India will expectedly hog much of the 'regional' limelight in Cannes with two entries - one documentary and a short fiction film - in the festival's official selection.
That apart, Anurag Kashyap's "Raman Raghav 2.0", about a 1960s Mumbai serial killer played by Nawazuddin Siddiqui, is set to premiere in Directors' Fortnight, a prestigious parallel section in which the Mumbai director's two-part "Gangs of Wasseypur" and "Ugly" bowed in 2012 and 2013 respectively.
The festival on the French Riviera is known for attracting independent cinema heavy hitters as well as huge glamour wattage in the shape of Hollywood and European movie stars.
Kalimpong boy Saurav Rai, a student of Kolkata's Satyajit Ray Film & Television Institute (SRFTI), will register his presence amid the glitz and glamour with his 28-minute Nepali-language diploma film "Gudh" (Nest).
Also Read
Rai's film is among 18 titles - 14 fiction and four animation - selected from 2,300 entries received from film academies across the world for the Cinefondation competition, now in its 19th year.
"Gudh is 80 per cent reality and 20 per cent imagination," he says, adding that even what he has drawn from his imagination is "very close to reality".
"That this cathartic personal journey of mine has made it to Cannes is a dream come true," says the young filmmaker.
The Cinefondation selection will be judged by a five-member jury presided over by Japanese filmmaker Naomi Kawase. Three prizes are up for grabs in the section and the award-winners will be announced on May 20.
The 96-minute film, made over a period of eight years with the support of the India Foundation for the Arts, the Cluster of Excellence, Heidelberg University and Goethe-Institut India, is part of the festival's Cannes Classics section, which includes nine documentaries on cinema history.
Among the restored prints to be screened as part of Cannes
Classics this year is the 1959 Pakistani film "Jago Hua Savera" (The Day Shall Dawn), the country's first nomination for the best foreign language film Oscar.
Based on a story by Bengali writer Manik Bandopadhyay and scripted by Urdu poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz, the film focused on the lives of impoverished fishermen of East Pakistan.
The female lead in "Jago Hua Savera" was played by Calcutta screen and stage actress Tripti Mitra.
In Cannes Critics' Week, the Singaporean-French production "A Yellow Bird", directed by debutant K Rajagopal and featuring Seema Biswas in a key role, homes in on the state of Indians in contemporary Singapore.
"A Yellow Bird" tells the story of the struggles of an Indian man released from jail after an eight-year incarceration for contraband smuggling.
"'A Yellow Bird' aims to examine the position of the 'Indian' in contemporary Singaporean society. The story stems from my own experiences as an Indian-Singaporean (in a society) where a sense of belonging to my birth nation is frequently questioned and tested," the director said.
In a significant breakthrough for Afghan cinema, Directors' Fortnight will host the premiere of debutante Shahrbanoo Sadat.
In the Cannes Atelier, a section that helps new projects get off the ground, the subcontinent will be represented by two proposed films - Aditya Vikram Sengupta's "Memories and My Mother" (India) and Pooja Gurung and Bibhusan Basnet's "The Whole-timers" (Nepal).