It had been uncertain whether Tarantino would finish editing the film in time to compete for the Palme d’Or, the festival’s main award.
“We were afraid the film would not be ready,” Thierry Frémaux, the festival’s artistic director, said in a statement. “But Quentin Tarantino, who has not left the editing room in four months, is a real, loyal and punctual child of Cannes.”
Frémaux said the film, due in cinemas July 26, was “a love letter” to the Hollywood of Tarantino’s childhood, as well as “an ode to cinema as a whole.” It stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt.
The film is expected to touch on the Charles Manson murders: IMDb, the online movie database, lists a cast including Damon Herriman as Manson and Margot Robbie as Sharon Tate, the actress murdered by Manson’s followers in 1969.
The film will compete for the Palme d’Or 25 years after Tarantino won with “Pulp Fiction.” Other films in competition include Terrence Malick’s “A Hidden Life,” set during World War II, and Pedro Almodóvar’s “Pain and Glory,” about an aging film director.
Abdellatif Kechiche, the acclaimed French director of “Blue Is the Warmest Color,” which won the Palme d’Or in 2013, will also compete with “Mektoub, My Love: Intermezzo,” the festival said Thursday. It described the film as a four-hour portrait of French youth in the 1990s.
Kechiche was accused of sexual assault last year and has also faced complaints that he mistreated actresses on set. He denied the accusations.
The festival has also announced several films screening outside competition including “Chicuarotes,” directed by Mexican actor Gael García Bernal. Frémaux said this was “a deep dive into Mexican society” focused on teenagers in the country. A 50-minute movie by French-Argentine director Gaspar Noé titled “Lux Æterna” will be presented at a midnight screening.
The festival opens May 14 with Jim Jarmusch’s zombie movie “The Dead Don’t Die” and ends May 25.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.