After putting out our predictions for the Critics’ Week, Directors’ Fortnight and Un Certain Regard programmes we now look at the Cannes Premiere section. Launched four years directly after the lost, pandemic edition, the section helped re-frame the Un Certain Regard section as a section for discovery from mostly new auteurs and it allows the fest to cast a bigger net grabbing a good quartet of French cinema items that would normally have fought to a place at le Grand Théâtre Lumière. Previously we’ve seen Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s The Beasts, Víctor Erice’s Close Your Eyes, Lisandro Alonso’s Eureka and Alain Guiraudie’s Miséricorde. This year we imagine there’ll be a focus on French filmmakers with a handful of international titles in a section that holds seven to eight world premieres. While our guesses are mostly international filmmakers we expect an almost even split here.
Amrum
Fatih Akin
Producers: Lara Förtsch.
World Sales: Beta Cinema
If we don’t count his 2021 visit for the restored copy for his 2005 docu Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul, Turkish-German filmmaker Fatih Akin‘s last time on the Croisette was for 2017’s In the Fade. Filming on Amrum took place in April of last year – it found him re-team with Diane Kruger in Hamburg alongside Jasper Billerbeck and Laura Tonke. Set on Germany’s North Sea island of Amrum in the spring of 1945,this revolves around a 12-year-old boy called Nanning who goes seal hunting, fishing at night and toils in the fields to help his mother feed the family. When peace is declared, completely new conflicts arise, and Nanning must learn to find his own way.
Calle Malaga
Maryam Touzani
Producers: Ali ‘n Prods.’ Amine Benjelloun, Les Films du Nouveau Monde’s Jean-Rémi Ducourtioux,Mod Producciones’ Simon De Santiago and Fernando Bovaira, One Two Films’ Sol Bondy and Fred Burle, Velvet Films’ Sebastian Schelenz
World Sales: Films Boutique
After a pair of Un Certain Regard premieres for her first pair of fiction feature films in The Blue Caftan (2019) and Adam (2022), Maryam Touzani‘s latest has a legit shot at breaking into the competition especially with veteran actress Carmen Maura in the lead role but we think that the Palme d’Or comp is too stacked this year and that Touzani might follow suit in this section a la Everybody Loves Touda (2024) – which was directed by her husband Nabil Ayouch. Calle Malaga is a Spanish-language film is about a 74-year-old woman who belongs to the Spanish community of Tangier and enjoys the quietness of her life in the colorful Moroccan costal town. When her daughter decides to sell her home, she is forced out against her will. She sets off to reclaim her home and furniture, which have been sold to a vintage dealer. Through this encounter, she unexpectedly rediscovers the possibility of love and sensuality. Production would have taken place this past summer.
Dossier 137
Dominik Moll
Producers: Haut et Court’s Carole Scotta, Caroline Benjo, Barbara Letellier and Simon Arnal.
World Sales: Charades
Following the extremely popular The Night of the 12th (which was featured in the Cannes Premiere section in 2022), production on Dominik Moll‘s ninth feature film took place last October. Featuring Léa Drucker, Yoann Blanc, Guslagie Malanda and Antonia Buresi, Dossier 137 is set in the internal affairs department of the French national police, Drucker plays an investigator tasked with an incident involving a young man severely wounded during a protest in Paris that takes a personal turn when she discovers the victim is from her hometown. Moll re-teamed with cinematographer Patrick Ghiringhelli. Moll competed for the Palme d’Or with With a Friend Like Harry…(2000) and
Lemming (2005).
L’Inconnu de la grande arche
Stéphane Demoustier
Producers: Ex Nihilo’s Muriel Meynard
World Sales: Le Pacte.
If included among the Croisette festivities, this would be a first presence for Stéphane Demoustier. His fifth feature film (which went into production back in October) book to film project that features Claes Bang, Sidse Babett Knudsen, Michel Fau, Swann Arlaud and Xavier Dolan. L’Inconnu de la grande arche is set around the biggest architectural competition in history, which was both anonymous and open to all and was launched in the early ‘80s at the instigation of a new socialist president. Coveted by all the international leaders in architecture, the winner of this competition is an unknown entrant: Johan Otto von Spreckelsen, an architecture teacher from Copenhagen who takes everyone by surprise. To this point in time, the fifty-year-old has only built 4 buildings: his house and three small chapels. “Spreck” is thrust centre stage overnight, becoming the focus of everyone’s attention, and, most importantly, handed the reins to a colossal project: building the Grande Arche de la Défense in Paris.
Palestine 36
Annemarie Jacir
Producers: Philistine Films’ Ossama Bawardi
World Sales: mk2 Films/Lucky Number
Palestinian filmmaker Annemarie Jacir had her feature film in 2018’s Salt of the Sea be selected for the Un Certain Regard section. After showcases at Locarno, Berlinale and Toronto, her fourth feature Palestine 36 might be a good bet for a return to Cannes. A period drama featuring Jeremy Irons, Hiam Abbass, Kamel Al Basha, Yasmine Al-Massri, Jalal Altawil, Robert Aramayo, Saleh Bakri, Yafa Bakri, Karim Daoud Anaya, Billy Howle, Dhafer L’Abidine and Liam Cunningham, this is set against the backdrop of 1936 Palestine when the territory was under British mandatory control, and explores the lead-up to and events of the Palestinian Arab Revolt from 1936 to 1939. As villages rise-up against British rule, protagonist Yusuf drifts between his rural home and the restless energy of Jerusalem, longing for a future beyond the growing unrest. Production was shut down, filmed in Jordan and then returned to Palestine — cinematographer Hélène Louvart is onboard here.
À Voix basse
Leyla Bouzid
Producers: Bruno Nahon
World Sales: Playtime.
After À peine j’ouvre les yeux (2015) a Venice Film Festival selection and the 2021 Une histoire d’amour et de désir – the closing film in the Critics’ Week, French-Tunisian filmmaker Leyla Bouzid is ready with her third feature. À Voix basse (In a Whisper) is set in Tunisia, at for her uncle’s funeral, Lilia reunites with a family that knows nothing about her life in Paris, especially her love life. Determined to unravel the mystery surrounding the sudden death of her uncle, Lilia finds herself confronted with family secrets in a house where three generations of women cohabit between silences and traditions. This stars Marion Barbeau and Eya Bouteraa. Production took place in June of last year.
Wake of Umbra
Carlos Reygadas
Producers: Beata Rzeźniczek, Ewa Puszczyńska, Klaudia Śmieja-Rostworowska
World Sales:
He has been featured on the Croisette on his first four films with the Directors’ Fortnight preemed Japon (2002) and three competition films Battle in Heaven (2005), Silent Light (2007) and Post Tenebras Lux (2012), his fifth feature was selected for Venice. Filmed a bit everywhere including Poland, Norway and Mexico, Carlos Reygadas‘ Estela de sombra (aka Wake of Umbra) is about four friends traversing time and space. This was shot in 2023 and 2024.
