November 6
Interstellar
(USA, sci-fi/mystery)
Director: Christopher Nolan
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain
What's it about?
With the Earth degenerating into an arid dustbowl, a team of scientists embark on a secret mission to find an alternate planet suitable for relocation. An ace pilot-turned-farmer leads the charge, and is forced to confront his own private fears and personal priorities as he ventures into a wormhole, and puts Einstein's theories of relativity to the test.
Two Days, One Night
(France, drama)
Directors: Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne
Starring: Marion Cotillard, Fabrizio Rongione, Catherine Salée
What's it about?
A woman has just one weekend to persuade her colleagues not to take their annual bonuses so that she can remain in a job.
Rise
(Australia, drama)
Director: Mack Lindon
Starring: Martin Sacks, Nathan Wilson, Jessica Green
What's it about?
Based on a true story, the life of a young nurse is turned upside down when he sees himself falsely accused of rape and jailed in a maximum security prison.
Read interview with director Mack Lindon
My Mistress
(Australia, drama)
Director: Stephen Lance
Starring: Emmanuelle Béart, Harrison Gilbertson, Rachael Blake
What's it about?
A passionate and dangerous love story develops between an 16-year-old boy and an older, S&M-practicing, French woman.
Read interview with actors Emmanuelle Béart and Harrison Gilbertson
Finding Vivian Maier
Directors: John Maloof, Charlie Siskel
Starring: Vivian Maier, John Maloof, Daniel Arnaud
What's it about?
Vivian Maier was a nanny whose secret passion for street photography saw her take thousands of pictures of American street life. Whilst she remained unknown when she was alive, her huge body of work was posthumously recognised as masterful.
Love Marriage in Kabul
(Australia/Afghanistan, documentary)
Director: Amin Palangi
What’s it about?
Mahboba Rawi is an Afghan-Australian who runs a charity, dedicating her life to saving abandoned children in Afghanistan. One day, a boy Mahboba helped years ago writes to her asking for help. Abdul is in love with his neighbour Fatemeh. They have been exchanging romantic letters for almost a year now and hope to marry each other one day. But Fatemeh's father wants to marry her off to anyone who can offer a large sum of money. (Click here for full release dates.)
November 13
Winter Sleep
(Turkey/France/Germany, drama)
Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Starring: Haluk Bilginer, Melisa Sözen, Demet Akbag
What's it about?
A former actor now runs a small hotel with his wife, with whom he has a stormy relationship, and his sister Necla, who is taking time after a messy divorce. As the snows begins to fall, the hotel becomes a refuge but also an inescapable prison that fuels the animosities between the family members.
Watch Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or/Jury press conference highlights
The Drop
(USA, drama/crime)
Director: Michaël R. Roskam
Starring: Tom Hardy, James Gandolfini, Matthias Schoenaerts
What's it about?
A lonely bartender takes a job at his cousin's joint, where criminals 'drop' cash. But when they find themselves at the centre of a robbery gone wrong, the ensuing investigation reveals dark secrets from the neighbourhood's past.
Let’s Be Cops
(USA, comedy)
Director: Luke Greenfield
Starring: Jake Johnson, Damon Wayans Jr., Rob Riggle
What's it about?
Two struggling friends decide to dress up as LAPD cops for a college reunion party. They soon are mistaken for real policemen and find themselves involved with real life mobsters and detectives.
My Old Lady
(UK/France/USA, drama/comedy)
Director: Israel Horovitz
Starring: Kevin Kline, Kristin Scott Thomas, Maggie Smith
What's it about?
A broke American inherits an apartment in Paris from his estranged father, but soon finds out it is already inhabited by an old lady and her protective daughter.
November 20
Maps to the Stars
(Canada/USA/Germany/France, drama)
Director: David Cronenberg
Starring: Julianne Moore, Mia Wasikowska, Robert Pattinson
What's it about?
In Los Angeles, several dysfunctional celebrities and citizens cross paths: an analyst who writes self-help manuals; an actress who dreams of filming a remake of the movie that made her mother a star; a 13-year-old actor who has already been in rehab; and a young woman who just been released from a santitorium.
Watch Cannes Film Festival press conference highlights
Feature: David Cronenberg: Matters of the Head and Horror
Rock the Casbah
(France/Morocco, drama)
Director: Laïla Marrakchi
Starring: Morjana Alaoui, Nadine Labaki, Lubna Azabal
What's it about?
In Tangiers, family members gather in the family house to mourn their father. After one of the daughters finally arrives, her presence provokes tensions with her sisters and stirs up the conventions established by the partiarch.
The Dark Horse
(New Zealand, drama)
Director: James Napier Robertson
Starring: Cliff Curtis, James Rolleston, Kirk Torrance
What's it about?
The true story of New Zealand chess champion Genesis Potini, a man who finds purpose teaching chess to the children in his community in the hope of helping them avoid a life of crime and violence.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1
(USA, adventure/sci-fi)
Director: Francis Lawrence
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth
What's it about?
In the first part of the final instalment of The Hunger Games, Katniss reluctantly becomes the symbol of a mass rebellion and hope for the nation of Panem.
The Mule
(Australia, comedy)
Directors: Tony Mahony, Angus Sampson
Starring: Hugo Weaving, Angus Sampson, Leigh Whannell
What's it about?
Set in 1983 and inspired by a true story, a naive man carries lethal drugs hidden in his stomach and is arrested by the Australian Federal Police on his way back from Thailand. Out of desperation, ‘the Mule’ decides to defy his bodily functions and withhold the evidence... literally.
November 27
Nightcrawler
(USA, crime/thriller)
Director: Dan Gilroy
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Bill Paxton
What's it about?
An ambitious man desperate to forge a career in crime journalism becomes immersed in the underbelly of Los Angeles when he joins a freelance camera crew who are always on the lookout for crashes, fires and murders to film.
Watch trailer
Read review
Read about how Jake Gyllenhaal wrecked himself for this role
Serena
(USA/France/Czech Republic, drama)
Director: Susanne Bier
Starring: Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Sean Harris
What's it about?
In Depression-era North Carolina, the future of an industrialist and his timber empire becomes complicated when he learns that his wife cannot bear children.
Men, Women & Children
(USA, drama)
Director: Jason Reitman
Starring: Jennifer Garner, Rosemarie DeWitt, Adam Sandler
What's it about?
The story of a group of high school teenagers and their parents and how they engage with the Internet, looking at the role it plays in social issues such video game culture, anorexia, infidelity, fame seeking, and illicit online material.
The One I Love
(USA, comedy/romance)
Director: Charlie McDowell
Starring: Mark Duplass, Elisabeth Moss, Ted Danson
What's it about?
Struggling to keep their marriage alive, a young couple decide to escape for the weekend in an attempt to better themselves. But an unusual dilemma awaits them.
Housos vs. Fat Pizza
(Australia, comedy)
Director: Paul Fenech
Starring: Paul Fenech, Elle Dawe, Jabba
What's it about?
When the government decides that housos would only receive a quarter of their pensions in cash in order to keep them from spending them on cigarettes, alcohol and drugs, the Fat Pizza crew sees an opportunity to expand their business.
