2024 Cannes Film Festival preview: All 19 films vying for Palme d’Or

The lineup for the 77th Cannes Film Festival has officially been unveiled. As of right now, 19 films will be competing for the prestigious top prize, the Palme d’Or. The festival will be running from May 14 through the closing ceremony on May 25 in the small town on the French Riviera. This year’s jury will be led by Greta Gerwig, fresh off of her success writing and directing “Barbie,” which earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. The remaining members of the jury have yet to be announced.

Having an idea of a filmmaker’s history at the festival can sometimes help give us an insight as to who could be in the best position to take home the Palme. For example, two of this year’s entries come from filmmakers who have previously claimed the Palme. Another five are from directors who have won prizes in official competition other than the Palme at past festivals. Six of this year’s selections are from artists who are having their first films screened in competition.

Below is a breakdown of all the 19 films that have been selected to be in this year’s official competition and the history that each auteur has had at Cannes. It should be noted that additional movies could be added to this lineup between now and the start of the festivities as well as the fact that the plots may be only rough understandings at this point. Read on for Gold Derby’s 2024 Cannes Film Festival preview.

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Payal Kapadia (“All We Imagine as Light”)

The Indian director will be premiering her first narrative feature at the festival centering on a nurse who receives a gift from her long-estranged husband that sends her and her roommate on a road trip to a beach town where they hope to see their dreams become reality. Her documentary, “A Night of Knowing Nothing,” screened in the Director’s Fortnight in 2021 and was nominated for the Camera d’Or.

Sean Baker (“Anora”)

Not much is known about Baker’s second film to be in competition, but it’s been reported that it’s an adventurous comedy/drama about a sex worker that was filmed in New York and Las Vegas. Baker was last at the festival in 2021 with “Red Rocket.”

Andrea Arnold (“Bird”)

The latest from the Oscar-winning British filmmaker (2004 Best Live Action Short, “Wasp”) centers on a father that’s raising his two sons in Kent and when he doesn’t have much time for his sons, one of them seeks attention from elsewhere. It stars Barry Keoghan and Franz Rogowski. This is Arnold’s fourth film to compete at the festival. All of her three previous entries have won the Jury Prize: “Red Road” in 2006, “Fish Tank” in 2009 (tied with “Thirst” by Park Chan-wook) and “American Honey” in 2016.

Jia Zhang-Ke “Caught by the Tides”

No plot details are known for the Chinese director’s latest, which marks his sixth film in competition. He first came to Cannes in 2002 with “Unknown Pleasures” and again in 2008 with “24 City.” “I Wish I Knew” screened in Un Certain Regard in 2010 before being back in competition in 2013 for “A Touch of Sin,” which won Best Screenplay. He competed again in 2015 with “Mountains May Depart” and 2018 with “Ash is Purest White.”

Jacques Audiard (“Emilia Perez”)

The celebrated French director returns to his home turf for the sixth time in official competition. His debut film, “See How They Fall,” was shown in 1994 as part of International Critics’ Week. He followed that up with “A Self-Made Hero” in 1996, which won Best Screenplay (with Alain Le Henry), and “A Prophet” in 2009, which claimed the Grand Prix. “Rust and Bone” screened in 2012 followed by “Dheepan” in 2015, which won the Palme. He was last at Cannes in 2021 with “Paris, 13th District.” His new film is a Spanish language musical crime-comedy about a lawyer in Mexico who is hired by a notorious cartel leader to help him retire and disappear by transitioning and undergoing gender confirmation surgery. It stars Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez, Édgar Ramírez and Karla Sofía Gascón.

Miguel Gomes (“Grand Tour”)

The first film from the Portuguese director to screen in competition is about a civil servant who leaves his fiancée at the alter in Rangoon, and how the fiancée trails him as he travels across Asia. Gomes has had two films previously screened in the Director’s Fortnight: “Our Beloved Month of August” in 2008 and “Arabian Knights” in 2015.

Yorgos Lanthimos (“Kinds of Kindness”)

After his most recent film, “Poor Things,” scored four Oscar wins (including Best Actress for Emma Stone), Lanthimos will follow that up with a piece about three stories that involve a man attempting to take control of his life, a policeman whose wife seems different than usual and a woman in search of someone with a special talent. The film stars Stone, Willem Dafoe, Jesse Plemons, Margaret Qualley and Hong Chau. Lanthimos’s films have won a prize every time they’ve played at Cannes. In 2009, “Dogtooth” played Un Certain Regard and won the top prize for those selections. In 2015, “The Lobster” won the Jury Prize and in 2017, “The Killing of a Sacred Deer” won Best Screenplay for him and co-writer Efthimis Filippou (they tied with Lynne Ramsay for “You Were Never Really Here”).

Gilles Lellouche (“L’Amour Ouf”)

The first film from the French director to play at Cannes stars Adèle Exarchopoulos and is a musical dramedy that centers on a man and a woman from different socio-economic backgrounds who fall in love but drift apart as the man eventually becomes a criminal and is sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Kirill Serebrennikov (“Limonov: The Ballad of Eddie”)

This is the Russian director’s fifth film to play at the festival and the fourth to play in competition. His first film, “The Student,” played Un Certain Regard in 2016, followed by “Leto” in 2018, “Petrov’s Flu” in 2021 and “Tchiakovsky’s Wife” in 2022. His new film stars Ben Whishaw as the titular radical Soviet poet who was exiled from Russia but would return after the fall of communism to start the National Bolshevik Party.

Christophe Honoré (“Marcello Mio”)

The newest from the French filmmaker is a meta comedy starring Chiara Mastroianni (the real-life daughter of Marcello Mastroianni and Catherine Deneuve) playing a fictional version of herself who confronts living in her father’s shadow by living and looking exactly like him. Deneuve also plays a version of herself as well. While this marks Honoré’s seventh film to play at Cannes, it’s only his third in official competition. His first two played in other designations: “Seventeen Times Cecile Cassard” in 2002 (Un Certain Regard) and “Dans Paris” in 2006 (Director’s Fortnight). His first film in competition was “Love Songs” in 2007 followed by “Sorry Angel” in 2018. Between those two, “Beloved” was the closing film of the 2011 festival. His most recent trip was with “On a Magical Night” in 2019 which played Un Certain Regard and won Mastroianni the Best Performance prize for that section.

Francis Ford Coppola (“Megalopolis”)

No film this year has more anticipation around it than the latest from the five-time Oscar winner. The long-awaited project is about an architect who seeks to rebuild New York City as a utopia following a shattering catastrophe and stars Giancarlo Esposito, Aubrey Plaza, Adam Driver, Kathryn Hunter, Laurence Fishburne, Jason Schwartzman, Talia Shire, Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman. Coppola’s first appearance at the festival was almost 60 years ago with “You’re a Big Boy Now” playing in competition in 1967. He returned in 1974 with “The Conversation,” which won the Palme. Five years later, in 1979, he won the top prize again, this time for “Apocalypse Now” (tied with Volker Schlöndorff’s “The Tin Drum”), making him one of only ten directors to win the award twice. Coppola wouldn’t be back at the festival until 2009 with “Tetro,” which was in the Director’s Fortnight.

Karim Aïnouz (“Motel Destino”)

The Brazilian director’s second film in competition is a thrilling love story between a man who lives against a system that seeks to end him and a woman who must fight back against the patriarchy. He first competed last year with “Firebrand.” Prior to that he had three films play out of competition: “Madame Satã” in 2002 (Un Certain Regard), “The Silver Cliff” in 2011 (Director’s Fortnight) and “Invisible Life” in 2019 (Un Certain Regard). The latter won the top prize for those selections that year.

Paul Schrader (“Oh Canada”)

This marks the renowned director’s first film in competition in almost 40 years. It examines the life of a leftist who fled to Canada in order to avoid being sent to Vietnam and stars Richard Gere, Uma Thurman, Jacob Elordi and Michael Imperioli. His first appearance was in 1985 for “Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters,” which won a prize for Best Artistic Contribution. He returned in 1988 with “Patty Hearst.”

Paolo Sorrentino (“Parthenope”)

On IMDb, the only description for the latest from the Italian director simply says, “Partenope is a woman who bears the name of her city. Is she a siren or a myth?” It stars Gary Oldman and marks Sorrentino’s seventh film in competition. He first played at Cannes with “The Consequences of Love” in 2004, followed by “The Family Friend” in 2006. In 2008 he won the Jury Prize for “Il Divo” and then had three more films play in competition: “This Must Be the Place” in 2011, “The Great Beauty” in 2013 and “Youth” in 2015.

Ali Abbasi (“The Apprentice”)

The newest from the Danish-Iranian artist explores how Donald Trump built his real estate empire in the 1970s and ‘80s with the help of his lawyer, Roy Cohn. Sebastian Stan stars as Trump, Emmy winner Jeremy Strong plays Cohn and Oscar nominee Maria Bakalova will be playing Ivana Trump. Abbasi first came to the Croisette in 2018 with “Border,” which claimed the top prize for the Un Certain Regard selections. His first film to play in competition was “Holy Spider” in 2022, which won Best Actress for Zar Amir Ebrahimi.

Magnus von Horn (“The Girl with the Needle”)

The Swedish filmmaker first film to play in competition is loosely based on the story of Danish serial killer Dagmar Overbye. A pregnant woman takes a job as a wet nurse for a woman who operates a secret adoption agency with a horrific secret. Von Horn was last at Cannes in 2015 with “The Here After” in the Director’s Fortnight.

David Cronenberg (“The Shrouds”)

Cronenberg is a longtime favorite at Cannes, and this marks his seventh film to play the festival. The Canadian director’s latest is about a creative businessman who’s mourning the loss of his wife, makes a device that allows him to connect with the dead and stars Vincent Cassel, Diane Kruger and Guy Pearce. He first came to the festivities in 1996 with “Crash,” which took the Jury Prize. He then would compete with “Spider” in 2002, “A History of Violence” in 2005, “Cosmopolis” in 2012, “Maps to the Stars” in 2014 and “Crimes of the Future” in 2022. “Maps to the Stars” won the Best Actress prize for Julianne Moore.

Coralie Fargeat (“The Substance”)

The sophomore film from the French filmmaker marks her first appearance at the festival. All that’s known about it is that it’s apparently a body horror film that stars Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley and Dennis Quaid (who replaced Ray Liotta following the actor’s death in 2022).

Agathe Riedinger (“Wild Diamond”)

The French director’s debut feature film centers on a 19-year-old woman who dreams of beauty and fame and decides to audition for a reality show called “Miracle Island.”

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