For 12 days this week, the eyes of the movie world will be on the Cannes Film Festival as the Côte d'Azur event begins on Tuesday, 2 days from now, showcasing a lineup dominated by international filmmakers while Hollywood studios remain largely on the sidelines this year.
Cannes has for more than 78 years been a showcase for some of the best in cinema. Last year's festival included Oscar nominees such as "Sentimental Value," "The Secret Agent" and "It Was Just an Accident." In recent years, movies like "Parasite" and "Anora" have launched at Cannes and gone on to win best picture at the Academy Awards.
Festival Leadership and Honors
South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook is presiding over the jury deciding the Palme d'Or this year. At the opening ceremony Tuesday, Cannes will also bestow an honorary Palme d'Or on Peter Jackson, and later Barbra Streisand will get one, too. The HBO series "The White Lotus" has come to the Croisette to shoot its fourth season.
Major Film Premieres
Among the films expected to stir Cannes are "Hope," a long-gestating sci-fi thriller from Na Hong-jin that Cannes artistic director Thierry Fremaux said "constantly changes genres," with Hwang Jung-min, Zo In-sung, Jung Ho-yeon, Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander and Taylor Russell in the cast.
"Paper Tiger," James Gray's Queens-set drama about two brothers, played by Adam Driver and Miles Teller, who become mixed up with the Russian mafia, with Scarlett Johansson co-starring, will also premiere at the festival.
"Fjord," Cristian Mungiu's latest, stars Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve as a Romanian-Norwegian couple who move to the wife's remote Norwegian hometown. "Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma," by Jane Schoenbrun, starring Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson and playing in the Un Certain Regard section, is about the making of a slasher film.
International Directors Return
"Fatherland," by Pawel Pawlikowski, stars Hanns Zischler as the German author Thomas Mann on a road trip following World War II, with Sandra Hüller as his daughter. "All of a Sudden," the French-language debut of Ryusuke Hamaguchi, stars Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto, about a nursing home director and a terminally ill Japanese playwright.
"Sheep in the Box," by Hirokazu Kore-eda, is about a couple grieving the loss of their son who adopt an infant humanoid robot. "The Man I Love," by Ira Sachs, stars Rami Malek as an actor with a life-threatening illness in 1980s New York preparing for what could be his final performance.
Controversial and Experimental Works
"The Unknown," by Arthur Harari, is about a photographer who, after photographing a woman at a party and then following her, wakes up in her body, starring Léa Seydoux. "Minotaur," by Andrey Zvyagintsev, is about a business executive in crisis in rural Russia after a near-death experience during the pandemic.
"John Lennon: The Last Interview," Steven Soderbergh's documentary about John Lennon's final interview, granted at the Dakota in New York just before he was killed, drew headlines after Soderbergh acknowledged using artificial intelligence to illustrate some of Lennon's more philosophical musings.
"Bitter Christmas," Pedro Almodovar's multilayered melodrama about filmmaking, grief and aging, marks his return to his native Spain after making his English-language debut with "The Room Next Door."
Why This Matters:
The Cannes Film Festival's continued prominence as a launching pad for Oscar-contending films demonstrates the enduring market value of international film festivals in an era when Hollywood studios are stepping back from the event. The festival's track record of premiering best picture winners like "Parasite" and "Anora" shows how independent and international productions can achieve commercial success and critical recognition without major studio backing. The diverse slate of films from established auteurs represents significant private investment in cinema that operates outside traditional Hollywood financing structures. Soderbergh's acknowledged use of artificial intelligence in his Lennon documentary signals emerging questions about technology's role in filmmaking and the preservation of artistic authenticity that will likely require industry-wide standards and potentially regulatory frameworks.