The parallel selection dedicated to debut and sophomore features films had a chockfull of crème de la crème options last year beginning with solid opener and closing films in Laura Wandel’s L’intérêt d’Adam (review) and Alice Douard’s Love Letters (review) and with a competition section with not too shabby selections such as Shih-Ching Tsou’s Left-Handed Girl, Pauline Loquès’ Nino, Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke’s A Useful Ghost and Alexe Poukine’s Kika (review) who is featured in this year’s poster.
Regardless of the friendly tensions with ACID, Quinzaine or Un Certain Regard programmers, in her victory lap edition, Critics’ Week topper Ava Cahen has carved out a legit launchpad type space at the Espace Miramar that strategists absolutely consider as the place they want to roll out a world premiere campaign. The section is composed of seven competition films and three to four Special Screenings. Below, we’ve compiled a list of fifteen films that we believe could be an excellent fit for Critics’ Week’s 65th edition and make sure to visit with us every day this week as we prognosticate on the films that might populate the Director’s Fortnight, Un Certain Regard, the Out of Competitions/Special Screenings/Midnight/Cannes Premiere sections and of course, the Main Competition.
A Girl Unknown
Zou Jing
Producers: Memoria Films’ Wang Yang, Pure Light Films’ Xu Jiahan, Maneki Films’ Didar Domehri
World Sales: Pyramide
Discovered in the Critics’ Week section for her 2021 award-winning short Lill Alone, Zou Jing actually brought her feature debut project to the same section as part of the 2023 Next Step session. Based out of Shanghai and Los Angeles, the Chinese filmmaker enlisted Li Gengxi (Bi Gan’s Resurrection) for the lead and filmed in China early 2025.
A Girl Unknown follows a young Chinese woman from the age of six through to her thirties, living in three different families. It tells the story of entire generations of abandoned girls in China from the 1980s to the 2000s. It is also an intimate coming-of-age story that explores existential pain, self-discovery, and how one learns to love. Themes possibly include fractured identity, lingering memory, and hard-won resilience.
Petar Krumov
Producers: Klas Film’s Rossitsa Valkanova, Harald House’s Kristian Van der Heyden
World Sales: Heretic Outreach
Bulgarian filmmaker Petar Krumov first appeared on our radar with project that he co-wrote with fellow countryman Konstantin Bojanov, but his résumé so far includes cutting his teeth on a well-received 2018 short Shame and he is currently directing television. Shot all the way back in October of 2024 in the backdrop of Sofia, Krumov’s feature debut is a Bulgarian-Belgian co-production working with coming-of-age, digital ambition and modern-day solitude themes with younglings Zdravko Moskov and Vera Velinova toplining.
Barefoot Bull follows Zdravko, who dreams of escaping farm life and becoming a famous influencer. Leaving his desperate father behind, he seeks his cousin Monique, a TikTok star, believing she’ll be his ticket to popularity and money. But he finds quirky copycat Lucy instead. The two loners form an odd couple in a hostile city, chasing viral fame and spiraling into dangerous pranks, romance and love. Videos of his dangerous stunts go viral, and fame consumes Zdravko. Themes include coming-of-age, digital ambition and modern-day solitude.
Chercheurs
Aurélien Peilloux
Producers: Melocoton’s Hélène Mitjaville, Delante Productions’ Caroline Adrian
World Sales: France TV Distribution
Based on his Cannes Cinéfondation selected short film project of the same name, Aurélien Peilloux moved into his feature film debut back in June of last year in Strasbourg, Lyon and Paris with the likes of Galatéa Bellugi (from Louise Hémon’s The Girl in the Snow), Emmanuelle Devos and Stefan Crepon. The great cinematographer Jeanne Lapoirie also boarded the project working in themes of ambition, isolation, and workplace dynamics.
Written by Peilloux and Olivier Gorce, Chercheurs is about a 23-year-old chemist named Agathe (Bellugi) who joins a prestigious Parisian laboratory for her PhD. Her dream of becoming a leading researcher is on the way to becoming a reality, but first she has to contend with a toxic supervisor and hostile colleagues to boot, including flamboyant Charles who has no intention of making things easy.
Girl Beast
Selma Sunniva
Producers: Manna Film’s Maria Moller Kjeldgaard and Ann-Sofie Grondal
World Sales: The Yellow Affair
She comes from cinema royalty and so after a cluster of short film cinema, Danish filmmaker Selma Sunniva moved into production this past July of last year in her native Denmark on her feature debut. Featuring Rebecca Ellen leads the cast alongside Christian Tafdrup, Trine Dyrholm, Thure Lindhardt, Josephine Park, Girl Beast was showcased at the recent Les Arcs Film Festival and 2026’s Spotlight on the Nordics. We are looking at themes of female and male gaze, obsession, mirroring, societal norms and female desire — this looks like a right fit for a Croisette showcase.
Based on Cecilie Lind’s 2022 novel, the psychological drama explores how childhood trauma and dysfunctional relationships shape identity and sexuality in the teenage years of a young girl called Sara (Ellen).
If I See a Rainbow
Zhao Hao
Producers: Memoria Films’ WANG Yang, Deuxième Ligne Films’ Marie Dubas, QI Ai
World Sales: TBD
With shorts in 2021’s An Invitation (Cannes Critics’ Week) and 2023’s Now.Here (Berlinale) under his belt, Chinese filmmaker Zhao Hao has slowly been mounting his feature debut via programs such as the Critics’ Week Next Step, IFFR Hubert Bals Fund and the Venice Gap-Fin Market. Production on If I See a Rainbow took place in May of last year with the likes of Ma Yili, Song Ningfeng, Zhu Zhuo-er, Yang Haoyu and Lucie Zhang (Audiard’s Paris, 13th District) lining up a film about fitting in. Themes revolve around self-liberation, societal constraints, emotional inheritance and alienation.
After years of trying to escape her mother’s control and avoid her fate, Qingshui, a woman in her 30s living in Shanghai, finds herself unwittingly succumbing to the same behaviors as her mother and reliving her life. When her mother dies, Qingshui realizes she is stuck in her marriage and struggles to once again chart her own course.
Je suis fleur
Olivia Baes
Producers: Olivia Baes, Jordi B. Oliva, Iman Perez
World Sales: Kinology
French-American multidisciplinary artist based in Catalonia, production on Olivia Baes‘ feature debut took place in late 2024. The French language thriller stars Iman Perez, Arly Jover, Francesc Garrido, and Thalia Besson. Cinematographer Balthazar Lab (Who By Fire) boarded the project.
On an intense and dark night on the border between France and Spain, stories of trauma, violence and buried secrets intertwine. Je suis fleur is about a 50-year-old Spanish worker enters a nearly empty bar, where a former prostitute named Inés desperately tries to catch his attention, while he remains cold and indifferent. At the same time, two young sisters, Fleur and Ophélie, experience a tense relationship marked by jealousies, accusations and traumatic memories linked to a man from the past…
L’Age d’or
Bérenger Thouin
Producers: Gogogo Film’s Carine Rusznieski, Graffiti Film’s Enrica Capra
World Sales: Films Boutique
We’re getting Martin Eden vibes with Bérenger Thouin‘s feature film debut which merged the backdrops of Turin, Brazil and France along with images of real people from Gaumont Pathé’s massive archives. Production on L’Age d’or took place in March of last year with Souheila Yacoub, Yile Vianello and Vassili Schneider front-loading the drama.
Written by Mehdi Ben Attia, Virginie Legeay and Rémi Langlade, this follows Jeanne and her extraordinary life. From her childhood in her parents’ butcher shop at the dawn of the 20th century, to years of wandering in Paris, her encounter with the daring Céleste, then her reunion with Guillaume de Barante, her adventures during World War II, in Brazil and in the Paris of the Roaring Twenties, all the way to fulfilling her dream of becoming a countess — Jeanne journeys through the century and defies her fate.
L’une des leurs
Marie Rosselet-Ruiz
Producers: Margaux Juvénal, Alexis Genauzeau (Take Shelter)
World Sales: TBD.
It may require a quick turnaround to be ready for May, but I’m nonetheless predicting a Croisette scenario in which the Rosselet-Ruiz twins unveil their films side by side — perhaps even in this section. Formerly titled Authentiks, production took place last September on Marie Rosselet-Ruiz‘s feature debut which lassoed Céleste Brunnquell, Paul Beaurepaire, Louis Memmi, Mamadou Sidibé, Alexandre Anne, Camille Rutherford and Veerle Baetens.
Written by the director with Vincent Mariette, L’une des leurs centres on Audrey, a young woman from Lens who dreams of escaping her fate when she meets the Authentiks, a group of Ultra supporters. With them, she will discover the fervour of a new world and will progressively change her outlook on herself and her surroundings, in a way she never could have imagined…
La Gradiva
Marine Atlan
Producers: Les Films du Poisson’s Inès Daïen Dasi
World Sales: mk2 Films
Cosily moving into production back in April of last year in backdrops of Naples and Pompeii, cinematographer Marine Atlan (of recent Cannes notable indies Nos cérémonies, The Rapture, The Girl in the Snow) made her feature debut on a project that won the 2024 Fondation GAN Creation Prize. Check out her inspirations for the project.
Co-written with Anne Brouillet, La Gradiva is about a small group of French high school students embarks on a school trip to Pompeii to explore its ruins and the bodies petrified by Vesuvius in 79 AD. In this ghost town, they are suddenly overwhelmed by a dizzying sensation. One by one, James, Toni, Suzanne, and their Latin teacher, Mrs. Mercier, succumb to desire, anger, and despair—completely surrendering to them and losing everything.
Madame
Hélène Rosselet-Ruiz
Producers: Les Films de Pierre’s Marie-Ange Luciani
World Sales: mk2 Films
They say write what you know, Hélène Rosselet-Ruiz‘s Madame (formerly known as Triangle d’or) would make for a that cool-sounding sister double bill. Inspired by the director’s own experience working as a maid in Paris, production took place in November for what’ll be a race to the finish line if included in Cannes. Malou Khebizi (Wild Diamond) and Soundos Mosbah share the top billing, supported by Ziad Bakri and Kassem Al Khoja. Cinematographer David Chambille (Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague) in also in the fold on this intimate thriller.
Written by Rosselet-Ruiz and Pauline Guéna, whilst her future hangs on an army application, Laura takes a job working for Souria, a young Saudi woman living in an opulent Paris apartment. Immersed in a world of expansive luxury and constant surveillance, Laura must get to grips with its unspoken rules without losing her way. As a fragile bond forms between the two women, Laura senses a system intent on pushing Souria out – and that the walls of this gilded cage may be closing in on them both. The film likely works with themes of shifting power dynamics, wealth and rigid social codes.
Mystik, the Stolen Cat
Raphaël Quenard / Azedine Kasri
Producers: Jérôme Cendron, Igor Gotesman, Raphaël Quenard, Lucile Vainstein
World Sales: Le Pacte
The incredibly popular and irritable French actor Raphaël Quenard moved behind the camera with his gonzo Cannes 2025 premiered I Love Peru, and he quickly followed that up with (working in tandem with Azedine Kasri) for Mystik, the Stolen Cat. Acting alongside the likes of Magalie Lépine-Blondeau, François Cluzet, and Emmanuelle Bercot, while we don’t see this as a competition selection, this could receive a special screening status perhaps even opening or closing the section.
Lionel, a hopeless romantic small-town cop stuck in a village where nothing ever happens, reconnects with Angèle, his childhood sweetheart, now a dazzling star journalist in the big city. Spotting a chance to shine, the mayor rolls out the red carpet for their “local poster girl”. Angèle arrives with her glamorous cat, Mystik. But when Lionel realizes their rekindled spark isn’t going anywhere and she’s about to leave again, he hatches the world’s dumbest plan: fake the kidnapping of her cat.
Notre salut
Emmanuel Marre
Producers: Kidam’s Alexandre Perrier, Michigan Films’ Alice Lemaire and Sebastien Andres.
World Sales: Films Boutique
It’s entirely possible that Emmanuel Marre returns to the Critics’ Week section – the place where he premiered the co-directed Zero Fucks Given. With Notre salut, Marre lassoed Swann Arlaud to topline the production which was shot last April which saw him re-team with cinematographer Olivier Boonjing (who recently visited the sidebar with the excellent Ghost Trail) with a backdrop of Vichy and then Brussels.
September 1940, when Henri Marre arrives in Vichy alone. He knows no-one but aspires to finding his place in the new regime. In his suitcase he carries a political manuscript called Notre Salut which he intends to get published. Henri wants to help save France from collapse, but perhaps he’s the one most in need of being pulled back from the brink.
La Otra Orilla
Francesca Canepa
Producers: Julio Chavezmontes, Delphine Schmitz, Enid Campos
World Sales: TBD.
It would be neat if this filmmaker lands on the Croisette again — the lieu where she landed several Cannes Lions awards back in 2022. After a handful of shorts, Peruvian filmmaker Francesca Canepa workshopped her feature debut back at the Sundance Institute Screenwriters Lab in 2024. Production on La Otra Orilla took place back in April of last year.
Written by Canepa and Miguel Ángel Papalini, living in the floating neighborhood of Iquitos, 12-year-old Belén gets up early as a fisherwoman, cooks while she eats lunch and closes her days as a food vendor — all to support herself and Ñaño, her 9-month-old son and brother. One day, Belén is invited to a Quinceañero celebration by a boy and, despite the dilemma this represents, her desire for belonging and freedom prevails.
Le royaume des aveugles
François Robic
Producers: Moderato’s Clémence Crépin Neel and Igor Courtecuisse
World Sales: Kinology
For his feature (fiction) debut François Robic landed Ariane Labed, Arcadi Radeff, Maryline Even, Thomas Daloz and Mireille Roussel. Le royaume des aveugles began production last September.
A thriller set in the Pyrenees Mountains, Magda has lived on an isolated farm with her uncle since the death of her parents. After many years, the young woman decides to return to her home village to work at the tobacconist’s shop. But a disappearance on the nearby mountain pass suddenly jeopardizes her hopes for a new life.
Titanic Ocean
Konstantina Kotzamani
Producers: Maria Drandaki, Nina Frese, Radu Stancu, Birgit Kemner, Luisa Romeo, Konishi Keisuke, Hiroto Ogi
World Sales: Paradise City
We actually placed Konstantina Kotzamani’s mythology-firnedly coming-of-ager here last year — so maybe its one of those type of projects that needed a bit more love in post production and we can confidently this is the year that we discover this oeurve. As previously mentioned, Kotzamani’s Limbo was a short selected for Critics’ Week section in 2016, and Titanic Ocean was supported by CineMart, Torino Film Lab, Oxbelly, Venice and the Critics’ Week Next Step programme. Shot in Japan and Romania, this stars Arisa Sasaki, Melina Mardini, Haruna Matsui, Hanase Kotone, Aki Kigoshi, Hanna Muro, and Riku Nakamura.
Set at a boarding school devoted to the growing subculture of ‘mermaiding’, the film blends mythology with contemporary teenage culture. It follows a 17-year-old girl striving to find her siren voice, experience first love and undergo a metamorphosis.
