The French Riviera is a magnet for gamblers, so it’s no surprise oddsmakers are speculating furiously about who will win prizes from the Cannes Film Festival jury headed by Steven Spielberg.
Journalist and Cannes betting expert Neil Young ranks Grisgris, by Chadian filmmaker Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, the early favorite for the Palme d’Or at 5-1, followed by The Past, from Iran’s Asghar Farhadi — who won an Academy Award for A Separation — at 11-2 and US director James Gray’s 1920s New York story The Immigrant at 13-2.
Other frontrunners are like Father, like Son from Korean director Kore-eda Hirokazu; Arnaud Desplechin’s Jimmy P, with Benicio del Toro as a traumatised Native American war veteran, and Alexander Payne’s road movie Nebraska.