The Cannes Film Festival this morning announced its lineup for the 77th edition of the prestigious festival. Irish films and filmmakers are dotted throughout the programme, with Dublin-based Element Pictures having three of its films invited to official selection.
The Element Pictures productions selected are:
- Kinds of Kindness is Element Picture’s latest collaboration with Yorgos Lanthimos, director of the multi-Oscar winning POOR THINGS. The film has been selected to premiere in the high-profile Main Competition at Cannes. Emma Stone and Willem Dafoe return to work together with Lanthimos, along with Jesse Plemons and Margaret Qualley in this anthology film written with his long-term writing partner, Efthmis Fillipou. The film is financed by Film4 and Searchlight.
- September Says is French actress Ariane Labed’s debut film and will premiere in the prestigious Un Certain Regard section. Produced by Element Pictures, it was filmed in Ireland with backing from Screen Ireland, BBC Film and Mubi among other financiers.
- On Becoming a Guinea Fowl is the second feature film from Zambian/British director Rungano Nyoni. It will also premiere in the Un Certain Regard section. The film, produced by Element Pictures, was filmed in Zambia and post-produced in Ireland with backing from BBC Film, A24 and Fremantle.
Previous films from Element Pictures that have won prizes at Cannes include Yorgos Lanthimos’ films The Killing of a Sacred Deer, which won Best Screenplay in 2016, and The Lobster, which won the Jury Prize in 2015. The Wind that Shakes the Barley, which Element Pictures co-produced, won the Palme D’Or in 2006.
We’re absolutely thrilled and honoured that an unprecedented three films from Element Pictures are included in the Official Selection at the Cannes Film Festival. This is a significant achievement for the Element team and for the exceptionally talented directors, writers, actors and crews that we work with. These films are all incredibly special and we can’t wait for the world to see them. We are as ever very grateful to the Element team who have worked tirelessly on all three films to ensure they were finished in time for the festival.”
Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe, Co-CEOs – Element Pictures
Elsewhere Dublin-based Tailored Films see their co-production The Apprentice selected as one of the 19 films in competition. The Ali Abbasi-directed film sees Sebastian Stan take on the role of Donald Trump in a biopic examining his time as a real estate businessman in the 1970s and ’80s.
Irish director Lorcan Finnegan returns to the festival, following his 2019 feature Vivarium, with the Midnight Screenings selection of The Surfer. The Nicholas Cage-starring psychological thriller is an Australian and Irish co-production, produced by Ireland’s Lovely Productions, alongside Tea Shop Productions, Arenamedia, and Gramercy Park Media.
Two of the films have been supported by Screen Ireland: Ali Abassi’s The Apprentice, which has been selected for Official Competition and Ariane Labed’s September Says, selected for Un Certain Regard.
Screen Ireland is delighted that there is such a strong presence for Irish film and creative artists at the Cannes Film Festival this year. It is a remarkable achievement, and our sincere congratulations go to the creative teams behind of all of these films.
Following on from major festival success earlier this year at Sundance and the Berlinale, it marks yet another step in Irish film’s remarkable journey and its global impact around the world.
Désirée Finnegan, Chief Executive – Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland
Irish talent in front of and behind the camera is further represented across the Cannes Film Festival this year, with the selection of Andrea Arnold’s Bird in Official Competition, starring Barry Keoghan and shot by Academy Award-nominated cinematographer Robbie Ryan.
The 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival will take place from May 14 to 25, 2024.
OPENER
“Second Act,” Quentin Dupieux
COMPETITION
- “All We Imagine as Light,” Payal Kapadia
- “Anora,” Sean Baker
- “Bird,” Andrea Arnold
- “Caught by the Tides” (“Feng Liu Yi Dai”), Jia Zhang-Ke
- “Emilia Perez,” Jacques Audiard
- “Grand Tour,” Miguel Gomes
- “Kinds of Kindness,” Yorgos Lanthimos
- “L’Amour Ouf,” Gilles Lellouche
- “Limonov: The Ballad,” Kirill Serebrennikov
- “Marcello Mio,” Christophe Honore
- “Megalopolis,” Francis Ford Coppola
- “Motel Destino,” Karim Ainouz
- “Oh Canada,” Paul Schrader
- “Parthenope,” Paolo Sorrentino
- “The Apprentice,” Ali Abbasi
- “The Girl With the Needle,” Magnus von Horn
- “The Shrouds,” David Cronenberg
- “The Substance,” Coralie Fargeat
- “Wild Diamond” (“Diamant Brut”), Agathe Riedinger
UN CERTAIN REGARD
- “Armand,” Halfdan Ullman Tondel
- “Black Dog” (“Gou Zhen”), Guan Hu
- “L’Histoire de Souleymane,” Boris Lojkine
- “Le Royaume,” Julien Colonna
- “My Sunshine” (“Boku No Ohisama”), Hiroshi Okuyama
- “Norah,” Tawfik Alzaidi
- “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl,” Rungano Nyoni
- “Santosh,” Sandhya Suri
- “September Says,” Ariane Labed
- “The Damned” (Les Damnes”), Roberto Minervini
- “The Shameless,” Konstantin Bojanov
- “The Village Next to Paradise,” Mo Harawe
- “Viet and Nam,” Truong Minh Quy
- “Vingt Dieux!,” Louise Courvoisier
- “Who Let the Dog Bite?” (“Le Proces du Chien”), Laetitia Dosch
OUT OF COMPETITION
- “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” George Miller
- “Horizon, an American Saga,” Kevin Costner
- “Rumours,” Evan Johnson, Galen Johnson, Guy Maddin
- “She’s Got No Name,” Chan Peter Ho-Sun
CANNES PREMIERE
- “C’est Pas Moi,” Leos Carax
- “En Fanfare” (“The Matching Bang”), Emmanuel Courcol
- “Everybody Loves Touda,” Nabil Ayouch
- “Le Roman de Jim,” Arnaud Larrieu and Jean-Marie Larrieu
- “Misericorde,” Alain Guiraudie
- “Rendez-Vous Avec Pol Pot,” Rithy Panh
MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS
- “I, the Executioner,” Seung Wan Ryoo
- “The Balconettes” (“Les Femmes au Balcon”), Noemie Merlant
- “The Surfer,” Lorcan Finnegan
- “Twilight of the Warrior Walled In,” Soi Cheang
SPECIAL SCREENINGS
- “Apprendre,” Claire Simon
- “Ernest Cole, Lost and Found,” Raoul Peck
- “L’Invasion,” Sergei Loznitsa
- “Le Fil,” Daniel Auteuil
- “The Beauty of Gaza” (“La Belle de Gaza”), Yolande Zauberman