2026 Cannes Critics’ Panel: Day 8 – Ira Sachs’ ‘The Man I Love’

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He has been owning Sundance since he premiered 1996 The Delta and three decades later the cinema of Ira Sachs has been expanding to new A list film fest destinations with his most recent drops at the Berlinale in for Passages in 2023 and Peter Hujar’s Day last year. Sachs returns to the Cannes comp for a second time – he was there in 2019 with Frankie and returns to the comp with The Man I Love. A pioneer of Queer cinema, he has long focused on emotional intimacy and romantic complexity, aging and personal reinvention alongside class, privilege and urban loneliness especially in his New York landscape. Set in late 1980s New York City, the film follows Jimmy George, an actor facing a life-threatening illness, who takes on what may be his final major role. Rami Malek, Tom Sturridge, Luther Ford, Rebecca Hall, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach star. This is competition film #18 of 22.

In 2019 Frankie was among the films that did not play well with an average score of 2.2, but things have changed dramatically on Sachs’ second voyage to the Croisette. The Man I Love is currently riding in with an average score of 3.4 from fourteen of our twenty critics and Rami Malek is legitimately receiving the kind of buzz that will last well into awards season — look for this to land a significant distribution deal in the coming days. One of two American indie films, this is currently tied for fourth.

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Eric Lavallée
Eric Lavalléehttps://www.ericlavallee.com
Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist, and critic at IONCINEMA.com, established in 2000. A regular at Sundance, Cannes, and Venice, Eric holds a BFA in film studies from the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013, he served on the narrative competition jury at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson’s "This Teacher" (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). He is a Golden Globes Voter, member of the ICS (International Cinephile Society), FIPRESCI and AQCC (Association québécoise des critiques de cinéma).

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