Screen staff preview all of the titles in the Cannes Film Festival’s competition and out of competition strands, which this year includes films from Lynne Ramsay, Ari Aster, Oliver Hermanus, Kelly Reichardt, Wes Anderson and Joachim Trier. The festival runs May 13-24.
Competition
Alpha (Fr)
Dir. Julia Ducournau
Ducournau returns to Cannes Competition after 2021 Palme d’Or-winner Titane. Billed as her most personal project yet, Ducournau’s third feature is about a troubled 13-year-old girl living with her single mother whose world collapses the day she returns from school with a tattoo on her arm. Tahar Rahim, Golshifteh Farahani and Melissa Boros star, and Neon has already snagged North American rights.
Contact: Charades; FilmNation Entertainment
Case 137 (Fr)
Dir. Dominik Moll
Moll is back in Cannes after opening the 2005 festival with Competition title Lemming and returning in 2022’s Cannes Premiere with The Night Of The 12th, which went on to win the Cesar for best film. The Germany-born filmmaker’s latest stars Léa Drucker as a police investigator tasked with a case that takes a personal turn. Moll co-wrote the thriller with Gilles Marchand and producers are Haut et Court and France 2 Cinéma.
Contact: Charades
Die, My Love (US)
Dir. Lynne Ramsay
Jennifer Lawrence, Robert Pattinson, LaKeith Stanfield and Sissy Spacek star in Ramsay’s return to the Croisette. All four of her previous features have opened in Cannes, winning best screenplay and best actor for Joaquin Phoenix in 2017’s You Were Never Really Here. The director’s latest is adapted from Ariana Harwicz’s France-set novel of the same name, with the setting transposed to rural America where a woman is engulfed by love and madness. Producers include Lawrence with Justine Ciarrocchi for their Excellent Cadaver label, Andrea Calderwood and Martin Scorsese, with financing from Black Label Media.
Contact: Charlotte Humbert, 193
Eagles Of The Republic (Swe-Fr-Den-Fin-Ger)
Dir. Tarik Saleh
Saleh completes his Cairo trilogy with the story of an adored Egyptian actor who is pressured into starring in a film commissioned by the country’s authorities. It follows 2017’s The Nile Hilton Incident, which won the World Cinema Dramatic grand jury prize at Sundance and five of Sweden’s Guldbagges, and Cairo Conspiracy, launched as Boy From Heaven in Cannes’ 2022 Competition where it won best screenplay. Fares Fares leads the cast, having starred in all three films.
Contact: Playtime
Eddington (US)
Dir. Ari Aster
Anticipation is high for the Cannes bow of Aster, who in seven short years since his debut Hereditary wowed Sundance has established himself as a genre maestro. The US filmmaker’s latest feature after Midsommar and Beau Is Afraid reunites him with the latter’s Joaquin Phoenix in a contemporary western about a smalltown sheriff who clashes with the mayor. Emma Stone, Pedro Pascal and Austin Butler round out a top-notch cast. A24 distributes Eddington in the US and kicked off international sales at the European Film Market.
Contact: A24
Fuori (It)
Dir. Mario Martone
Italian director Martone returns to Competition for the third time, after 1995’s Troubling Love and 2022’s Nostalgia. A drama about friendship in adversity, female solidarity and anti-conformism, Fuori is inspired by the life of Italian author Goliarda Sapienza, writer of 1998 novel The Art Of Joy. Valeria Golino stars as Sapienza alongside Matilda De Angelis (Citadel Diana) and pop star Elodie. Golino notably directed a series version of the same book, which premiered last year in Cannes’ Special Screenings.
Contact: Flavien Eripret, Goodfellas
The History Of Sound (US)
Dir. Oliver Hermanus
South African filmmaker Hermanus returns to Cannes after Un Certain Regard drama Beauty won the Queer Palm in 2011. Josh O’Connor — also appearing in Competition title The Mastermind — and Paul Mescal lead a queer love story set around the First World War in the US. End Cue and Fat City produce, alongside Theresa Ryan-van Graan, Zhang Xin and Hermanus. Film4 is among the backers. Mubi has North America, while Focus Features and Universal Pictures International distribute internationally.
Contact: Mubi (North America); Focus Features (international)
It Was Just An Accident (Iran-Fr-Lux)
Dir. Jafar Panahi
Panahi has made his first feature since his 2022 imprisonment by Iran’s authorities for enquiring about the arrest of fellow director Mohammad Rasoulof. Panahi spent several months in prison before his travel ban was lifted in April 2023, allowing him to leave Iran for the first time in 14 years. Details are scarce on his new film, which sees a minor accident set in motion a series of escalating consequences. The director was last in Cannes with 2021 documentary The Year Of The Everlasting Storm and last in Competition with 2018 best screenplay winner Three Faces.
Contact: mk2 Films
The Little Sister (Fr)
Dir. Hafsia Herzi
The Little Sister is an adaptation of Fatima Daas’s novel about the daughter of Algerian immigrants in Paris balancing her faith and family with her ambitions and sexuality. It is actress Herzi’s third feature film as director after 2019 Critics’ Week premiere You Deserve A Lover and 2021’s Good Mother, which screened in Un Certain Regard. Newcomer Nadia Melliti stars alongside Return To Seoul’s Park-ji Min, Louis Memmi and Mouna Soualem.
Contact: mk2 Films
The Mastermind (US)
Dir. Kelly Reichardt
US filmmaker Reichardt was last in Competition in 2022 with Showing Up and returns with this Mubi production, an art heist drama set against the backdrop of the Vietnam War starring Josh O’Connor in his second Competition title, Gaby Hoffmann, John Magaro and Hope Davis. Mubi will distribute in North America, the UK and Ireland, Latin America, Germany, Austria, Benelux, Turkey and India, with The Match Factory handling the remaining worldwide sales. Mubi fully financed the film and UTA Independent Film Group negotiated the financing and distribution arrangements. Producers are Neil Kopp, Anish Savjani and Vincent Savino of filmscience, and production took place in Ohio in late 2024.
Contact: The Match Factory
Nouvelle Vague (Fr-US)
Dir. Richard Linklater
After a double dose of films in 2006 — Fast Food Nation which played in Competition and A Scanner Darkly in Un Certain Regard — the Oscar-nominated American filmmaker returns to Cannes with a French-language film about the shooting of Jean-Luc Godard’s classic Breathless (À Bout De Souffle), which played at Cannes in 1960. French actor Guillaume Marbeck stars as Godard alongside Zoey Deutch as Jean Seberg and Aubry Dullin as Jean-Paul Belmondo in Linklater’s ode to the country’s New Wave filmmakers. France’s ARP Sélection produces.
Contact: Flavien Eripret, Goodfellas
The Phoenician Scheme (US-Ger)
Dir. Wes Anderson
France- and UK-based Anderson maintains his recent track record of a Competition entry every two years after 2023’s Asteroid City and 2021’s The French Dispatch. His latest, an espionage-themed adventure, brings an all-star cast led by Benicio Del Toro and Mia Threapleton alongside Michael Cera, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Riz Ahmed, Scarlett Johansson and Benedict Cumberbatch. The Indian Paintbrush and American Empirical Pictures production took place in Germany in association with Studio Babelsberg. Focus Features has scheduled a May 30 limited release expanding on June 6, and Universal Pictures International distributes outside North America.
Contact: Focus Features
Renoir (Japan)
Dir. Chie Hayakawa
Hayakawa returns to the director’s chair for her second feature after Plan 75, which played Un Certain Regard in 2022 and was Japan’s Oscar entry. Set in 1980s Japan, the story centres on a girl navigating adolescence. The cast is led by Yui Suzuki and also includes Lily Franky of 2018 Palme d’Or winner Shoplifters and Yuumi Kawai from Desert Of Namibia, which played in Directors’ Fortnight last year. Loaded Films (Plan 75) produced with partners Arte France Cinéma, Nathan Studios, Daluyong Studios and KawanKawan Media.
Contact: Flavien Eripret, Goodfellas (worldwide except Asia); Rie Hatano, Happinet Phantom Studios (Asia)
Romería (Sp)
Dir. Carla Simon
Simon concludes her family trilogy following Summer 1993 (2017) and Alcarràs (2022). Like Summer 1993, Romería is inspired by the director’s own biological and adoptive parents, and follows a young woman who journeys to find her birth father’s family. A recipient of Eurimages co-production and marketing support, the film is produced by Elastica Films (Alcarràs) with Ventall Cinema, Dos Soles Media and Romeria Vigo.
Contact: mk2 Films
The Secret Agent (Bra-Fr-Ger-Neth)
Dir. Kleber Mendonca Filho
Back in Competition for the first time since 2019 jury prize winner Bacurau (Pictures Of Ghosts played in Special Screenings in 2023), the Brazilian provocateur sets his latest film in 1977 during the Brazilian dictatorship when a mysterious man arrives in Recife to escape his violent past. Wagner Moura stars alongside Maria Fernanda Candido, Gabriel Leone and Udo Kier for Brazil’s Cinemascopio, France’s mk2 Productions, Germany’s One Two Films and Lemming Film from the Netherlands.
Contact: mk2 Films
Sentimental Value (Nor-Fr-Ger-Den-Swe)
Dir. Joachim Trier
Trier returns to Cannes four years after The Worst Person In The World debuted in Competition, winning best actress for Renate Reinsve and going on to Oscar nominations for international feature and original screenplay. The director reunites with Reinsve for his sixth feature, described as an exploration of family, memories and the power of art. Stellan Skarsgard, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas and Elle Fanning also star. Neon will release in the US while Mubi has key territories including the UK and Ireland, Latin America, Turkey and India.
Contact: mk2 Films
Sirat (Sp)
Dir. Oliver Laxe
Writer/director Laxe has debuted all three of his previous films on the Croisette, winning prizes each time: the Un Certain Regard jury prize for Fire Will Come (2019), Critics’ Week grand prix for Mimosas (2016) and the Directors’ Fortnight Fipresci prize for debut You Are All Captains (2010). He graduates to Competition with Sirat, which follows a father and son searching for their missing daughter and sister at a Moroccan rave. This Movistar Plus+ original is produced in collaboration with Pedro and Agustin Almodovar’s El Deseo, Filmes Da Ermida, Uri Films and France’s 4A4 Productions. BTeam Pictures releases in Spain.
Contact: The Match Factory
Sound Of Falling (Ger)
Dir. Mascha Schilinski
Schilinski’s feature debut Dark Blue Girl played in the Berlinale’s now defunct Perspektive Deutsches Kino section in 2017. The German filmmaker makes the big jump into Cannes Competition with her second feature. Set over the course of a century, it follows four girls from different time periods experiencing their youth on a German farm, as their lives intertwine until time seems to dissolve. Among the cast are Luise Heyer, Lena Urzendowsky, Susanne Wuest and Lea Drinda. Schilinski and Louise Peter co-wrote Sound Of Falling, which is produced by Studio Zentral with ZDF/Das Kleine Fernsehspiel.
Contact: mk2 Films
Two Prosecutors (Ukr)
Dir. Sergei Loznitsa
Two Prosecutors is the Ukrainian filmmaker’s first fiction feature since his black comedy Donbass played in Un Certain Regard in 2018. Based on a novel by Georgy Demidov, the film focuses on a young prosecutor who sets out to challenge the system during Stalin’s Great Terror in 1937 after discovering a letter from a prisoner that is a desperate plea for help. Loznitsa’s credits include documentaries such as The Invasion, which premiered at Cannes last year in Special Screenings, and three fiction films that played in Competition: My Joy in 2010, In The Fog in 2012 and A Gentle Creature in 2017. Two Prosecutors shot in Latvia last year. Coproduction Office has international rights, while the US and UK are handled by SBS International.
Contact: Coproduction Office (international); Kevin Chneiweiss, SBS International (US & UK)
Woman And Child (Iran)
Dir. Saeed Roustaee
Iranian director Roustaee returns to Competition three years after launching Leila’s Brothers in the same section before it travelled to Munich, Melbourne and Busan. Family drama Woman And Child depicts a widowed mother struggling with her rebellious son. She has a betrothal ceremony with her new boyfriend when a tragic accident forces her to confront feelings of betrayal. Roustaee’s fourth feature reunites him with lead actress Parinaz Izadyar, who has appeared in two of the director’s previous films, and A Separation actor Payman Maadi, who has appeared in all three.
Contact: Flavien Eripret, Goodfellas
Young Mothers (Belg)
Dirs. Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne
The Dardenne brothers’ latest feature continues their tradition of examining the lives of the marginalised and the vulnerable. Young Mothers portrays five teenagers housed in a shelter for young mothers, all hoping for a better life for themselves and their babies. It is the pair’s tenth film to play in Competition at Cannes where they have twice won the Palme d’Or, for Rosetta (1999) and The Child (2005). Young Mothers is produced through their Les Films du Fleuve banner.
Contact: Flavien Eripret, Goodfellas
Out of Competition
Colours Of Time (Fr)
Dir. Cédric Klapisch
In his long career, veteran French filmmaker Klapisch has only ever had one film selected for Cannes — 1989 short Ce Qui Me Meut. Now he makes his feature bow at the festival with this drama about cousins who inherit an old house in rural Normandy and retrace the steps of their ancestors in 19th-century Paris. Klapisch co-wrote the script with Santiago Amigorena and produces with Bruno Levy through their Ce Qui Me Meut banner. The film’s cast includes Suzanne Lindon, Vassili Schneider, Vincent Macaigne and Julia Piaton.
Contact: Margaux Audouin, Studiocanal
Highest 2 Lowest (US)
Dir. Spike Lee
Lee reunites for the fifth time with Denzel Washington in a reimagining of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 crime thriller High And Low, switching the action to present-day New York where a music mogul gets entangled in a ransom plot. Lee has history with Cannes and served as jury president in 2021, when he mistakenly revealed Titane had won the Palme d’Or at the start of the ceremony. The title from Apple Original Film and A24 also stars rappers A$AP Rocky and Ice Spice, as well as Jeffrey Wright and Ilfenesh Hadera. A24 distributes in the US.
Contact: Apple TV+
Leave One Day (Fr)
Dir. Amélie Bonnin
Bonnin’s debut film — the sole first feature to ever open the festival — is a bittersweet romantic drama starring French singer and actress Juliette Armanet. It is adapted from the director’s 2023 Cesar-winning short of the same name about a woman who returns to her hometown where old memories and a reunion with a childhood sweetheart upend her plans. The non-traditional musical weaves French 1960s classics and modern hits into the dialogue. Bastien Bouillon, François Rollin, Tewfik Jallab and Dominique Blanc also star in the film, which is produced by Les Films du Worso and Topshot Films.
Contact: Marie-Laure Montironi, Pathé
Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning (US-UK)
Dir. Christopher McQuarrie
Thierry Frémaux loves Hollywood royalty on his red carpet and Tom Cruise is as good as it gets given his knack for showmanship, illustrated by the Croisette’s groundshaking flyby for the world premiere of Top Gun: Maverick in 2022. The Final Reckoning arrives steeped in intrigue: delayed by the Hollywood strikes, the tentpole is the jewel in Paramount’s 2025 pipeline and was co‑financed by Skydance Media, which is hoping to buy the studio’s parent Paramount Global. The film reportedly cost an eye-watering $400m and to break even it will need to earn far more than the $570m global box office achieved by Dead Reckoning in 2023. It has also been said this could be Cruise’s last outing as super-spy Ethan Hunt, after a $4bn-grossing franchise spanning 29 years. Hayley Atwell, Vanessa Kirby, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Hannah Waddingham and Nick Offerman round out the cast.
Contact: Paramount Pictures
A Private Life (Fr)
Dir. Rebecca Zlotowski
Zlotowski’s follow-up to Other People’s Children, which had its premiere in Venice’s 2022 Competition, stars Jodie Foster in her first French-language role in more than two decades as a renowned psychiatrist investigating the death of one of her patients. The cast also includes Daniel Auteuil, Mathieu Amalric and Virginie Efira. Zlotowski returns to Cannes after Directors’ Fortnight prize-winner An Easy Girl in 2019, Grand Central in Un Certain Regard in 2013 and Dear Prudence in Critics’ Week in 2010.
Contact: Flavien Eripret, Goodfellas
The Richest Woman In The World (Fr)
Dir. Thierry Klifa
Isabelle Huppert stars as a fictionalised version of billionaire Liliane Bettencourt, heir to the L’Oreal cosmetics fortune and subject of a social, financial and political scandal. It is Klifa’s sixth feature but his first time in Cannes. Produced by France’s Récifilms and Belgium’s Versus Productions, The Richest Woman In The World focuses on Bettencourt’s unlikely friendship with a dandy/writer/photographer in Paris to whom she gifted more than €1bn, and the subsequent falling-out with her family. The cast also includes Laurent Lafitte and Marina Foïs.
Contact: Playtime
Profiles by: Nikki Baughan, Ellie Calnan, Ben Dalton, Tim Dams, Jeremy Kay, Rebecca Leffler, Yasmine Medjdoub, Michael Rosser, Matt Schley, Mona Tabbara, Silvia Wong
No comments yet