With over 60 feature films in fifteen days – not counting the parallel competitions – the official selection at the Cannes Film Festival is, once again this year, particularly rich. A closer look at five films (and a few others) that are singularly intriguing.
Fatherland by Pawel Pawlikowski – in competition
Eight years later Cold War, Best Director Award at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, and eleven years after the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film for the sublime goingThe Polish specialist in black and white photography is finally back with FatherlandOriginally titled 1949 and notably starring Sandra Hüller (The Area of InterestThis astonishing biopic follows an aging Thomas Mann (played by the great German actor Hanns Zischler) and his daughter on a road trip across Germany, which he returns to after wartime exile during the complex period of the Cold War. A great historical film, undoubtedly, which continues the filmmaker's project: to probe the troubled soul of 20th-century European history.e century.
Night flight to Los Angeles by John Travolta – Cannes Premiere
In 1994, John Travolta dazzled the Cannes Film Festival in Quentin Tarantino's Palme d'Or-winning film, Pulp FictionThirty-two years later, the star of Grease and Saturday Night Fever John Travolta, a passionate aviation enthusiast and pilot himself, is making his directorial debut, adapting his novel for the occasion. Propeller One-Way Night CoachPublished in 1997, this short story, based on her own childhood memories, features her daughter, Ella Bleu Travolta, in the role of a flight attendant. It will be shown in a preview screening at the Debussy cinema before its release on Apple TV on May 29th.
Her Private Hell by Nicolas Winding Refn – out of competition
A futuristic metropolis. A young woman searching for her father. An American GI. All set to music by Pino Donaggio, a frequent collaborator of Brian De Palma, for a shoot in Tokyo and Copenhagen with rising stars Sophie Thatcher (yellowjackets) and Charles Melton (RiverdaleWithout a doubt, the new film from Denmark's most internationally renowned director is intriguing. The feature also marks the return to cinema of this cinephile director, ten years after... "The Neon Demon" (in competition at Cannes in 2016).
Teenage Sex And Death At Camp Miasma by Jane Schoenbrun – Un Certain Regard
Non-binary trans director Jane Schoenbrun is one of the most prominent filmmakers in young American independent cinema, discovered at Sundance with We're All Going to the World's Fair in 2021. His horror film, never before released in France. I Saw the TV GlowStarring Justice Smith and distributed by A24, was a phenomenon among American cinephiles in 2024. The screening of this new film with its intriguing title as the opening film of Un Certain Regard is therefore an event in itself. A story of obsession, horror, and cinema, featuring the series' heroine hacks, Hannah Einbinder, and the brilliant Gillian Anderson (X-Files).
Gentle Monster by Marie Kreutzer – in competition
Everything is going well for Lucy (Léa Seydoux) and Philip (Austrian actor Laurence Rupp). A child, a new house, marital bliss. But one day, the police arrive and seize Philip's computers. Lucy is shocked: what is her husband hiding? After Corsage, chronicle of the melancholy of Empress Sissi, change of register for Marie Kreutzer with this contemporary psychological thriller, in the cast of which we also find Catherine Deneuve.
But also: Our salvation by Emmanuel Marre : after the very successful I don't give a fuck (co-directed with Julie Lecoustre), Emmanuel Marre tells the story of his ancestor Henri Marre (played by Swann Arlaud) in Vichy France. Fjord by Cristian Mungiu : One of the greatest Romanian filmmakers arrives in Norway for an immigration story starring Renate Reinsve and Sebastian Stan (in his first role in his native language), playing a Norwegian-Romanian couple. Mill by LászlóNemes eleven years after the shock of Son of Saul, the Francophile Hungarian undertakes a biopic of the Lyon Resistance hero Jean Moulin, with Gilles Lellouche in the title role, and the immense Lars Eidinger as Klaus Barbie. The man i love by Ira Sachs Love in the time of AIDS, in 1980s New York. Starring Rami Malek and Rebecca Hall, for the return to competition of the discreet Ira Sachs, seven years after Frankie. Minotaur by Andrei ZvyagintsevThe first film made in exile by the Russian filmmaker, who now lives in France. The story of a business owner and his wife, facing professional problems in a context of great instability. Parallel Histories by Asghar FarhadiA difficult subject for the director's new film outside Iran.A separation The Bataclan attacks. As always, the filmmaker is accompanied by a five-star cast: Isabelle Huppert, Virginie Efira, Pierre Niney, Catherine Deneuve, Vincent Cassel… Hope by Na Hong-jin In the 2000s, film buffs who were fans of Korean cinema had two cult films: Old Boy by Park Chan-wook (2003) and the chaser by Na Hong-jin (2008). They will be pleased to see the two compatriots reunited at this year's Festival. It remains to be seen what the jury president will think of this story about an extraterrestrial taking place in a location he knows well: the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas. Full Phil by Quentin Dupieux Woody Harrelson, Kristen Stewart, Emma Mackey, Charlotte Le Bon, and also the brilliant Eric Wareheim in Paris in a new madcap adventure that only Quentin Dupieux is capable of. Suddenly by Ryusuke Hamaguchi : the director of drive my car is back in competition with a French film half in Japanese, in which a retirement home director (Virginie Efira) meets a young playwright with terminal cancer (actress and model Tao Okamoto). The Unknown Woman by Arthur Harari : a man wakes up in a woman's body. Freaky Friday reviewed by Arthur Harari (Onoda), based on his comic strip The David Zimmerman Case, with Niels Schneider and again Léa Seydoux – who is definitely everywhere in this Cannes selection. Madder by Jeanne Herry : eight years in the life of an alcoholic actress, played by Adèle Exarchopoulos. And even : an autofiction by Pedro Almodóvar, a free adaptation by Garcia Lorca (The black ball), the second film by Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet (Les amours d'Anais), World War I in Lukas Dhont's film, new films by Japanese directors Kore-eda, Koji Fukada and Kiyoshi Kurosawa, the return of Volker Schlöndorff, Hafsia Herzi, Bastien Bouillon and even Monica Bellucci in Léa Mysius's film, Javier Bardem directing films for Rodrigo Sorogoyen, the new animated film by Louis Clichy (Asterix: The Land of the Gods), the first installment of the French blockbuster The Battle of de Gaulle…And of course, many discoveries.
