Warner Bros.’ ‘Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga’ and the Kevin Costner Western ‘Horizon’ are among the out-of-competition highlights of the 77th edition.
Warner Bros.’ ‘Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga’ and the Kevin Costner Western ‘Horizon’ are among the out-of-competition highlights of the 77th edition.
The wait is over. The 77th Cannes Film Festival is unveiling this year’s competition lineup, highlighting the titles competing for the 2024 Palme d’Or at a Thursday press conference in Paris.
Cannes festival president Iris Knobloch and artistic director Thierry Frémaux are unveiling the official selection. The lineup includes the official competition and out-of-competition titles, the films in the main festival sidebar Un Certain Regard as well as special and midnight screenings.
You can watch the live feed of the press conference here.
The French festival is coming off a strong year after 2023 competition titles Anatomy of a Fall and The Zone of Interest went from the Croisette to Oscar success. Justine Triet’s courtroom drama picked up both the Palme d’Or in Cannes and the Oscar for best original screenplay, while Jonathan Glazer’s Holocaust story took the runner-up grand prize in Cannes and two Academy Awards: best international feature and best sound. Knobloch, noting that 2023 festival entries racked up a total of 26 Oscar nominations, said Cannes “confirmed” its status as the place to “find the best films.”
Cannes’ 2024 edition kicks off May 14 with the out-of-competition world premiere of the French comedy The Second Act, directed by Quentin Dupieux and starring Léa Seydoux and Vincent Lindon.
Among the Hollywood highlights on the Croisette this year are George Miller’s hotly-anticipated Max Max: Fury Road prequel Furiosa, starring Anya Taylor-Joy, and Kevin Costner‘s Horizon: An American Saga, the first of his two-part Western epic. Both Warner Bros. titles are screening out of competition in Cannes and are using the high-profile festival bow to kick-start their global roll-outs. Warner Bros. is releasing Furiosa in France on May 22 and on the U.S. on May 24. The first of the Horizon films bows stateside on June 28. The second drops two months later, on Aug. 16.
It was announced Tuesday that Francis Ford Coppola‘s highly anticipated, self-funded feature Megalopolis would screen in competition on May 17. The film starring Adam Driver, Shia LaBeouf and Aubrey Plaza recently screened for potential buyers.
Directing and producing legend George Lucas will be feted at this year’s Cannes, receiving an honorary Palme d’Or for his life’s work. The Star Wars helmer screened his directorial debut, THX-1138, in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight sidebar back in 1971. His last film as a director: Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, also premiered at the festival, screening out of competition in 2005.
In a new addition this year, the Cannes Festival announced it will launch a competitive immersive section featuring works of virtual and augmented reality that “push the boundaries of storytelling.”
An international jury, headed by Barbie director Greta Gerwig will pick the winners, including this year’s Palme d’Or, from the competition titles.
The 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival runs May 14-25.