Screen staff preview each of the titles in the Cannes Film Festival’s Special, Midnight Screenings and Premiere sections, which this year includes films from Yeon Sang-ho, Quentin Dupieux, John Travolta, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Diego Luna and Steven Soderbergh.
The festival runs May 12-23.
Midnight Screenings
Colony (S Kor)
Dir. Yeon Sang-ho
The acclaimed director of Cannes selections Train To Busan and Peninsula returns to the zombie genre with this action thriller. It follows a scientist trapped in a building amid an escalating viral outbreak, as the infected evolve in unpredictable ways. The cast is led by Gianna Jun (Assassination), Koo Kyo-hwan (Escape), Ji Chang-wook (Revolver) and Shin Hyun-been (Revelations), and the film is produced by Wowpoint and Smilegate in association with Midnight Studio. A local release is set for May 21.
Contact: Showbox
Full Phil (Fr)
Dir. Quentin Dupieux
Prolific and unpredictable French director Dupieux returns to the Croisette for his latest English-language venture, with an international cast led by Kristen Stewart, Woody Harrelson, Emma Mackey and Charlotte Le Bon. The film centres on a wealthy US industrialist trying to reconnect with his daughter during a luxury trip to Paris, until a 1950s horror film and an intrusive hotel employee disrupt his plans. Dupieux’s long relationship with Cannes includes 2024 festival opener The Second Act, Smoking Causes Coughing, Deerskin (Directors’ Fortnight) and Rubber (Critics’ Week). Hugo Sélignac of Mediawan’s Chi‑Fou-Mi produces.
Contact: Chloe Marquet, Studiocanal
Jim Queen (Fr)
Dirs. Nicolas Athane, Marco Nguyen
This queer animation comedy follows muscled-up influencer Jim, who sets out to investigate a mysterious virus that is turning Paris’s gay men straight. Making their feature directing debut, directors Athane and Nguyen are animators whose credits include work on crossover hits The Red Turtle and The Rabbi’s Cat. The voice cast includes comedian and French TV regular Alex Ramires, alongside Jérémy Gillet. The film is produced by French adult animation specialists Bobbypills, with local distribution through The Jokers.
Contact: Lorenzo Bellassai, Global Constellation
Roma Elastica (Fr-It)
Dir. Bertrand Mandico
A cult specialist in genre-fluid neo-surrealism, Mandico (The Wild Boys, After Blue) visited Directors’ Fortnight in 2023 with Conann. Roma Elastica is his highest-profile title yet, paying tribute to the glories of Italian cinema, with Marion Cotillard as an actress shooting a sci-fi film in Rome in the 1980s. Noémie Merlant and Isabella Ferrari co-star, and the cast also includes Italian legends Franco Nero and Ornella Muti. Thomas Verhaeghe and Mathieu Verhaeghe produce for France’s Atelier de Production, alongside Italy’s Redibis Film and Dugong Film.
Contact: Kinology
Species (Fr)
Dir. Marion Le Corroller
Following her short film Poupée Fondue and a contribution to 2023 horror anthology Built 2 Kill, Le Corroller makes her feature debut with an entry in the bustling body horror sub-genre. Rising star Mara Taquin (Zero Fucks Given) stars alongside French screen favourite Karin Viard in the story of a young intern working in a hospital ER, who starts to see strange symptoms in patients and herself. Carole Lambert produces for Windy Production, with Trésor Films co-producing. Wild Bunch is distributing in France.
Contact: WTFilms
Cannes Premiere
Aquí (Por-Fr)
Dir. Tiago Guedes
Based on JM Coetzee’s 2013 novel Jesus Trilogy, Aquí is set in a dystopian world where memory is erased, conformity is enforced and a refugee boy and his guardian search for the boy’s mother despite knowing nothing about her. Newcomer Alex Pelaez and Manolo Simon lead the cast, which includes Patricia Lopez Arnaiz (a best actress Goya winner this year for Sundays) and Sirât star Sergi Lopez.
Contact: Films Boutique
The End Of It (Sp-Nor-UK)
Dir. Maria Martinez Bayona
UK-based Spanish filmmaker Martinez Bayona’s debut is a sci-fi set in a world where ageing has been cured and death is optional. Rebecca Hall, Gael Garcia Bernal, Noomi Rapace and Beanie Feldstein star. The End Of It was developed and produced out of the UK by Elation Pictures, with backing from BBC Film and the UK Global Screen Fund. Fasten Films and Eye Eye Pictures also produce. The Mediapro Studio handles Latin American sales and WME Independent reps North America.
Contact: Bankside Films
Marie Madeleine (Haiti-Fr)
Dir. Gessica Généus
Généus’s second feature arrives in Cannes having been developed in the 2024 La Residence programme. The writer/director also stars in a story inspired by the titular New Testament figure, which is set in the Haitian commune of Jacmel and follows a sex worker living as a free woman who crosses paths with an evangelist whose faith begins to waver. Béonard Monteau, Edouard Baptiste and Melissa Mildort round out the cast. Généus’s debut Freda launched in Un Certain Regard in 2021, going on to festivals including Cannes delegate general Thierry Frémaux’s Lumière Film Festival.
Contact: Pyramide International
The Match (Arg)
Dirs. Juan Cabral, Santiago Franco
The 1986 FIFA World Cup clash between Argentina and England — remembered for Diego Maradona’s goals, the ‘Hand of God’ controversy and the backdrop of the Falklands War — is relived in this Argentinian documentary using archive footage and new interviews with players including Gary Lineker, John Barnes, Jorge Burruchaga and Jorge Valdano. Award-winning commercials director Cabral and short filmmaker Franco direct for producers Industria del Milagro and Labhouse. Disney’s Buena Vista International will release The Match theatrically in Argentina on May 21.
Contact: Flora Fernandez Marengo, Labhouse
Orange-Flavoured Wedding (Fr)
Dir. Christophe Honoré
Cannes veteran Honoré returns to the festival with his 17th feature, after premiering the likes of Marcello Mio (2024), Sorry Angel (2018) and Love Songs (2007) in official selection. His latest is an autobiographical family drama set in the 1970s, centring on a large family who come together for a wedding, as childhood wounds and complicated relationships are reopened. Adele Exarchopoulos, Vincent Lacoste, Nadia Tereszkiewicz, Paul Kircher and Malou Khebizi star, and the director reteams on the film with longtime producers Les Films Pelléas (Anatomy Of A Fall, It Was Just An Accident).
Contact: Pyramide International
Propeller One-Way Night Coach (US)
Dir. John Travolta
After an acting career that has seen him attend Cannes with three entries in official selection (most notably 1994 Palme d’Or winner Pulp Fiction), Travolta, a well-known pilot himself, steps behind the camera for the first time on this tale of a young aviation enthusiast and his mother on an adventurous cross-country flight to Hollywood. Adapted by Travolta from a book he published in 1997, the film was produced by his JTP Films and Kids At Play for Apple Original Films, with a global Apple TV launch set for May 29.
Contact: Apple Original Films
The Samurai And The Prisoner (Japan)
Dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Japanese filmmaker Kurosawa tackles his first period piece with this adaptation of Honobu Yonezawa’s award-winning 2021 novel Kokurojo. The 16th-century story centres on samurai Murashige Araki, who must form an uneasy alliance with a prisoner after his castle becomes the scene of some mysterious crimes. The cast is led by Masahiro Motoki (Departures), Masaki Suda (Cloud) and Munetaka Aoki (Godzilla Minus One). Kurosawa’s previous trips to Cannes include 2008’s Tokyo Sonata, 2015’s Journey To The Shore and 2017’s Before We Vanish, all of which played in Un Certain Regard.
Contact: Charades
Think Good (Fr-Belg)
Dir. Géraldine Nakache
Known in France for more commercial fare such as All That Glitters and Nous York, actress and filmmaker Nakache makes her Cannes debut with this relationship drama starring Niels Schneider and Monia Chokri as a couple who fall hard for each other, only for problems to start when the woman becomes pregnant and realises the man is using religion to exert control over her life. The producers are France’s Liaison Cinématographique and Pan Cinéma with Belgium’s Artémis Productions.
Contact: Playtime
Visitation (Ger)
Dir. Volker Schlöndorff
Schlöndorff was born in Germany in 1939, so has a unique perspective on the story of a Berlin lakeside house that bears witness to the upheavals of the 20th century, including Nazism, war, Soviet occupation and German reunification. Lars Eidinger is among a German cast portraying different inhabitants of the house. This is the first fiction film since 2017’s The Nameless Day from Schlöndorff, whose 1979 feature The Tin Drum shared the Palme d’Or with Apocalypse Now.
Contact: Chloé Marquet, Studiocanal
When The Night Falls (Fr)
Dir. Daniel Auteuil
Auteuil’s sixth film as a director is based on the true story of a civil servant and humanitarian priest who teamed up to save children from deportation during the Nazi occupation. He co-stars alongside Antoine Reinartz, Grégory Gadebois and Luana Bajrami. Set in Lyon, where it also shot, When The Night Falls is produced by Les Films Velvet and Palatio Films.
Contact: Ramy Nahas, SND Films
Special Screenings
Ashes (Mex-Sp)
Dir. Diego Luna
Mexican star Luna’s directorial debut Abel launched at Sundance in 2010 before a Special Screenings slot at Cannes. He returns with an adaptation of Brenda Navarro’s novel Eating Ashes, about a woman who leaves Mexico with her younger brother to reunite with their mother in Madrid, only to find a harsh and fragile reality. Adriana Paz, who shared the Cannes Competition best actress prize in 2024 for Emilia Pérez, stars with Anna Diaz. Luna continues to balance directing with acting roles, including Disney’s Star Wars series Andor and upcoming football drama Mexico 86.
Contact: Luxbox Films
Avedon (US)
Dir. Ron Howard
Oscar winner Howard has recently alternated between narrative features and documentaries, and his latest non-fiction excursion traces the life and legacy of US photographer Richard Avedon — whose subjects ranged from world leaders to pop-culture icons to supermodels — using material from Avedon’s archives and new interviews with his collaborators. The director’s Imagine Entertainment and Fifth Season produce. A frequent festival visitor with his narrative films, Howard had his previous documentary Jim Henson: Ideas Man in the Cannes Classics section in 2024.
Contact: Fifth Season
Cantona (UK)
Dirs. David Tryhorn, Ben Nicholas
Football legend Eric Cantona has long been a big-screen presence, with a three-decade acting career that includes Ken Loach’s Looking For Eric in 2009 and now Avril Besson’s Marvellous Mornings, which also premieres in Special Screenings. This UK-made documentary portrait, from the directors of football docs The Figo Affair and Pelé, features the French footballer himself as well as sports eminences including David Beckham and Alex Ferguson. With a score from Paul Hartnoll of techno duo Orbital, the film comes from UK specialist sports documentary company Pitch International with co-producers Object.
Contact: Cinetic Media
Che Guevara: The Last Companions (Fr)
Dir. Christophe Dimitri Réveille
French actor and writer Réveille has worked extensively as an acting coach on features including Yorgos Lanthimos’s Poor Things and Ladj Ly’s Les Misérables. He makes his directing debut with a documentary about the last surviving comrades of Argentina-born Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara, using archive footage and interviews to tell their stories, plus animation from Despicable Me studio Mac Guff. Vincent Lindon, Cannes jury president in 2022 and best actor winner at the festival for The Measure Of A Man in 2015, narrates the film. Paname will release in France on September 9.
Contact: Lucky Number
Groundswell (US)
Dirs. Joshua Tickell, Rebecca Tickell
This documentary — the third part of a trilogy from husband-and-wife environmental filmmakers the Tickells — gives a global perspective on climate change, species loss and soil erosion, with narration from Demi Moore, Jason Momoa, Jaden Smith and other Hollywood names. Together with predecessors Kiss The Ground and Common Ground, also produced by the pair’s Big Picture Ranch company, Groundswell has been bought for the world by Amazon’s Prime Video. The Tickells broke through in 2008 with Sundance documentary prizewinner Fuel and played Special Screenings at Cannes in 2011 with The Big Fix.
Contact: Prime Video
John Lennon: The Last Interview (US)
Dir. Steven Soderbergh
This rare documentary from the always adventurous Soderbergh — a Cannes regular since winning the Palme d’Or in 1989 for sex, lies, and videotape — is based around a wide-ranging radio interview given by John Lennon and Yoko Ono in their New York apartment the afternoon before his murder. The film has stirred controversy because of Soderbergh’s use of artificial intelligence to create what he has described as “surrealistic” imagery for some scenes. Producers are Mishpookah Entertainment Group and Sugar23, with CAA handling worldwide rights.
Contact: CAA Media Finance
Lucy Lost (Fr)
Dir. Olivier Clert
French animator Clert has worked on films including Universal’s The Lorax, Warner Bros’ Smallfoot, Netflix’s Christmas feature Klaus and the Oscar-nominated Little Amélie Or The Character Of Rain. He takes the director’s chair for this year’s Cannes Family Screening about a girl experiencing visions unseen by anyone else, who goes on a magical quest with her friend to uncover the secret of her powers. Marc du Pontavice produces through French firm Xilam. The company previously made I Lost My Body, which won the 2019 Critics’ Week grand prize and went on to earn an Oscar nomination.
Contact: Flavien Eripret, Goodfellas
Madame (Fr)
Dir. Hélène Rosselet-Ruiz
Based on first-time filmmaker Rosselet-Ruiz’s own life, Madame is an intimate thriller about a young woman hired to work for a Saudi woman living in an opulent Paris apartment, while also being under constant surveillance. The two women bond but the walls of their gilded cage begin to close in. Malou Khebizi from 2024 Cannes Competition title Wild Diamond and Soundos Mosbah star. It is produced by Marie-Ange Luciani (Anatomy Of A Fall).
Contact: mk2 Films
Marvellous Mornings (Fr)
Dir. Avril Besson
Besson’s 2023 short Queen Size scored a César nomination and multiple festival awards including Clermont-Ferrand’s Prix Canal+. The writer/director’s debut feature reunites her with Queen Size duo Raya Martigny and India Hair — the latter also in Cannes this year with Asghar Farhadi’s Competition title Parallel Tales. Co-starring Eric Cantona, Marvellous Mornings is a comedy about a woman who clicks with a charismatic waitress in a seaside town. Production companies are To Be Continued (in Competition with Arthur Harari’s The Unknown) and Topshot Films (2025 Cannes opener Leave One Day).
Contact: Loco Films
Rehearsals For A Revolution (Cze-Sp)
Dir. Pegah Ahangarani
This documentary depicts the life of Iranian actress-turned-filmmaker Ahangarani through portraits of five people from her life, including family members and mentors, as a way to illuminate Iran’s history from the 1979 Islamic Revolution to now, even incorporating the war with the US and Israel that began in February. Ahangarani has been arrested many times in Iran, and has lived in exile in Germany since 2021. As an actress she has appeared in work by leading Iranian filmmakers including Abbas Kiarostami.
Contact: The Party Film Sales
Spring (Lith-Ukr-Fr-Est)
Dir. Rostislav Kirpicenko
Four years on from Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the conflict continues to win the attention of festival programmers. This fiction feature debut is set during winter in a Russia-occupied Ukrainian town, as a priest attempts to preserve proof of war crimes even as the town’s liberation nears. Lithuania-born Kirpicenko grew up in Ukraine but has lived in Paris since 2016. The project participated in the Baltic Event Co-Production Market at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival last year.
Contact: Esse Production House
Tangles (US-Can)
Dir. Leah Nelson
When Alzheimer’s disease breaks down her mother’s vibrant personality, a young woman returns to her strange family in a small conservative town to care for her. This animated feature debut is adapted from Sarah Leavitt’s 2010 graphic novel memoir of the same name. Julia Louis-Dreyfus is a producer and member of the voice cast alongside Abbi Jacobson, Bryan Cranston, Samira Wiley, Beanie Feldstein and Seth Rogen. Rogen’s Point Grey Pictures also produces, as does his partner Lauren Miller Rogen, who has seen family members affected by Alzheimer’s. UTA Independent Film Group and CAA Media Finance co-represent North America rights.
Contact: Charades
Woman On Trial (Fr)
Dirs. Lauriane Escaffre, Yvo Muller
Charlotte Gainsbourg stars as influential Tunisian French lawyer and activist Gisele Halimi in a story centred on the 1972 trial of 16-year-old Marie-Claire Chevalier, whose illegal abortion paved the way to France later decriminalising the procedure. Cécile de France, Grégory Gadebois and Saül Benchetrit co-star, and prolific French outfit Quad produces. It is directing duo Escaffre and Muller’s follow-up to their debut, 2022 romantic comedy Maria Into Life starring Karin Viard.
Contact: Gaumont
Profiles by: Elisabet Cabeza, Ben Dalton, Charles Gant, John Hazelton, Rebecca Leffler, Jonathan Romney, Michael Rosser, Matt Schley, Anna Stafford, Mona Tabbara, Silvia Wong
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