Cannes Film Festival 2024: what to look forward to

The star-studded line-up for the 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival has been announced, and, as usual, it celebrates the best of cinematographic art by showcasing new works from both iconic and emerging filmmakers.

Cannes Film Festival 2024: what to see

The festival, which runs from 15-25 May 2024, will open with the world premiere of Quentin Dupieux’s surreal comedy Second Act, starring Lea Seydoux. Following this are some of the most-hyped movies in the official competition, including Yorgos Lanthimos’ Kinds of Kindness, featuring Emma Stone. Other casting highlights include Adam Driver in Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis and Anya Taylor-Joy in George Miller’s Mad Max spin-off, Furiosa.

Searchlight Pictures will present Andrea Arnold’s Bird, featuring Barry Keoghan. Meanwhile, Emilia Perez, a musical drama by Jacques Audiard, sees Zoe Saldana and Selena Gomez. Other highlights include David Cronenberg’s The Shrouds, Paolo Sorrentino’s Parthenope and Kevin Costner’s first instalment of the Horizon: an American Saga.

Notably, Greta Gerwig, acclaimed director of Barbie, will be part of this year’s jury.

Iranian-Danish filmmaker Ali Abbasi, best known for his 2022 film Holy Spider, has attracted attention outside of the major studio titles for his Donald Trump biopic The Apprentice, which stars Sebastian Stan as the real-estate businessman in the 1970s to 1980s. International films delve into varying genres: from Karim Ainouz’s thriller Motel Destino, Sean Baker’s American drama Anora to Danish director Magnus von Horn’s The Girl With the Needle, a chilling dark drama. Kirill Serebrennikov’s Limonov: The Ballad presents an adaptation of the radical Soviet poet.

This year also sees the new film category ‘Immersive Competition’, which celebrates and showcases advancing technologies and new art forms that move beyond traditional 2D cinema.

Elsewhere, Judith Godrèche’ will present her short film, Moi aussi, uniting the stories of sexual violence.

The Cannes Film Festival will run from 15 to 25 May; the official selection and full line-up are available on festival-cannes.com