Jeff Nichols' 'Loving,' Nicholas Winding Refn's 'Neon Demon' in Cannes Competition

Stephen Spielberg's 'The BFG,' Jodie Foster's 'Money Monster' with Julia Roberts and George Clooney and Ryan Gosling-starrer 'The Nice Guys' get out of competition slots.

Jeff Nichols' inner-racial romance Loving will compete in Cannes this year, alongside Park Chan Wook's The Handmaid, Sean Penn's latest The Last Face and Daniel Blake, the latest, maybe last, feature from British veteran Ken Loach.

Nicholas Winding Refn's The Neon Demon, a feature made for Amazon, also secured a Cannes competition slot. It will go up against Family Photos from Palme d'Or winner Cristian Mungiu (4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days), Sieranevada from fellow Romanian
director Cristi Puiu, Paul Verhoven's Elle and two Filipino films: Aquarius from Kleber Mendonça Filho and Ma Rosa from Brillante Mendoza.
Xavier Dolan's It's Only the End of the World, starring Léa Seydoux and Marion Cotillard, Vincent Cassel will screen in competition. Jim Jarmusch, another Cannes regular, returns this year with his latest, Paterson, featuring Adam Driver.
Pedro Almodovar's Julieta, Andrea Arnold's American Honey, The Unknown Girl from Belgium's Dardenne Brothers and Olivier Assayas' Personal Shopper will all be in competition in Cannes this year. As will Slack Bay from French director Bruno Dumond, Staying Vertical from Alain Guiraudie and Nicole Garcia's From the Land of the Moon. The first German film in many years will compete in Cannes, with Marie Ade's Toni Erdmann picked for the official selection, completing the 20-title total in the running for the Palme d'Or this year.
With Woody Allen’s star-studded Cafe Society already announced as the opening film for the 69th edition of the Cannes film festival, its head Thierry Fremaux and president Pierre Lescure on Thursday unveiled the fest's full lineup at a press conference in Paris. Allen's new film, which stars Jesse Eisenberg, Blake Lively and Kristen Stewart, was also picked up by Amazon. Together with Neon Demon, they are the first films from online companies to get official screenings in Cannes.
For the first time this year, Cannes closing film will be the winner of the Palme d'Or. Fremaux called the decision "an experiment."
Stephen Spielberg's The BFG, featuring Mark Rylance as the voice of the titular Big Friendly Giant, will screen out of competition at this year's Cannes Film Festival.
Jodie Foster's Money Monster starring Julia Roberts and George Clooney, Shane Black's The Nice Guys with Ryan Gosling and Matt Bomer and the Korean mystery thriller Goksung from director Na Hong-Jin will also get out of competition slots this year.
Iggy Pop could make the trip to the Croisette this year, as the documentary Gimme Danger, directed by Jarmusch, has also made the selection, out of competition. Gimme Danger will get a Midnight Screening slot in Cannes, as will Train to Busan from Yeon Sang-Ho.
Other special, out of competition screenings including The Last Resort from Thanos Anastopoulos and Davide Del Degan; Hissein Habre, A Chadian Tragedy from director Mahamet-Saleh Haroun of Chad; the Cambodian film Exil from director Rithy Panh; The Last Days of Louis XIV from Albert Serra and Paul Vecchiali's Le Cancre.
The Cannes festival's Un Certain Regard sidebar will include the Iranian drama Inversion, the film The Dancer from French director Stephanie Di Giusto starring Johnny Depp's daughter Lily Rose Melody Depp and Her actress Soko.  Mohammed Diab's Clash, the animated feature The Red Turtle, Japanese drama Personal Affairs, Hirokazu Koreeda's After the Storm, Argentine film The Long Night from director Francisco Marquez, Dogdan Mirica's Dogs, Russian drama The Disciple and Viggo Mortensen-directed Captain Fantastic complete the Un Certain Regard section.
Fremaux kicked off the announcement at a theater on the French capital's famous Champs Elysees just after 11 a.m. local time. The press conference was delayed by a silent protest by film theater workers and students against proposed reforms to France's labor laws. Before starting the press conference, Fremaux and Lescure expressed their support for the protestors.
As previously announced, Mad Max director George Miller will serve as president of the jury, and jury prize winner Naomi Kawase is set to head the short film and student competition jury. The full competition jury is expected to be announced next week, with the Un Certain Regard jury set to be revealed during the first week of May.
source