Plus, their selection of short films from all over the world and an immersive program which includes fantastic works featuring the voices of Cate Blanchett, Indira Varma, Tahar Rahim and Colin Farrell.

Every announcement from the Festival de Cannes brings new excitement to my inbox. But this past week has been a highlight for me, with works added in and out of competition at the prestigious festival, which include one I’ve yearned to watch. Ever since a friend and publicist has told me about this project.

Latest additions

I’m talking about Jessica Palud’s Maria, sometimes called Being Maria, a film about the dream casting, later turned into a lifelong nightmare of Maria Schneider in Bernardo Bertolucci’s Last Tango in Paris. The film features Matt Dillon as Marlon Brando, which is simply phenomenal casting, Giuseppe Maggio as Italian helmer Bertolucci and Annamaria Vartolomei as Maria. In case Vartolomei sounds and looks familiar, she was the Anne in Audrey Diwan’s L'Événement and the badass anti-heroine Jane in Bruno Dumont’s L’Empire.

Other titles just added include Rúnar Rúnarsson’s When the Light Breaks in UCR, Arnaud Desplechin’s Spectateurs and Lula by Oliver Stone in Special Screenings, and Michel Hazanavicius’ The Most Precious of Cargoes (‘La Plus Précieuse des marchandises’) — about the deportation of a Jewish family to Auschwitz, starring Gerard Depardieu and Jean-Louis Trintignant — as well as The Seed of the Sacred Fig by Iranian auteur Mohammad Rasoulof, in Competition. Rasoulof might or might not be present, as in 2023 he was banned from leaving Iran to serve on a Cannes jury.

Check out the full list of additions to the Official Selection here.

Immersive Competition and Selection

The festival also announced their immersive program, which includes En Amour by Claire Bardainne, Adrien Mondot and Laurent Bardainne with voices provided by Claire Bardainne (voice over) and November Ultra (singing voice); Evolver by Barnaby Steel, Ersin Han Ersin and Robin McNicholas, with voice provided by Cate Blanchett; Maya: the Birth of a Superhero, by Poulomi Basu and CJ Clarke, with voice provided by Indira Varma, Kathy Packianathan, Charithra Chandran and Florrie Antoniou — all in Competition.

And in the non-competitive section Gloomy Eyes by Fernando Maldonado and Jorge Tereso stands out, with a multinational cast of voices which include Tahar Rahim (French voice), Colin Farrell (English voice), Max Riemelt (German voice), Jorge Drexler (Spanish voice) and Jam Hsiao (Mandarin voice). But also Eliza McNitt’s Spheres, with Jessica Chastain, Millie Bobby Brown and Patti Smith providing voiceovers.

To be noted, that the Best Immersive Work Award will be presented by the President of the Jury at the Closing Ceremony on May 23. The Compétition Immersive of the Festival de Cannes is a new competition dedicated to immersive works, the first edition of which will be held from May 15-24, 2024 at the Cannes Cineum and the Université Côte d'Azur, Georges Méliès Campus.

Check out the full immersive program here.

Short films and La Cinef Jury and selections announced

Flanked by Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar, Paolo Moretti, Claudine Nougaret and Vladimir Perišić, the Belgian actress Lubna Azabal will award the Short Film Palme d'or and the 3 La Cinef prizes, the Festival de Cannes' selection dedicated to student films.

The Jury will discover the 11 films in the Short Film Competition and the 18 films in La Cinef selection which were unveiled on Tuesday. 

11 shorts will be presented this year in Competition, coming from 10 countries — Azerbaijan, Brazil, Canada, China, Croatia, France, Kosovo, Lithuania, Portugal and the United States. 

For its 27th edition La Cinef has selected 18 shorts (14 live-action and 4 animated films) from among the 2,263 submitted by film schools all over the world. This year’s programme reflects the geographic mobility of film students, with a Singaporean director in Australia, an Indian and a Lithuanian in the UK, a Russian in the Czech Republic and three shorts made at American schools by Russian, Chinese and British filmmakers.

To find all the selected films, check out the press release here.

Last but not least, Cannes’ Un Certain Regard jury is announced!

The Canadian actor, director, screenwriter and producer Xavier Dolan will be the President of the Un Certain Regard Jury of the 77th Festival de Cannes. He will be joined by French-Senegalese screenwriter and director Maïmouna Doucouré, Moroccan director, screenwriter and producer Asmae El Moudir, German-Luxembourg actress Vicky Krieps, and American film critic, director, and writer Todd McCarthy. They will be in charge of awarding prizes for the Un Certain Regard section, which showcases art and discovery films by young auteurs.

This year, 18 films have been selected, including 8 first films. The 2023 Un Certain Regard top prize went to director Molly Manning Walker's debut feature How to Have Sex.

When the light breaks by Rúnar Rúnarsson will open the Un Certain Regard section on Wednesday May 15, 2024.

For more info on the Festival de Cannes, check out their website.

All images courtesy of the festival, used with permission.