10 Riveting Movies That Premiered ‘Out of Competition’ at Cannes

‘Out of Competition’ at the Cannes Film Festival doesn’t sound very prestigious, does it? It almost sounds insulting — a selection for the year’s duds made out of courtesy to the filmmakers. Yet, it is this category — one of three, alongside ‘In Competition’ and ‘Un Certain Regard’ for feature films — that has seen some of the finest movies by the most magnanimous auteurs of all time premiere at the world’s leading film festival.

Much of Cannes’ mystique is defined by its unassuming yet convoluted structure. The crème de la crème of the festival, a curated selection of movies from the minds of the world’s most exciting filmmakers to compete for the Palme d’Or feature as part of its ‘In Competition’ selection. The more cerebral, stylised and experimental films — including the movie that made the world take notice of Yorgos Lanthimos — premiere under ‘Un Certain Regard’ (a certain glance), and virtually everything else, from high-profile Hollywood blockbusters to the late works of legends like Ingmar Bergman and Akira Kurosawa; from cult classics to divisive documentaries that capture the presiding political zeitgeist, feature ‘Out of Competition’ at Cannes — an undefined selection embodying a variety of films that play alongside those ‘In Competition’ at the iconic Théâtre Lumière, but do not compete for the main prize.

And so, perhaps unsurprisingly, it is through this unassuming yet delightful and intriguing selection at the biggest event in film that the thousands who pack into the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès first witness some of the most monumental and culturally significant stories of cinematic history.

As 14 May — the date every cinephile has had marked on their calendar for months — draws nearer, I’ve made a little something to take a look at some of the most exciting movies to come ‘Out of Competition’ in 76 years of Cannes’ history.

The Limey by Steven Soderbergh — 1999

Exactly ten years after becoming the youngest recipient of the Palme d’Or for his intense drama Sex, Lies and Videotape, pioneer of the American indie scene Steven Soderbergh premiered The Limey, a fierce, dark and distinctly gritty noir drama ‘Out of Competition’. Soderbergh’s tense crime thriller, which starred Terence Stamp, was lauded at Cannes and by critics, and though its success did not translate to the box office, it quickly developed a cult following and now stands as a timeless mainstay in the action-thriller genre.

Bamako by Abderrahmane Sissako — 2006

With Bamako, his fourth feature, Mauritanian-born Malian auteur Abderrahmane Sissako captivated audiences and critics alike at the 59th Cannes Film Festival with his unapologetic criticism of global capitalist financial structures and their exploitation of de-colonised African countries. So significant was the praise and reverence for his brilliant courtroom drama — which reverberated with audiences worldwide — that eight years later, Timbuktu, Sissako’s follow-up to Bamako, was selected to compete for the Palme d’Or as part of the festival’s main competition.

Radio Days by Woody Allen — 1987

Having already been released in the US earlier in the year, Woody Allen’s evocative rom-com was still selected to screen ‘Out of Competition’ at Cannes in 1987, for the festival could not have passed up the opportunity not to screen this beautiful and wistful film about the golden age of radio. Esteemed critic Roger Ebert referred to Radio Days as “the most elaborate production Allen has ever made”, and the film continues to captivate audiences around the world, even after Allen, both the filmmaker and the person, has fallen so far from the highs of this unfeigned film 36 years ago.

The Last Waltz by Martin Scorsese — 1978

Hailed as one of the greatest concert films of all time and chosen for preservation in the United States’ National Film Registry, this Scorsese-directed account of the rock group The Band’s final concert screened at the legendary Théâtre Lumière in 1978. TotalFilm and Rolling Stone consider it to be the single greatest concert film ever made, and this raw and thrilling movie was instrumental in underscoring Cannes’ growing reputation for premiering cult classics ‘Out of Selection’.

Cries and Whispers by Ingmar Bergman — 1973

No one does tense psychological character studies quite like Ingmar Bergman. Yet, the stock of even one of the greatest filmmakers of all time was tumbling after the underwhelming The Rite, and the critical and commercial failure The Touch both came out less than five years before Cries and Whispers was selected to screen ‘Out of Competition’. But you can’t keep a legend down for long. Quintessentially Bergman, this searing psychological drama quickly became one of the Swedish director’s most beloved and acclaimed films, and now ranks highly on virtually every ‘Best of Bergman’ list.

Once Upon a Time in America by Sergio Leone — 1984

“Everything about me revolves around the cinema. So, for me, cinema is life, and vice-versa,” said the late great Sergio Leone. Few films embody this quote quite like Leone’s crime epic, which premiered ‘Out of Competition’ in 1984, to a deafening 20-minute standing ovation, at a time before unrelenting applause became a feature of Cannes screenings. Leone’s final film before his death five years later, this masterwork retains an enduring place among the very best of cinema and, to many, is the great director’s defining work.

The House that Jack Built by Lars von Trier — 2018

It may not be his best, but no film sums up what Lars von Trier is all about quite like his latest and most disturbing movie yet, a brutal serial killer thriller. Seven years after being declared persona non grata by Cannes for saying some… questionable things, and five years before bizarrely advertising for a girlfriend on Instagram, von Trier came out with this slick and hardhanded thriller featuring an unnerving Matt Dhillon at his entertaining peak. Repulsing critics, instigating a mass walkout during its premiere, yet receiving a 10-minute standing ovation, The House That Jack Built’s Cannes premiere instantly attained cult status for so many film aficionados around the world.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon by Ang Lee — 2000

With this delightful Wuxia martial-arts modern classic, Ang Lee achieved a lot. He made the first-language film to breach the $100m mark in the US, elevated a fascinating and underrated genre, and received the first of his many Oscar nominations. Perhaps perplexing that it premiered ‘Out of Competition’, Lee’s masterwork is widely considered to have done so because of its sheer brilliance. According to Sony Classics co-chief Tom Bernard: “The movie just gets written about differently if it’s in competition. We wanted people to discover it without the context of competition.” A film that screened ‘Out of Competition’ because it was too good for the competition.

Destiny (Al Massir) by Youssef Chahine — 1997

A historical drama about the 12th-century Andalusian philosopher Averroes, this captivating film was received warmly at the 50th Cannes Film Festival and was Egypt’s official selection for the Oscars. An important story that explored uncomfortable notions surrounding fundamentalism, unrest and persecution, Chahine’s movie signalled Cannes’ tendency to screen uncomfortable stories rooted in political realities ‘Out of Competition’ — a trend that has persisted and expanded in the 26 years since.

1900 by Bernardo Bertolucci — 1976

One of the longest commercially released movies ever made, Bernardo Bertolucci’s five-hour-long historical epic about class and fascism premiered ‘Out of Competition’, presumably because of its sheer scope and elongated story. The movie, thanks to the outstanding Robert De Niro and Gerard Depardieu, dives into a rich and multifaceted exploration of human relationships, radicalism and fascism. It embodies the experimental and outright startling components of the films that would come to define ‘Un Certain Regard’ when it was introduced two years later and maintains the perturbing intensity of a commercial epic, both at the same time.

A lot of other phenomenal films, many better than those on this list, have premiered ‘Out of Competition’ at Cannes over the better part of the last century. Killers of the Flower Moon, Mad Max: Fury Road, Requiem of A Dream and City of God are just some examples from the 21st century; and legendary Soviet director Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker, Steven Spielberg’s E.T. and Federico Fellini’s 8 1/2 are some of the timeless classics to have done so. But as you probably know these films, I’ve gone for more niche movies that you may not have ever heard of — the kind of divisive, controversial and experimental films that capture the alluring essence of the independent art-house cinema that defines what Cannes is all about.