The Juliette Binoche-led main competition jury could have their work cut out for them, as this might be one of those years where Thierry Frémaux assigns the nine-member voting group some demanding world cinema homework. Based on our metrics, we might be looking at two dozen features – which isn’t out of the question—a benchmark last seen in the post-pandemic 2021 edition. Before we take the plunge into Palme d’Or hopefuls we are predicting that Richard Linklater‘s Nouvelle Vague will open the 78th edition of the Cannes Film Festival — it feels like the perfect homage to the cinema movement and celebration of le 7eme art. In other high value titles floating around in the other sections we could easily forecast Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest, Christopher McQuarrie’s Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning and Antonin Baudry’s De Gaulle Partie 1: La France Libre as Out of Competition section options. For Midnight Screenings (usually a quartet of films), Danny and Michael Philippou’s Bring Her Back, Anders Thomas Jensen’s Back to Reality, Yeon Sang-ho’s The Ugly and Ethan Coen’s Honey Don’t make sense on paper. Eagles of the Republic could either play there, in comp or join Raoul Peck’s Orwell: 2+2=5 in the Special Screenings section. Will Terrence Malick be ready? How many American filmmakers will make the cut? What national cinema will receive more love than usual? Will we have a record number of female auteurs in comp? Are there any directorial debuts? Pencils down. Here we go folks!
Alpha
Julia Ducournau
Producers: Mandarin & Compagnie’s Éric et Nicolas Altmayer, Jean des Forêts et Amélie Jacquis
World Sales: FilmNation Ent./Charades
It’ll be a race to the finish line for Palme d’Or winning filmmaker Julia Ducournau. Her third feature, a NEON pick-up, moved into production back in October. Alpha follows an 11-year-old girl (named Alpha) in a fictional 1980s city inspired by New York. As the AIDS epidemic unfolds worldwide, one of her parents falls ill, forcing her to confront loss and her own mortality for the first time. Golshifteh Farahani, Tahar Rahim, Emma Mackey and Finnegan Oldfield star. Ducournau re-teams with her Raw (2016) and Titane (2021) cinematographer Ruben Impens.
Die, My Love
Lynne Ramsay
Producers: Andrea Calderwood, Trent Luckinbill, Martin Scorsese, Molly Smith, Excellent Cadaver’s Justine Ciarrocchi and Jennifer Lawrence.
World Sales: TBD.
A Cannes habitual seeing all her films premiere in Cannes, after Ratcatcher (1999), Morvern Callar (2002) and We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011), we will forever recall our press screening for 2017’s You Were Never Really Here – a print that was wet that there weren’t any end-credits. Walking away with the Best Actor and Best Screenplay awards, Lynne Ramsay should be back with her fifth feature. What would surely be among the most anticipated acquisition titles, the book to film adaptation of Die, My Love went into production in August. Starring Jennifer Lawrence, Robert Pattinson, LaKeith Stanfield, Sissy Spacek, and Nick Nolte, this is set in a farmhouse on the Montana countryside (production took place in Calgary), a woman has mental health issues as her marriage breaks up. Ramsay re-teams with cinematographer Seamus McGarvey.
The Disappearance of Josef Mengele
Kirill Serebrennikov
Producers: Lupa Films’ Felix von Boem, Scala Films’ Mélanie Biessy, CG Cinema’s Charles Gillibert, Hype Studio’s Ilya Stewart
World Sales: Kinology
With showcases in Cannes dating back to The Student (2016’s Un Certain Regard) with competition premieres for 2018’s Leto, 2021’s Petrov’s Flu, 2022’s Tchaikovsky’s Wife and 2023’s Limonov: The Ballad, filming on Kirill Serebrennikov‘s latest took place in late 2024 in backdrops of Uruguay and Latvia. The Disappearance of Josef Mengele follows the story of notorious Nazi doctor Josef Mengele during his fugitive years, from Paraguay to the Brazilian jungle. August Diehl toplines.
The Sound of Falling
Mascha Schilinski
Producers: Lucas Schmidt, Lasse Scharpen
World Sales: TBD.
A film and filmmaker who were completely off our radar, the trades have lassoed The Sound of Falling (which at the time we wrote this was going by the title of ‘The Doctor Says I’ll Be Alright, But I’m Feelin’ Blue (aka In die Sonne schauen) as a sure bet for the comp. The sophomore feature by Berlin-born Mascha Schilinski arrives over the two-hour mark — it’s a period drama is about four girls in four different decades share growing up on a rural farm and seem to be connected with one another. The German filmmaker’s debut film (Dark Blue Girl) premiered at the 2017 Berlinale. Production took place in the middle of 2023 leading us to believe that Cannes might have swiped the title from the Berlinale selection committee.
Eddington
Ari Aster
Producers: Ari Aster, Square Peg’s Lars Knudsen
World Sales: A24
With production having started in May 2024, Ari Aster has had plenty of time in post on what is being pitched as a contemporary Western black comedy. Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Emma Stone, Luke Grimes, Austin Butler, Deirdre O’Connell, Micheal Ward, and Clifton Collins Jr., Eddington follows a small-town New Mexico sheriff with higher aspirations. Darius Khondji is the cinematographer here on Aster’s fourth feature film.
Enzo
Robin Campillo
Producers: Les Films de Pierre producer Marie-Ange Luciani.
World Sales: mk2
He broke back in 2017 with the Cannes Grand Prix winning BPM (Beats per Minute), and having Enzo in competition would be fitting as Robin Campillo actually shored up in Cannes as a scribe working with Laurent Cantet on Cannes preemed films such as the Palme d’Or winning Entre les murs (2008) and film L’atelier (2017). This was meant to be a Cantet directorial outing. Starring Eloy Pohu, Maksym Slivinskyi, Pierfrancesco Favino and Elodie Bouchez, this is about Enzo, 16, defies his bourgeois family’s expectations by starting a masonry apprenticeship, a path far removed from the prestigious life they had envisioned for him. In their chic villa in the sun-drenched South of France, tensions simmer as relentless questions and pressures weigh on Enzo’s future and dreams. On the construction sites, however, Vlad, a charismatic Ukrainian colleague, shakes up Enzo’s world and opens the door to unexpected possibilities.
Father, Mother, Sister, Brother
Jim Jarmusch
Producers: Charles Gillibert, Joshua Astrachan, Carter Logan, Atilla Salih Yücer
World Sales: The Match Factory
A slam dunk comp entry, Jim Jarmusch began his love affair with the Croisette with 1984’s Stranger Than Paradise (Caméra d’or winner) up until opening the festival in 2019 with The Dead Don’t Die. Father, Mother, Sister, Brother went into production in November 2023 and the comedy drama anthology lassoed the likes of Cate Blanchett, Vicky Krieps, Adam Driver, Mayim Bialik, Tom Waits, Charlotte Rampling, Indya Moore and Luka Sabbat. Three separate stories all concern the relationships between adult children, their somewhat distant parent (or parents), and each other. Each of the three parts takes place in the present, and each in a different country. Father is set in the Northeast U.S., Mother in Dublin, Ireland, and Sister Brother in Paris, France. Mubi will distribute this one.
Fuori
Mario Martone
Producers: TBD.
World Sales: TBA.
Veteran Italian filmmaker Mario Martone has been to Cannes on three occasions with L’Amore molesto (1995), Theatro di guerra (1998) and Nostalgia (2022). According to several trades, his latest, Fuori, has been tipped to land here for some time now. Production took place last June in Rome with Valeria Golino toplining. This tells the story of Goliarda Sapienza, the twentieth century Italian actress and writer whose hit novel, The Art of Joy. A writer ends up in prison for a crazy and unexpected act, where she meets with some young inmates. Once out the writer and the other women maintain their friendship, an authentic bond that no one else will be able to understand. Matilda De Angelis and Elodie also star.
L’intérêt d’Adam
Laura Wandel
Producers: Les Films de Pierre’s Marie-Ange Luciani, Dragons Films’ Stéphane Lhoest and Les Films du Fleuve’s Delphine Tomson.
World Sales: Indie Sales
Belgian filmmaker Laura Wandel broke out big with her feature debut in 2021’s Playground (an Un Certain Regard selection). The Cannes folks offered to workshop her sophomore project via La Résidence of the Festival de Cannes. Starring Léa Drucker, Anamaria Vartolomei and Alex Descas, L’intérêt d’Adam follows four-year-old Adam who is suffering from malnutrition and has been taken to hospital following a court’s decision. Lucy, a pediatrics head nurse, authorizes Rebecca, Adam’s mother, to remain with her son despite visiting times having been strictly limited by the judge. When Rebecca stubbornly refuses to leave Adam, the situation becomes complicated. For the child’s sake, Lucy will do all she can to help this mother in distress…..Production took place in July of last year.
The Love That Remains
Hlynur Pálmason
Producers: Still Vivid’s Anton Máni Svansson, Snowglobe’s Katrin Pors
World Sales: New Europe Film Sales
Having landed in Cannes with A White, White Day (2019’s Critics’ Week) and Godland (2022’s Un Certain Regard), for his fourth feature film, Hlynur Pálmason goes back to the simmering family drama genre exploring a year in the life of a family as the parents separate. Saga Garðarsdóttir, Sverrir Gudnason, Ída Mekkín Hlynsdóttir, Þorgils Hlynsson and Grímur Hlynsson star in The Love That Remains – production took place in Iceland last year.
The Magnificent Life of Marcel Pagnol
Sylvain Chomet
Producers: What the Prod’s Ashargin Poire and Valerie Puech.
World Sales: Elle Driver
Invited on two occasions to the Croisette with The Triplets of Belleville (Out of Competition) and as one of the many contributors on Paris, je t’aime (Un Certain Regard), work on The Magnificent Life of Marcel Pagnol technically began sometime around 2021 and as is the case with animated films (here 2D) we are never really able to pinpoint the release or the competition interest level. Sylvain Chomet brings to life Marcel Pagnol, a celebrated French novelist, playwright and filmmaker who grew up in a middle-class household in Marseille and became one of the world’s most inventive and prolific artists from the 1930’s to the 1950’s. In 1955, 60-year-old Marcel Pagnol is a well-known and acclaimed playwright and filmmaker. When the editor in chief of ELLE Magazine commissions a weekly column about Pagnol’s childhood, he sees this as a great opportunity to go back to his artistic roots: writing…. Sony Pictures Classics nabbed the title and plan for a late release this year.
La Maison Maternelle
Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne
Producers: Les Films du Fleuve’s Dardenne Bros., Delphine Tomson
World Sales: Goodfellas.
Since premiering 1996’s La Promesse in the Directors’ Fortnight, Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne have competed for the Palme d’Or (they won with Rosetta and L’Enfant) on nine different occasions and the headline this year will be that they will be looking to three-peat with their latest. La Maison Maternelle (aka Young Mothers) looks at Jessica, Perla, Julie, Naïma and Ariane – all housed in a shelter for young mothers, all of whom have grown up in difficult circumstances, struggle to obtain a better life for themselves and their children. Outside of India Hair, we don’t know who was cast in the film – which moved into production in August of last year.
Miroirs No. 3
Christian Petzold
Producers: SCHRAMM FILM Koerner Weber Kaiser
World Sales: The Match Factory
Our eyes perked up when Miroirs No. 3 was a no-show for the Berlinale. Could Christian Petzold finally be invited to Cannes? It appears so. The final part of a trilogy, Paula Beer toplines as the aspiring pianist, Laura, whose life is upended when she is in a car crash with her boyfriend who is killed. Laura subsequently wanders into the house and life of a family of strangers, who offer to take care of her, but their motivations turn out to not be as simple as they first appear. Production took place in April. Metrograph Pictures were early buyers.
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