Past Wex guests heading to the Croisette

As usual there's much to mull over in today's announcement of the 2016 Cannes Film Festival lineup, including the first time films from an online studio will screen–and what strange bedfellows they are: Woody Allen's Cafe Society and Nicolas Winding Refn's The Neon Demon, both from Amazon Studios. There's also much to be excited by too, including the promise of new work from Paul Verhoeven, Cristi Puiu (we were the first in town to screen his remarkable The Death of Mr. Lazarescu in 2006 and Aurora in 2011), Hirokazu Kore-Eda, Nicole Garcia, the Dardenne Brothers, and more.

Though among the many highlights for those of us here at the Wex, we were thrilled to see three past guests make the cut for films showing in competition: Jim Jarmusch (who has two films set to screen: a narrative picture in competition called Patterson and Gimmie Danger, a documentary about Iggy Pop and the Stooges screening out of competition), Olivier Assasyas, and Kleber Mendonça Filho. We were honored to bring these major cinematic voices and visionaries to Columbus and we're excited to see them head to the Croisette and share their new work with the world.

Below (and very apropos on this #tbt, are select pics from their visits).

Jonathan Rosenbaum interviews Jim Jarmusch during our 2000 retrospective

Olivier Assayas discusses his work with Wex film fans after a screening of Demonlover during his 2003 retrospective

Wex Film/Video Studio curator Jennifer Lange, Kleber Mendonça Filho, Director of Film/Video David Filipi,
and Associate Curator Film/Video Chris Stults at the area premiere of Mendonça Filho's Neighboring Sounds