think of early cinema of Hou Hsiao-hsien while the gangster element in that film and the volatile nature of main character in Oasis recalled Kim Ki-duk’s older films (especially Bad Guy) but those similarities are only on the surface. Interestingly, topic of Poetry reminded a bit of Bong Jong-ho’s Mother (2009) and both films were a year apart. However, the difference in execution and finale of both films highlights how the two directors approach their work.

Other reading

Dennis Lim's article on Lee Chang-dong is excellent and worthy reading.

Paolo Sorrentino's Naples

A double-bill of Paolo Sorrentino's first and newest features:

One Man Up (2001)

Parthenope (2024)

Soccer and Women

Tell me someone is an Italian filmmaker without telling me someone is an Italian filmmaker.

The presence of Soccer and Women in these two films emphasizes Paolo Sorrentino’s Italian credentials even though both aren’t present in all his films.

One Man Up and Parthenope are set in Sorrentino's birthplace of Naples, which since the late 1980s has been associated with soccer after Diego Maradona’s arrival in 1984 to play for Napoli. Therefore, it isn’t a surprise that soccer features in Sorrentino’s first and newest film. In addition, Sorrentino’s 2021 film Hand of God is named after Diego’s infamous 1986 handball goal against England in the World Cup. Soccer is absent in Parthenope until the finale when the film ends with Napoli’s 2023 title celebrations to emphasize a magical finale to the film and the soccer team’s fairytale title.

Soccer is front and center in One Man Up, a tale of two men who share the same name, Antonio Pisapia, and an unlucky fate. The two Antonios live different lives and have different careers but their paths intersect slightly when both their lives are in a state of decline. One Antonio (Tony played by Sorrentino regular Toni Servillo) is a pop singer who is still living on past fortunes despite having his reputation in tatters after a sex scandal. The other Antonio (Andrea Renzi) is a professional soccer player who career is ended early after injury. Since Antonio has only ever known soccer, he tries to become a soccer coach and has some new innovative tactical ideas but he soon learns how talent and a reputation aren’t enough to open all doors for him. Meanwhile, Tony is used to having all doors open for him all his life but soon finds out that those doors aren’t opening like they used to.

It is refreshing to see that Sorrentino once made a film like One Man Up as the film is devoid of any glossy visuals like those in his subsequent films, such as Il Divo (2008), The Great Beauty (2013). Also, unlike those other films, One Man Up is narrative and acting driven. The film also contains the most soccer related content than any of his other films.

The Male Gaze

The male gaze has featured in a few of of Sorrentino’s films especially Youth (2015) where the two elder characters (played by Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel) watch all the female characters with lustful eyes. That same male gaze is prominent in Parthenope, which covers a timeline from the birth of the titular character until her retirement. The film shows Parthenope’s birth in water and then the next time we see her, she is an 18-year-old (played by Celeste Dalla Porta) emerging from the water in a bikini while Sandri (Dario Aita) is in awe of her beauty. Sandri isn’t the only one taken by Parthenope but so is Raimondo (Daniele Rienzo). Raimondo is Parthenope’s brother and his inability to be with her is given a Greek tragedy treatment, a tragedy that hovers over the entire film.

The film jumps in time and depicts fragments of Parthenope’s life as she grows up, completes her education and pursues her career. A constant throughout her life is that men are bewitched by her beauty. This includes writers (with a cameo by Gary Oldman playing John Cheever), actors, producers, professors, politicians and priests. They all want her and she obliges and gives them a few moments of attention but no one can truly have her.

Of course, since this is a Sorrentino film, there is beauty to be found in each frame. One particular segment shows Naples on a hot sultry day, which allows audience to witness all the beauties of the city (both men and women), cat walking through the streets while the camera slows down. This slo-mo music video treatment recalls The Great Beauty and even Il Divo, a Sorrentino signature.

In the hands of another director Parthenope would have been a different film, one that would have given the material an actual narrative and emotional core. In Sorrentino’s hands, the film’s beauty is only on the surface. There is nothing beneath the surface but that isn’t anything new with his films. Films such as Il Divo, The Great Beauty and now Parthenope are visual eye candy made as extended music videos with some dialogues. In the case of The Great Beauty, that treatment worked wonders but doesn’t do justice to Parthenope.