Films directed by Francis Ford Coppola, David Cronenberg and Yorgos Lanthimos will compete for the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, event organizers announced at a press conference on Thursday.
New films by Jacques Audiard, Paul Schrader and Andrea Arnold will also be in competition in this year’s 77th edition of the festival, which opens May 14-25.
The most anticipated film in the lineup will likely be Coppola’s “Megalopolis,” the director’s first film in more than 10 years.
At Thursday’s press conference, Thierry Frémaux, the artistic director of Cannes, did not reveal much about the plot of this film, but Coppola, the director of “The Godfather” trilogy and ” Apocalypse Now,” talks about his decades-long desire to make it happen. In 2001, Coppola told the New York Times that “Megalopolis” was “about the future” and “about a guy who wants to build a utopian society in the middle of Manhattan.”
Coppola, 85, has already won the Palme d’Or twice: in 1974 for “The Conversation” and, in 1979, for “Apocalypse Now” (award shared with “The Tin Drum” by Volker Schlöndorff).
Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos will present “Kinds of Kindness,” starring Emma Stone and Willem Dafoe, who also worked together on Lanthimos’ latest opus, “Poor Things.” Canadian horror director David Cronenberg will premiere “The Shrouds,” about a widower who builds a machine to connect with the dead.
Other films vying for the Palme d’Or include Audiard’s “Emilia Perez,” a musical crime comedy set in the world of Mexican drug cartels and starring Selena Gomez; Ali Abbasi’s “The Apprentice,” about the early business career of Donald J. Trump; and “Bird” by Andrea Arnold, which tells the story of a 12-year-old girl living in poverty in England.
Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov will present “Limonov: The Ballad,” about a Russian poet living in New York, and Paolo Sorrentino, the Italian director, will be represented with “Parthenope,” which Frémaux said is about a beautiful woman who hopes being known for something other than their looks.
Schrader, best known as the screenwriter of “Taxi Driver,” will present “Oh Canada,” starring Uma Thurman and Richard Gere. Frémaux said the film was a comedy about old people looking back on their lives and their mistakes. Coralie Fargeat, best known as the director of “The Revenge,” will premiere a body horror film — a subgenre of gruesome horror film — called “The Substance,” starring Demi Moore.
Before Thursday’s news conference, some film critics said they expected this year’s lineup to lack big films from American studios due to the lingering effects of last year’s Hollywood strikes . Frémaux said at the press conference that the 2024 selection “wasn’t easy” because of the strikes, but that American cinema would be “absolutely present” at this year’s festival. Three of the 19 films in competition are made by American directors.
Details of some high-profile films screened out of competition were already known well before Thursday’s press conference. These include George Miller’s “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” the latest installment in the action series; and Kevin Costner’s “Horizon: An American Saga,” set on the Western frontier during the American Civil War.
All applications will be examined by a jury chaired by Greta Gerwig, director and screenwriter of “Barbie”, and will choose the winner of the Palme d’Or during a ceremony on May 25.
During the festival’s closing ceremony, George Lucas, director of the films “Star Wars” and “Indiana Jones”, will also receive an honorary Palme d’Or for his contribution to cinema.
Gn entert
News Source : www.nytimes.com
