who are the expected personalities?

In the palaces, the staff is ready. On the steps of the Palais des Festivals, the red carpet will soon be rolled out. Along the Croisette, the stands of major brands compete in creativity. A few days before the opening of the Cannes Film Festival, the festival teams are hard at work ensuring that producers, distributors, sellers and journalists from around the world meet under the best auspices.

“We will continue to write the legend of the Croisette together,” said Iris Knobloch, the president of the festival, when the official selection was announced on April 11. The one who has worked for the Warner Bros group in Europe for a long time hopes that the opening ceremony (1) will be as popular as in 2023, i.e. 3.2 million spectators across all media.

Next Tuesday, this inaugural evening will highlight the work of director Quentin Dupieux, whose comedy entitled The second act (with Léa Seydoux, Vincent Lindon, Louis Garrel) will be presented in preview. But the biggest star of this edition will undoubtedly be… American cinema! A nice surprise for the United States, whose film industry was very affected by the long strike of Hollywood screenwriters and authors in 2023, to the point that many of their films, expected this year, will not be released until 2025.

American heavyweights for the 2024 Cannes Film Festival

As if to ward off this turbulence, immense figures of the seventh art will come to shine the spotlight on America on the Croisette. At 85, Francis Ford Coppola (Palmes d’Or for Secret conversation in 1974 and Apocalypse Now in 1979) is one of the most anticipated filmmakers. He returns this year in competition for his science fiction feature film, Megalopolis. George Miller will unveil his film Furiosafifth opus of the saga Mad Max. With his fiery gaze and cowboy look, director Kevin Costner (Dancing with the wolves, 1990) will walk the red carpet alongside actress Sienna Miller to present Horizon: An American Saga, first episode of a series on the conquest of the West. Finally, the director, screenwriter and producer George Lucas (Star Wars, Indiana Jones) will receive the festival's honorary Palme d'Or during the closing ceremony on May 25 (2).

In an international film market that has become very active again, other countries are seeking to attract spectators: “This 77th edition will mark the great return of India and China to Cannes,” underlined general delegate Thierry Frémaux. In fact, Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhangke (with Caught by the Tides) and Indian director Payal Kapadia (All We Imagine as Light) will represent, in official competition, these two giants of world cinema.

But this year again, the organizers want to give a panoramic and universalist vision of the seventh art through its emerging figures from South Africa, Iran, Ukraine, the Middle East, Brazil… A clever mix of genres, themes and nationalities. On the French side, five works are in competition: Emilia Perezby Jacques Audiard (musical comedy at the heart of the Mexican cartels), The Substanceby Coralie Fargeat (horror film), Marcello Mioby Christophe Honoré (docufiction about actor Marcello Mastroianni), phew loveby Gilles Lellouche (a love story between two young people from the 1980s) and Rough diamondby Agathe Riedinger (the portrait of a young woman dreaming of fame).

At the head of the festival, the tandem formed for two years by Thierry Frémaux and Iris Knobloch “will celebrate this year its wedding in cotton, a soft and resistant material which is the making of success”, underlined the president. Comments completed by the general delegate who fully intends to make us experience “a peaceful, pacified, joyful and generous festival”. Let the festivities begin !

(1) Broadcast live on May 14 on France Télévisions and on brut.media/fr
(2) Live on France 2.