South Asia has at least 10 films and projects officially selected so far by the 75th Cannes Film Festival. The festival, that runs from May 17-28, has selected these from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar. Moreover, Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone is on the Feature Film Jury of the festival, alongside directors Asghar Farhadi and Jeff Nichols.

The South Asian films announced so far include Saim Sadiq’s Joyland in the Un Certain Regard, set to be Pakistan’s first film in Cannes’ official selection. A patriarchal Pakistani family finds its moorings loosened, as a son secretly joins an erotic dance theatre and falls for a transsexual starlet. Sadiq’s Darling earlier won the Best Short in Orizzonti at Venice. Shaunak Sen’s magnificent documentary All That Breathes, that won the Grand Jury Prize (Documentary) at Sundance, is in Cannes’ Special Screenings. It is a poetic, political film about two Muslim brothers who save injured black kites in Delhi. Abinash Bikram Shah’s Lori (Melancholy of my Mother’s Lullabies, Nepal, 14 min), in the Short Films Competition, explores lullabies to question a deeply patriarchal society. Pratham Khurana’s Nauha (Eve of a Eulogy, 26 min), from Whistling Woods International, India, that explores the relationship between a senior citizen and his care-giver, is in La Cinef (La Cinefondation) section for film school entries. There are two restored Indian films in the Cannes Classics—Satyajit Ray’s Pratidwandi (The Adversary, Bengali, 1970), restored by National Film Development Corporation -National Film Archive of India, and Aravindan Govindan’s Thamp (The Circus Tent, Malayalam, 1978), restored by Shivendra Singh Dungarpur’s Film Heritage Foundation, with The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project, Cineteca di Bologna, Prasad Corporation Studios, Chennai, L’Immagine Ritrovata Laboratory, Bologna, General Pictures, National Film Archive of India, and Aravindan Govindan’s family.