2024 Cannes Film Festival: Lynne Ramsay, Abdellatif Kechiche & Jessica Palud Among 11th Hour Film Options?
The films from the Critics’ Week and Directors’ Fortnight sections are now on firm grounds and as we anticipate the unveiling of the Cannes Short Film Competition and Cannes Classics selections, there's also anticipation surrounding those last additions to the Palme d'Or competition, and the handful of films left for the Un Certain Regard section, and the remaining entries for the Cannes Premiere and other Out of Competition sections. Thierry Frémaux could add up to just under a dozen items with at least two or three additions cementing the comp section. We figured we'd prognosticate just a little more so here are ten possible 11th hour entries for the 2024 edition.
Emmanuelle [Sales: Goodfellas]
Our thinking has always been there might be a rough cut readied for a first look but that this possible scorcher item will slowly prepare itself for a Lido showcase especially since Audrey Diwan's last film Happening was a Golden Lion winner. Production took place in Hong Kong and Paris moving from October and shifting into December shot dates with Noémie Merlant being joined Naomi Watts, Will Sharpe, Jamie Campbell Bower, Chacha Huang and Anthony Wong in an adaptation (Diwan co-wrote with Rebecca Zlotowski) of the novel and not --- a remake of the 1974 film. This follows a young woman’s sexual journey from the arms of her husband to intimate encounters with the wives of his business associates...
Prediction: Competition
La plus précieuse des marchandises [Sony Pictures Classics]
Seeing that French filmmaker Michel Hazanavicius has been a Cannes regular since 2011's The Artist --- competing three times for the Palme d'Or and with his most recent film Coupez! set as the opener of the fest back in 2022. We figured this animated film might also be a Palme contender but perhaps they are still weighing if an out of comp slot is the better bet showcase. Dominique Blanc, Denis Podalydès, Grégory Gadebois and Jean-Louis Trintignant make up the voice cast for the story of a French Jewish family who are deported to Auschwitz. On the train to the death camp, in a desperate gesture, the father throws one of his twins out into the snow, where he’s discovered by a childless Polish couple.
Prediction: Out of Competition.
Le chemin du serpent [Sales: Kadokawa]
Some folks were speculating that this would play in competition title but we've always been leaning towards an out of comp or midnight screening selection for Kiyoshi Kurosawa's remake of his own film. Starring Ko Shibasaki, Damien Bonnard and Mathieu Amalric, this is about a mysterious woman who teams up with a man whose daughter was killed and who is now seeking revenge. Together they kidnap members of an organization and torture them to find out what really happened.
Maria [Sales: Orange Studio]
The competition already has one wink to cinema's past with Honoré's Marcello Mio, so perhaps Jessica Palud's sophomore feature is a better fit for the Un Certain Regard section --- where we originally predicted the title might land. A book-to-film project this tells the story of Maria Schneider inside the film industry which will include the controversial production of Bernardo Bertolucci’s Last Tango in Paris. Anamaria Vartolomei plays Schneider and is cast alongside Matt Dillion, Hugo Becker, Yvan Attal, Marie Gillain and Céleste Brunnquel.
Prediction: Un Certain Regard.
Mektoub My Love: Canto Due [Sales: Pathé]
Big news earlier this week from the World of Reel folks who learned that the second part in Abdellatif Kechiche's trilogy would have been shown to the selection committee. As we recall, the Palme d'Or winner filmmaker got ravaged for presenting an unfinished marathon of a film in 2019's Mektoub, My Love: Intermezzo on the Croisette and it didn't help matters that his filmmaking technique conduct on set was put under the microscope once again. We don't know which characters will get more of the focus in terms of screen time, but we will indeed revisit the storylines played by Hafsia Herzi, Salim Kechiouche, Andre Jacobs and Shaïn Boumedine.
Prediction: Competition.
Niki [Sales: Pulsar Content]
Starring Charlotte Le Bon, John Robinson, Damien Bonnard and Judith Chemla, we had Céline Sallette's feature film debut as a possible Un Certain Regard selection and perhaps the biopic on French-American artist Niki de Saint-Phalle is more run-of-the-mill conventional and better fit for a non-comp category -- yes an odd fit for a Camera d'Or hopeful.
Prediction: Cannes Premiere.
Planète B [Sales: Orange Studio]
We had this dystopian thriller sub-genre sophomore feature by Aude Léa Rapin in the mix as part of one of the parallel sections and while chances are low for a Cannes inclusion we are now thinking along the lines of where Le Règne animal premiered last year. That film featured Adele Exarchopoulos, and so does this one - she stars alongside Souheila Yacoub, India Hair, Jonathan Couzinié and Marc Barbé in a tale follows Julia, one of the activists who mysteriously disappeared after participating in a violent protest. After being shot in the eye by a flash-ball gun, Julia fainted and woke up in an unknown world, known as Planet B.
Prediction: Un Certain Regard.
Polaris [Sales: Unknown]
We've been hearing conflicting reports on the exact status of this film from the filmmaker herself -- we've heard everything from it didn't move into production yet to it's in currently in post. If it's indeed completed it means that Lynne Ramsay and real-life couple pairing in Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara would have gone to the secluded Alaska backdrop for a set in the 1890s portrait of a photographer meets the devil. Aka Dark Slides, this could follow the same film festival (and rather fruitful) narrative as You Were Never Really Here - which was a last minute addition to Cannes in 2017.
Prediction: Competition.
The Quiet Son [Sales: Unknown]
Another book to film project, we've been big on this third feature film by Delphine Coulin and Muriel Coulin. Croisette habituals with 2011's 17 Girls (Critics' Weeks selection) and 2016’s Voir du pays (Un Certain Regard selection) Vincent Lindon and Benjamin Voisin find themselves in a story about a family story rooted in Lorraine -- about a railway-worker father and his two sons, following the death of their mother.
Prediction: Un Certain Regard.
Spectateurs [Sales: Les Films du Losange]
Also known as Filmlovers!, with over a dozen of his films being selected for Cannes, the Croisette is indeed Arnaud Desplechin's home. With Milo Machado-Graner, Françoise Lebrun and the return of mister Paul Dédalus (played by Mathieu Amalric) this is described as a docufiction + a love letter to cinema, freely inspired by the director’s own discovery and passion for cinema.
Prediction: Out of Competition.
