Bonjour, mes chéris. A strange and unpleasant humidity has settled on Cannes in the last couple of days, preceded by a rainy day which saw people huddled under awnings and retreating to the far less fabulous interiors of beachside parties. Me, I didn’t mind getting drizzled on a little, as I’ve reached the existential, who am I really, arms out stretched while “Kiss the Rain” plays portion of this long and tiring and often lonely (but still wonderful!) trip. 

Now that almost all the competition films have premiered (minus the gay stuff—The Man I Love, The Black Ball, Coward—and a few other titles) chatter has turned to what film could possibly win the Palme d’Or. Making such predictions is something of a fool’s errand, because the jury is different every year and thus there is really no metric to follow. But we all do it anyway, because what else is there to talk about while clutching glasses of rosé at the last of the nighttime events, all of us sick of each other but also bonded together as only people at grownup summer camp can be. 

Most everyone I’ve spoken to about Palme predictions has jumped first to Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s All of a Sudden, the movie that yours truly dubbed the most annoying film at the festival. Despite my negative feelings about that title, I can see why so many are citing it as the frontrunner. It’s the second-highest rated film on the Screen Daily critics grid, it is teeming with big ideas, it honors both the West of Cannes and the East of jury president Park Chan-wook. (Though, the film is Japanese and Park is Korean.) There is a lot going for it. I did hear through the well-sourced grapevine that All of a Sudden is highly favored by the jury, which might be the most credible evidence I’ve yet encountered.