No clear favourite as Cannes race nears home stretch

Cannes: The 76th Cannes Film Festival is in its second week but rather unusually has yet to throw up a clear frontrunner or two for the Palme d'Or, the top prize at the prestigious gala.

One of the two Competition entries that have generated some buzz is by a woman director -- "Anatomy of a Fall", a French film.

Could its maker, Justine Triet, do a repeat of Julia Ducournau's 2021 "Titane" act and become only the third woman in history to win the coveted trophy?

The film that is most likely to stand in her way is Jonathan Glazer's German-language Nazi-era drama "The Zone of Interest", the British director's first narrative feature in a decade.

Incidentally, German actor Sandra Huller, the star of the 2016 Cannes hit "Toni Erdmann", features in both "Anatomy of a Fall" and "The Zone of Interest".

Six other women directors are in the 21-film Competition line-up. Two of them are -- septuagenarian French filmmaker Catherine Breillat and Italy's Alice Rohrwacher -- are yet to enter the fray. Breillat's "Last Summer" screens tomorrow and Rohrwacher's "La Chimera" is scheduled for Friday.

Several world cinema heavyweights, including five previous Palme d'Or winners, are in contention this year. Hirokazu Kore-eda's "Monster" (Japanese), Nuri Bilge Ceylan's "About Dry Grasses" (Turkish) and Aki Kaurismaki's "Fallen Leaves" (Finnish) have already premiered.

While none of these titles can be ruled out outright, only "Fallen Leaves", which bears Kaurismaki's deadpan signature, could be considered to be in with an outside chance of winning Ruben Ostlund and his jury over.

Wim Wenders' Japanese-German film "Perfect Days", Italian title "A Brighter Tomorrow" by Nanni Moretti and the Ken Loach directorial "The Old Oak" (English) are yet to screen and it would be interesting to see if the three Cannes regulars can stir things up a bit as the festival hits the home stretch.

Wenders won the Palme d'Or in 1984 for "Paris, Texas" and Moretti for "The Son's Room" in 2001. Loach won the festival's top prize twice -- for "The Wind that Shakes the Barley" in 2006 and for "I, Daniel Blake in 2016".

The competition is likely to go all the way down to the wire. But as things stand, Triet and Glazer have their noses in front, if only marginally, until Wenders, Breillat and Loach throw their hats into the ring in the next two days.

The 76th edition of the Cannes Film Festival will conclude on May 27.