The countdown to the Cannes Film Festival 2024 has officially begun as festival director Thierry Frémaux and festival president Iris Knobloch unveiled the stellar line-up of this year’s edition. To date, it was known that George Miller, Francis Ford Coppola, Kevin Costner and Quentin Dupieux would be heading to La Croisette with respectively Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Megalopolis, Horizon, An American Saga, and The Second Act, and it seems that they will be in great company!
Director/writer Yorgos Lanthimos, Emma Stone and Willem Dafoe clearly can’t get enough of each other cause right off the bat of Poor Things, they’re now going to France with Kind of Kindness, which is also starring Joe Alwyn, Jesse Plemons and Hunter Schafer. The movie follows an eclectic bunch of people – a man trying to take control over his own life, a policeman who finds out that his wife, who was missing at sea, has returned, and a woman looking for someone destined to become a spiritual leader.
Another much-loved director by the Cannes Film Festival is David Cronenberg, who will return to the famous steps with his new film, The Shrouds, alongside cast members Vincent Cassel, Diane Kruger and Guy Pearce. The movie, about an innovative businessman who builds a device with which he can communicate with the dead, is expected to be released in France later this year, with other release dates probably soon to follow.
Speaking of France, French filmmaker Coralie Fargeat’s debut, The Substance, is probably one of the most secretive movies on the bill this year. The plot is under lock and key, but we know that this body horror features Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, and Ray Liotta. Representing Italy is Paolo Sorrentino, who will bring his Parthenope to Cannes, while Kirill Serebrennikov’s movie Limonov: The Ballad represents Russia this year. It’s expected that Ben Whishaw, who plays the Soviet poet Eduard Limonov, will be in attendance.
While we don’t know much about The Substance, we do know much about The Apprentice. This latest feature by Ali Abbasi and starring Sebastian Stan in the lead, is namely based on Donald Trump’s life and career in the 1970s and 1980s. Stan is joined by Maria Bakalova as Trump’s ex-wife Ivana and Jeremy Strong as lawyer and prosecutor Roy Cohn. Many more stars will make their way to Cannes as the festival will also mark the premiere of Paul Schrader’s latest film, Oh Canada, Jacques Audiard’s new musical Emilia Perez and Sean Baker’s comedy-drama Anora.
While there are more movies expected to be added to the star-studded program in the coming weeks, this is what the line-up of the 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival looks like:
Openings film
- The Second Act (Quentin Dupieux)
Competition
- The Apprentice (Ali Abbasi)
- Motel Destino (Karim Ainouz)
- Bird (Andrea Arnold)
- Emilia Perez (Jacques Audiard)
- Anora (Sean Baker)
- Megalopolis (Francis Ford Coppola)
- The Shrouds (David Cronenberg)
- The Substance (Coralie Fargeat)
- Grand Tour (Miguel Gomes)
- Marcello Mio (Christophe Honoré)
- Caught By The Tides (Jia Zhang-Ke)
- All We Imagine As Light (Payal Kapadia)
- Kinds Of Kindness (Yórgos Lánthimos)
- L’amour Ouf (Gilles Lellouche)
- Wild Diamond (Agathe Riedinger)
- Oh Canada (Paul Schrader)
- Limonov – The Ballad (Kirill Serebrennikov)
- Parthenope (Paolo Sorrentino)
- The Girl With The Needle (Magnus Von Horn)
Out Of Competition
- Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (George Miller)
- Horizon, An American Saga (Kevin Costner)
- She’s Got No Name (Peter Chan)
- Rumours (Evan Johnson, Galen Johnson, Guy Maddin)
Un Certain Regard
- Norah (Tawfik Alzaidi)
- The Shameless (Konstantin Bojanov)
- Le Royaume (Julien Colonna)
- Vingt Dieux! (Louise Courvoisier)
- Who Let The Dog Bite? (Lætitia Dosch)
- Black Dog (Guan Hu)
- The Village Next To Paradise (Mo Harawe)
- September Says (Ariane Labed)
- L’histoire De Souleymane (Boris Lojkine)
- The Damned (Roberto Minervini)
- On Becoming A Guinea Fowl (Rungano Nyoni)
- My Sunshine (Hiroshi Okuyama)
- Santosh (Sandhya Suri)
- Viet And Nam (Truong Minh Quý)
- Armand (Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel)
Cannes Premieres
- Miséricorde (Alain Guiraudie)
- C’est Pas Moi (Leos Carax)
- Everybody Loves Touda (Nabil Ayouch)
- The Matching Bang (Emmanuel Courcol)
- Rendez-Vous Avec Pol Pot (Rithy Panh)
- Le Roman de Jim (Arnaud Larrieu, Jean-Marie Larrieu)
Specials screenings
- Apprendre (Claire Simon)
- Ernest Cole, Lost and Found (Raoul Peck)
- L’Invasion (Sergei Loznitsa)
Midnight screenings
- I, the Executioner (Ryoo Seung-wan)
- The Balconettes/Les Femmes au Balcon (Noémie Merlant)
- The Surfer (Lorcan Finnegan)
- Twilight of the Warrior Walled In (Soi Cheang)