Cannes 2023; will it be third time lucky for Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City and earning the Palme d’Or?

He’s won awards at the Venice Film Festival, Berlin Film Festival and SXSW on top of numerous Academy Award nominations, but with an incredible strong cast (yet again) involved in his latest movie, Asteroid City, will 2023 be the year that Wes Anderson finally collects a Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival?

Although citing that Anderson and a strong cast is akin to saying the sky is blue, given the numerous other films that have included stellar casts, the sheer volume of talents on hand for Asteroid City, premiering today in competition on the French Riviera, is enough to even make the late Robert Altman envious. Along with the usual suspects you would expect to appear in a Wes Anderson movie - Jason Schwartzmann, Steve Carrell, Adrian Brody, Bob Balaban - is a host of multi-award nominated performers in first time appearances for the director.

That includes Oscar winner Tom Hanks, Margot Robbie, Rita Wilson, alleged “nepo baby” Maya Hawke and even Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker has been listed among the cast members involved in the film. With the premise of Asteroid City based around students and parents from across the United States gathering for scholarly competition, rest, recreation, comedy, drama, and romance at a Junior Stargazer convention held in a fictional American desert town, we’re hopeful there is plenty of interaction between the stalwart Anderson sect and those newcomers to his style of filmmaking.

Although Wes Anderson has been frequently viewed as a “director’s director,” with cast members who have worked with the creative talent having for the most part extolled their enjoyment working with the filmmaker, and his aesthetic very much attuned to French cinematic sensibilities, it’s astounding that he has yet to pick up the Palme d’Or despite being entered into competition twice. 

It’s also quite astounding that despite the volume of talent involved in Asteroid City that the film is still not considered a favourite to pick up the Palme d’Or this year either - instead, that distinct honour (or millstone, depending on how you feel about omens) goes to British director Ken Loach and his film, The Old Oak.

So who did Wes Anderson lose the Palme d’Or to the last two times he had a film in competition at the festival, and what were the films that were entered that could have led him to lifting the honour in the French Riviera? 

What movies did Wes Anderson screen in competition at the Cannes Film Festival?

Moonrise Kingdom - 2012

Somewhat of a darling of the festival circuit ahead of its general release in 2012, Moonrise Kingdom followed Sam, a young orphan and Khaki Scout, who escapes from camp and meets Suzy, a troubled girl. The two fall in love and run away together, triggering a search party involving various eccentric characters. 

Another ensemble piece akin to Asteroid City, boasting talent such as Edward Norton, Bruce Willis and Tilda Swinton, the film received multiple Academy Award nominations, and was screened in competition at Cannes 2012. However, the film ultimately lost out to that year’s winner, the French-language film Amour by celebrated Austrian director Michael Haneke (Funny Games.)

The French Dispatch - 2021

Touted as an anthology of stories cocooned in a feature film, The French Dispatch once again brought together an eye-watering ensemble cast of Anderson regulars and newcomers, including Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, Benicio del Toro, Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, Timothée Chalamet and Saoirse Ronan to name a mere few. 

Anderson uses the film to pay homage to journalism; set in the fictional French city of Ennui-sur-Blasé, the film follows the stories and adventures of the journalists who work for an American magazine called, wait for it… The French Dispatch. 

Some thought that 2021 could be the year that Wes Anderson collected the Palme d’Or, but instead he was beaten out by a history making Julia Ducournau, who’s film Titane became only the second recipient of the Palme d’Or directed by a female and the first female win since Jane Campion’s Palme d’Or victory with The Piano in 1994.