There will again be significant domestic interest at the upcoming Cannes film festival.
Bono is expected to be in the city for the premiere of Bono: Stories of Surrender, a documentary for Apple TV+, based on the singer’s memoir, from Australian director Andrew Dominik. Paul Mescal, whose Aftersun, for which he received his first Oscar nomination, premiered here in 2022, will be walking the red carpet for Oliver Hermanus’s period drama The History of Sound.
Dublin-based Element Pictures, which had a remarkable three films in the official selection last year, will be sending just one fewer title to the Cote d’Azur for the 78th edition: Harry Lighton’s much-discussed Pillion and Akinola Davies jnr’s Lagos-set My Father’s Shadow screen in the prestigious Un Certain Regard sidebar.
Thierry Frémaux, director of the festival, announced the official selection during a press conference at the UGC Montparnasse cinema in Paris. As ever, the event boasts a wide array of intriguing titles from established greats and up-and-coming talent.
Colin Farrell pays moving tribute to his father at Dublin funeral: ‘I loved being your son’
You don’t have to have a hide like an especially thick rhinoceros to be a screenwriter, but it helps
The Movie Quiz: Which icon is ‘lousy with virginity’?
Cannes Film Festival: Bono, Paul Mescal and Element Pictures to fly flag for Ireland this year
Wes Anderson, a Cannes regular, directs an astonishing cast – Benicio del Toro, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks to name but a few – in an espionage comedy entitled The Phoenician Scheme. Ari Aster, director of the hugely influential horrors Hereditary and Midsommar, gets a competition spot for the first time with Eddington, a black comic western starring Joaquin Phoenix and Emma Stone. Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague, examining the creation of Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless, could hardly be a more appropriate contender for the Palme d’Or.
Other challengers include Hermanus’s The History of Sound, Julie Ducournau’s Alpha, follow-up to her 2022 Palme winner Titane, and Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value, a comedy starring Elle Fanning and Renate Reinsve. In the Hermanus film, Mescal stars opposite Josh O’Connor as one of two men touring New England in 1916 to record folk songs. Hermanus’s Living scored an Oscar nomination for Bill Nighy in 2023. There was surprise at no mention for new films by Jim Jarmusch, Lynne Ramsay and Spike Lee, but Frémaux was more than usually insistent that further titles would follow.
It had already been announced that Tom Cruise will be there in the first few days to launch Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. The actor made his first appearance at Cannes in 1992 for the premiere of Far and Away. He did not return for 30 years, but that reappearance with Top Gun: Maverick was a huge success and Paramount, also behind the current project, will be trusting that Cannes can make a similar hit of what might be his last outing as Ethan Hunt. Robert De Niro will be in town to receive an honorary Palme d’Or.
Stories of Surrender is described as “vivid reimagining of Bono’s critically acclaimed one-man stage show”. Dominik, director of the Oscar-nominated Blonde, has form on rockumentaries, having previously made two films with Nick Cave. Bono returns to Cannes 18 years after U2, supporting the doc U2 3D, famously played live on the steps of the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès.
Element’s My Father’s Shadow, a debut feature for Akinola Davies jnr, follows two brothers as they spend time with their estranged father. Buzz around Pillion, another debut feature, is already deafening. Lighton’s film stars Harry Melling, late of Harry Potter, as a young man who falls into a sexual relationship with Alexander Skarsgård’s charismatic biker. Adapted from Adam Mars Jones’s novel Box Hill, Pillion has been acquired for US distribution by the eye-wateringly influential A24 Films. The Element films will play in Un Certain Regard beside the directorial debuts of two prominent actors. Scarlett Johansson’s Eleanor the Great stars June Squibb as an elderly Floridian lady who makes a young friend in New York City. Harris Dickinson’s Urchin features Frank Dillane in the story of a drifter integrating back into society.
The Cannes Festival has been the most important event in the film calendar for most of its 78 years in existence. But it has, along with its rival in Venice, scarcely ever had quite so much
influence. In each the last three years, three of the 10 films nominated for best picture at the Oscars premiered on La Croisette. At this year’s Academy Awards half of the best picture nominees were Cannes or Venice titles, and the winner, Sean Baker’s Anora, was the third film ever to take both that prize and the Palme d’Or. It is, therefore, reasonable to assume that Fremaux, who ploughed through 2,909 feature submissions, has announced the films that will dominating conversation for the next 10 months. Iris Knobloch, festival president, confirmed that, last year, more than 39,000 people attended the event, 4,200 of whom were press. “At the Cannes film festival we fly them to the moon and back to earth,” she said.
The Cannes film festival runs from May 13th to May 24th
THE OFFICIAL SELECTION OF THE 78TH FESTIVAL DE CANNES
OPENING FILM
- PARTIR UN JOUR, Amélie Bonnin (Out of Competition)
COMPETITION
- THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME, Wes Anderson
- EDDINGTON, Ari Aster
- JEUNES MÈRES, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
- ALPHA, Julia Ducournau
- RENOIR, Hayakawa Chie
- THE HISTORY OF SOUND, Oliver Hermanus
- LA PETITE DERNIÈRE. Hafsia Herzi
- SIRAT, Oliver Laxe
- NEW WAVE, Richard Linklater
- TWO PROSECUTORS, Sergei Loznitsa
- FUORI, Mario Martone
- O SECRETO AGENTE (THE SECRET AGENT), Kleber Mendonça Filho
- DOSSIER 137, Dominik Moll
- UN SIMPLE ACCIDENT, Jafar Panahi
- THE MASTERMIND, Kelly Reichardt
- AIGLES OF THE REPUBLIC, Tarik Saleh
- SOUND OF FALLING, Mascha Schilinski
- ROMERÍA, Carla Simón
- SENTIMENTAL VALUE, Joachim Trier
UN CERTAIN REGARD
- LA MISTERIOSA MIRADA DEL FLAMENCO (THE MYSTERIOUS GAZE OF THE FLAMINGO), Diego Céspedes
- MÉTÉORS, Hubert Charuel
- MY FATHER’S SHADOW, Akinola Davies jnr
- L’INCONNU DE LA GRANDE ARCHE, Stéphane Demoustier
- URCHIN, Harris Dickinson
- HOMEBOUND, Neeraj Ghaywan
- TÔI YAMANAMINO HIKARI (A PALE VIEW OF HILLS), Ishikawa Kei
- ELEANOR THE GREAT, Scarlett Johansson
- KARAVAN, Zuzana Kirchnerová
- PILLION, Harry Lighton
- AISHA CAN’T FLY AWAY, Morad Mostafa
- ONCE UPON A TIME IN GAZA, Arab and Tarzan Nasser
- THE PLAGUE, Charlie Polinger
- PROMISED SKY, Erige Sehiri
- LE CITTÀ DI PIANURA (THE LAST ONE FOR THE ROAD), Francesco Sossai
- TESTA O CROCE? (HEADS OR TAILS?), Matteo Zoppis, Alessio Rigo de Righi
OUT OF COMPETITION
- COLOURS OF TIME, Cédric Klapisch
- LA FEMME LA PLUS RICHE DU MONDE, Thierry Klifa
- MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – THE FINAL RECKONING, Christopher McQuarrie
- VIE PRIVÉE, Rebecca Zlotowski
MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS
- DALLOWAY, Yann Gozlan
- EXIT 8, Kawamura Genki
- FENG LIN HUO SHAN (SONS OF THE NEON NIGHT), Mak Juno
CANNES PREMIERE
- AMRUM, Fatih Akin
- SPLITSVILLE, Michael Angelo Covino
- LA OLA (THE WAVE), Sebastián Lelio
- CONNEMARA, Alex Lutz
- ORWELL: 2+2=5, Raoul Peck
- DAS VERSCHWINDEN DES JOSEF MENGELE (THE DISAPPEARANCE OF JOSEF MENGELE), Kirill Serebrennikov
SPECIAL SCREENINGS
- STORIES OF SURRENDER, Bono
- TELL HER THAT I LOVE HER, Romane Bohringer
- A MAGNIFICENT LIFE, Sylvain Chomet
